Spring is in Full Swing!
Flowers are blooming, rivers are flowing, and outdoor field trips are on the schedule! We’ve had a full calendar this spring across all of our program areas with weekly river trips, our signature field trip events, and volunteer projects. Read more about what we’ve been up to below!
River Programs
As soon as snow started melting, our River Team got busy prepping for the season ahead. We brought on our new River Program Manager, Lisa, and a fully-staffed river guide team in March. They hit the ground running and wasted no time as they began preparing for trips.
The team kicked off the season by taking Montrose 5th graders from Oak Grove Elementary School out on the river in Gunnison Gorge NCA. These kids had a fantastic time learning about the watershed, wildlife, and cultural history of their local landscape. This is our first season taking Montrose students on river trips and we couldn’t be more excited; by the end of May, 65 Montrose students will have experienced their local river.
It’s not just kids that get to have fun, though! We led our annual Birding Adventure trip this past weekend on Ruby-Horsethief. Guests stayed at our private riverside camp, Catalpa, and enjoyed seeing over 50 species of bird - including a flock of pelicans!
We’re excited to continue our partnership with the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) through our Gall Wasp release program this week. Students from Central High School will join us to learn about a STEM-based approach to controlling invasive species with biocontrol measures - you can learn more about the project through these videos!
These trips are just the beginning! Every week from now until the end of October, you can find our River Team out on the Colorado or Gunnison River teaching our local community about the landscape, outdoor skills, and so much more.
Land Programs
Our land program is finally back to a more normal field trip schedule after the alterations made due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time since 2019, our signature field trip, Nature Knowledge Days, was able to happen in-person. 147 Mesa County 3rd graders joined us at Devils Canyon to learn about their backyard through hands-on, station-based learning.
Our Land Team is also hosting a make-up Cottonwood Days field trip in Gunnison Gorge this week. Since our fall field trips were cancelled, we offered a spring version of the field trip so this years’ 6th graders didn’t miss out. They’ll get to search for aquatic bugs, get up close and personal to fish, and enjoy a beautiful spring day on their public lands.
In addition to our larger field trips, we’ve been working on finishing up our last Jr. Ranger program for Dominguez-Escalante NCA. With this program finished, you can now become a Jr. Ranger in all 3 of Colorado’s National Conservation Areas! The team has also kept busy working with Montrose Recreation, the Ute Museum, and other partners to lead educational events for the community including a very successful Intro to Backpacking course.
As the season heats up, our land programs will move to higher elevations to continue to our place-based educational programming.
Community events
We kicked off our first volunteer event of the year in McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area. CCA volunteers helped the BLM and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers remove .6 miles of un-wildlife friendly fencing - a hugely successful day! If you want to help out on this project, you’re in luck! We have another date scheduled for May 26th - sign up here.
Last week, thanks to an enormous effort from volunteers, we helped set-up the Gunnison Gorge NCA river ranger tipi. Volunteers carried 22 foot long poles 1,500 feet down the Ute Trail - not an easy task! We’re looking forward to announcing our summer dates for our annual river clean-up soon - stay tuned.
We also hosted our popular spring lecture series, led by local experts. If you missed them and want a chance to catch up, you can learn about the wildlife, plants, and history of the NCAs through our recorded videos. We’re already excited for our next lecture series, hosted this fall.
With the weather warming up on the Western Slope, there are many opportunities to get outside to enjoy your public lands. Our NCAs offer world-class rafting, biking, jeeping, and so much more. You can learn more about all of the recreational opportunities our NCAs have to offer here. As you enjoy your public lands, please remember to recreate responsibly and leave no trace. We’ll see you out in the NCAs!