My trip to Independence Pass this week... by Debbra Stokes

25,000 lodgepole seedlings planted by IPF Volunteers after the site had been hydroseeded

 

 

 

As I stood and watched these kids plant a variety of native shrubs and lodgepole pines I heard what was music to my ears! A chorus of "Hey, who has the DriWater?", or 'I need DriWater over here!", and my personal favorite, "I can't plant this tree without DriWater". For these kids, and former middle school voluteers, DriWater has been "the way their plants are watered." And they take the lives of the plants they put in the ground very seriously. I listened to girls who named their seedlings, wrote the names on rocks and placed the rocks as what they hoped would be a permanant name marker for anyone who might visit their trees in the future.

Hyrdroseeded and Planted Road Cut - Beautiful!

This week I was blessed not only by a terrific trip to Colorado to hear about 35 years of sagebrush restoration research done at CSU but by a drive up to Independence Pass to watch a group of Aspen middle school kids doing their part this year to restore the pass to its original beauty. These kids come once a year to plant native vegetation in areas that were devasted by years of mining at a time when we understood little about the possible impacts to our environment.

Two Year Old Lodgepole Pine Seedlings
established with DriWater

Independence Pass Foundation (IPF) has beenworking to restore the beauty and safety of Independence Pass for 20 years. 

As I looked around I saw areas once without any vegetation covered now with native grasses, wildflowers and lodgepole pines. I have included a few pictures of my travel through IP and the healthy plants now growing there.

For more information on Independence Pass Foundation (IPF) check out the website: http://www.independencepass.org/

Mark Fuller, Executive Director of IPF
since 1996 and Me

You can also watch a short film on the history of the pass and the restoration efforts begun 20 years ago by biologist Bob Lewis, Ramona Markalunas, King Woodward and James Peterson, all who were instramental in the formation of IPF. Today efforts are led by Mark Fuller, IPF's Executive Director since 1996. Mark not only oversees maintenance on all completed projects, plans for ongoing and new stablization and revegetation projects, maintains liasion between the Board of Trustees and other agency relations, plans for the annual 'Ride for the Pass', and directs the school children educational planting program.