The National Smokejumper Association Colorado Chapter site for information on trail and work projects taking place in Colorado. Maintained by Bill Ruskin (CJ '58).
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Storm King / South Canyon Meeting Notes
Dear Storm King Trail working group,
I have attached the notes from yesterday’s extremely productive meeting. Thank you to everyone who attended! If I’ve missed anything at all, please do not hesitate to let me know and I will gladly add it in!
I hope this outlines the majority of our meeting. I know there were a few other details discussed, but I think this covers the main outcomes, goals and objectives moving forward.
Lindsey Lewis
Marketing Project Manager
Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association
1102 Grand Avenue
Glenwood Springs, CO 81601
Phone| 970-945-6589 x110
Fax| 970-945-1531
www.visitglenwood.com
www.glenwoodchamber.com
Storm King Trail Meeting Notes
Monday, November 9th
Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association
Richard Hildebrand- NSA
Doug Wamsley- NSA
Jimmie Dollard- NSA
Kay Hopkins- BLM/White River Nat. Forest
Shelley Kaup- Glenwood Springs City Council
Kate Collins- GSCRA
Lindsey Lewis- GSCRA
The NSA volunteer group is seeking formal approval from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to volunteer their services to help maintain the Storm King Trail.
Kay Hopkins will compose a memo that grants approval to the volunteer crew, summarizing the priorities of the BLM and highlighting how they could most efficiently use the NSA volunteer’s time.
Priorities for NSA & BLM
o Contacting the families of the fallen firefighters (by letter or phone) explaining what the NSA is and your feelings/goals and to see if the families will allow the NSA crew to collect the weathered and deteriorating mementos to be archived at the Federal BLM building in Denver.
o With approval from the families, collect the mementos according to procedural guidelines specified by the BLM office and deliver to BLM for archiving
o Clear overgrown brush from the memorials
o Possibly tackle the fire line and restore flagpole indicating initial lightning strike. Waiting for more specific info from Kay Hopkins regarding whether the Hot Shot crew training will improve fire line or if it will need more attention after their departure.
o Clear Heli spot and under slung line
o Rebuild steps
Priorities for GSCRA & City Council
o Lindsey will get Storm King brochures for the Visitor Information Center
o Add information about Storm King and link to the BLM website from the glenwoodchamber.com website
o Kate & Lindsey will work with Shelley and City Council to improve the signage at the Memorial at Two Rivers Park. Add a sign and brochures that talks about the trail and how to get there.
o Shelley will ask the Parks & Rec Dept. about solutions regarding the Blue Spruce tree that blocks the view of Storm King Mountain from the memorial at Two Rivers Park.
o Kate & Lindsey will mobilize the community when the NSA crew comes to town in either the spring and/or fall of 2010. We can encourage locals to provide food and accommodations in appreciation of the NSA’s efforts.
o Kate & Lindsey can work with local event organizers to start thinking about organizing a memorial service for the 20th anniversary on July 6, 2014
ADDITIONAL REPORT ON MEETINGNotes by Rich Hilderbrand following his release from jail in Glenwood Springs
I want to add my thanks to all for the most productive meeting and the immediate follow-up. What is clear is that this entire group has a vested, and significant, interest in this project. I look foward to the development of the plans and the implementation of those plans. Rich
Doug is going to give an update on the meeting yesterday at Glenwood. But it went really well. The BLM is very cooperative and very supportive.
Lindsey from Chamber is going to sumarize the meeting in an email. But I will give a couple of observations outside of the plan itself.
There was a city council member there. Very supportive.
The BLM rep lost a personal friend (heli-tack crewmember) and was in Glenwood with BLM at time of fire. She is now with USFS White River Forest.
There is more work to do than we had estimated. They do want some trail work and fireline work done.
We talked about next June or September.
More later on the report.
I thought Doug and Jim were going to have to bail me out of jail. I got to Glenwood a little early and stopped in at a Diner up the street from the meeting place for coffee and to read the paper. I got a couple of papers out of the vending machines in front of the diner and sat down to read. Within a few minutes three squad cars whipped into the parking lot and three officers came into the diner showing a photo and drawing of someone. I didn't pay any attention to them and kept reading. They left the Diner and I thought they were gone - again not paying any attention. In a couple of minutes they were back in the Diner again looking around - and looked at me. They left again, I paid my bill, took the papers and walked out of the Diner to be surrounded by the officers. One briefly flashed the picture and said, This drawing looks a lot like you and I do you have identification? Of course I showed him my Military ID and drivers license and they let me go. It was clear they took this outside to ensure I was outside the Diner and surrounded before they approached me. I am not sure who phoned in a report but it happened pretty fast. I did not think I looked like the drawing at all, but one never knows. Rich.
ADDITIONAL REPORT ON MEETING Notes by Doug Wamsley in an email to JonMcBride
3. On the subject of Storm King we have made what I think is some substantial progress. Yesterday Rich Hildebrand, Jimmie Dollard and I met with three community representatives and a BLM/USFS representative in Glenwood Springs. The community is very supportive of efforts to maintain the site and seemed pleased that we wanted to help. The big question in our minds was would BLM welcome our participation. The response we got was very positive.
Kay Hopkins, the representative who attended, was the Recreation/Trails person for the BLM District for the past several years and has been responsible for the site. She had only recently tranferred to a new job with USFS in the White River NF. The BLM employee who has taken over responsibility for the site was not available so she attended at the request of BLM and with the blessings of her Forest Supervisor. She knows the site very well and is very interested in its future.
After we explained a bit about NSA and our Trails program she seemed enthusiastic about our participation. It seems there is more work to be done than we anticipated. We discussed the possibility of rebuilding a part of the access trail, brushing around the monuments, clearing the Helispots, repairing a flag pole at the site of the original lightening strike and maintaining the fire line that the Jumpers and Hotshots were building just before the blowup.
We mentioned the problem of the hundreds mementos left on the monuments by well meaning visitors. It has, frankly, left the site in a trashy condition. She said that it has been such a sensitive issue that BLM has simply left them there but it was clearly time to do something. We suggested collecting the items from each location and archiving them. This is what is done at a number of other monuments across the country. We said we would be more than willing to do the collection. We got a very favorable response to that proposal IF it meets with a favorable response from the families of the fallen.
Kay explained that all matters relating to the site and its maintenance were the subject of a memorandum of understanding between the families and BLM when the site was established.
She also said that BLM had adopted some ground rules about the site including:
Only organizations from the "fire community" would be allowed to do work on the site,
The site would be maintained in a condition as close to that at the time of the fire as possible,
While public access to the site has been and will be maintained BLM is NOT promoting it as a tourist destination type location. The existing infastructure simply will not support that and can't readily be expanded.
With these things in mind Kay asked if we would be willing assist in contacting as many of the family representatives as possible to explain what work we were planning to do especially regarding the collection and archiving of mementos. We assured her that we would. Rich, Jimmie and I agreed that any such communication from the NSA Trails Project would most appropriately be in your name. With that in mind we are working on a suggested draft for your editing and approval. We hope you will agree with this approach and will let us know your thoughts on the communication and the overall project as outlined.
Doug Wamsley
I have attached the notes from yesterday’s extremely productive meeting. Thank you to everyone who attended! If I’ve missed anything at all, please do not hesitate to let me know and I will gladly add it in!
I hope this outlines the majority of our meeting. I know there were a few other details discussed, but I think this covers the main outcomes, goals and objectives moving forward.
Lindsey Lewis
Marketing Project Manager
Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association
1102 Grand Avenue
Glenwood Springs, CO 81601
Phone| 970-945-6589 x110
Fax| 970-945-1531
www.visitglenwood.com
www.glenwoodchamber.com
Storm King Trail Meeting Notes
Monday, November 9th
Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association
Richard Hildebrand- NSA
Doug Wamsley- NSA
Jimmie Dollard- NSA
Kay Hopkins- BLM/White River Nat. Forest
Shelley Kaup- Glenwood Springs City Council
Kate Collins- GSCRA
Lindsey Lewis- GSCRA
The NSA volunteer group is seeking formal approval from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to volunteer their services to help maintain the Storm King Trail.
Kay Hopkins will compose a memo that grants approval to the volunteer crew, summarizing the priorities of the BLM and highlighting how they could most efficiently use the NSA volunteer’s time.
Priorities for NSA & BLM
o Contacting the families of the fallen firefighters (by letter or phone) explaining what the NSA is and your feelings/goals and to see if the families will allow the NSA crew to collect the weathered and deteriorating mementos to be archived at the Federal BLM building in Denver.
o With approval from the families, collect the mementos according to procedural guidelines specified by the BLM office and deliver to BLM for archiving
o Clear overgrown brush from the memorials
o Possibly tackle the fire line and restore flagpole indicating initial lightning strike. Waiting for more specific info from Kay Hopkins regarding whether the Hot Shot crew training will improve fire line or if it will need more attention after their departure.
o Clear Heli spot and under slung line
o Rebuild steps
Priorities for GSCRA & City Council
o Lindsey will get Storm King brochures for the Visitor Information Center
o Add information about Storm King and link to the BLM website from the glenwoodchamber.com website
o Kate & Lindsey will work with Shelley and City Council to improve the signage at the Memorial at Two Rivers Park. Add a sign and brochures that talks about the trail and how to get there.
o Shelley will ask the Parks & Rec Dept. about solutions regarding the Blue Spruce tree that blocks the view of Storm King Mountain from the memorial at Two Rivers Park.
o Kate & Lindsey will mobilize the community when the NSA crew comes to town in either the spring and/or fall of 2010. We can encourage locals to provide food and accommodations in appreciation of the NSA’s efforts.
o Kate & Lindsey can work with local event organizers to start thinking about organizing a memorial service for the 20th anniversary on July 6, 2014
ADDITIONAL REPORT ON MEETINGNotes by Rich Hilderbrand following his release from jail in Glenwood Springs
I want to add my thanks to all for the most productive meeting and the immediate follow-up. What is clear is that this entire group has a vested, and significant, interest in this project. I look foward to the development of the plans and the implementation of those plans. Rich
Doug is going to give an update on the meeting yesterday at Glenwood. But it went really well. The BLM is very cooperative and very supportive.
Lindsey from Chamber is going to sumarize the meeting in an email. But I will give a couple of observations outside of the plan itself.
There was a city council member there. Very supportive.
The BLM rep lost a personal friend (heli-tack crewmember) and was in Glenwood with BLM at time of fire. She is now with USFS White River Forest.
There is more work to do than we had estimated. They do want some trail work and fireline work done.
We talked about next June or September.
More later on the report.
I thought Doug and Jim were going to have to bail me out of jail. I got to Glenwood a little early and stopped in at a Diner up the street from the meeting place for coffee and to read the paper. I got a couple of papers out of the vending machines in front of the diner and sat down to read. Within a few minutes three squad cars whipped into the parking lot and three officers came into the diner showing a photo and drawing of someone. I didn't pay any attention to them and kept reading. They left the Diner and I thought they were gone - again not paying any attention. In a couple of minutes they were back in the Diner again looking around - and looked at me. They left again, I paid my bill, took the papers and walked out of the Diner to be surrounded by the officers. One briefly flashed the picture and said, This drawing looks a lot like you and I do you have identification? Of course I showed him my Military ID and drivers license and they let me go. It was clear they took this outside to ensure I was outside the Diner and surrounded before they approached me. I am not sure who phoned in a report but it happened pretty fast. I did not think I looked like the drawing at all, but one never knows. Rich.
ADDITIONAL REPORT ON MEETING Notes by Doug Wamsley in an email to JonMcBride
3. On the subject of Storm King we have made what I think is some substantial progress. Yesterday Rich Hildebrand, Jimmie Dollard and I met with three community representatives and a BLM/USFS representative in Glenwood Springs. The community is very supportive of efforts to maintain the site and seemed pleased that we wanted to help. The big question in our minds was would BLM welcome our participation. The response we got was very positive.
Kay Hopkins, the representative who attended, was the Recreation/Trails person for the BLM District for the past several years and has been responsible for the site. She had only recently tranferred to a new job with USFS in the White River NF. The BLM employee who has taken over responsibility for the site was not available so she attended at the request of BLM and with the blessings of her Forest Supervisor. She knows the site very well and is very interested in its future.
After we explained a bit about NSA and our Trails program she seemed enthusiastic about our participation. It seems there is more work to be done than we anticipated. We discussed the possibility of rebuilding a part of the access trail, brushing around the monuments, clearing the Helispots, repairing a flag pole at the site of the original lightening strike and maintaining the fire line that the Jumpers and Hotshots were building just before the blowup.
We mentioned the problem of the hundreds mementos left on the monuments by well meaning visitors. It has, frankly, left the site in a trashy condition. She said that it has been such a sensitive issue that BLM has simply left them there but it was clearly time to do something. We suggested collecting the items from each location and archiving them. This is what is done at a number of other monuments across the country. We said we would be more than willing to do the collection. We got a very favorable response to that proposal IF it meets with a favorable response from the families of the fallen.
Kay explained that all matters relating to the site and its maintenance were the subject of a memorandum of understanding between the families and BLM when the site was established.
She also said that BLM had adopted some ground rules about the site including:
Only organizations from the "fire community" would be allowed to do work on the site,
The site would be maintained in a condition as close to that at the time of the fire as possible,
While public access to the site has been and will be maintained BLM is NOT promoting it as a tourist destination type location. The existing infastructure simply will not support that and can't readily be expanded.
With these things in mind Kay asked if we would be willing assist in contacting as many of the family representatives as possible to explain what work we were planning to do especially regarding the collection and archiving of mementos. We assured her that we would. Rich, Jimmie and I agreed that any such communication from the NSA Trails Project would most appropriately be in your name. With that in mind we are working on a suggested draft for your editing and approval. We hope you will agree with this approach and will let us know your thoughts on the communication and the overall project as outlined.
Doug Wamsley
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Agenda Set for November 9 Meeting
Dear Storm King Trail working group,
We are scheduled to have our meeting on Monday, November 9th from 12pm – 1:30pm in our conference room here at the
We will be discussing the following agenda items:
o Trimming back the overgrown brush around the memorials,
with the full understanding that the BLM and families of the Storm King 14 want to keep the trail "wild"
o Replacing the flag (& flagpole?) that marks the initial lightning strike
that started the fire
o Collecting and archiving the mementos left by family/friends
(does the BLM have an archaeologist we can get in touch with to archive these items?)
Making certain that the fire line is intact - they think that smokejumpers train here,
so it should be a non-issue
o There are interpretive signs along the trail, is it possible to keep these maintained or update them?
o The NSA volunteer crew would like to come up to complete these goals by September, 2010
Marketing Project Manager
Phone| 970-945-6589 x110
Fax| 970-945-1531
Planning Begins for November 9 Meeting on Storm King /South Canyon Memorial
Dear NSA crew, I just wanted to update you on the status of the November 9th meeting.So far, Shelley Kaup can attend as the Glenwood Springs City Councilrepresentative. Kay Hopkins just recently took a job with the WhiteRiver National Forest, but said that someone from the BLM will
definitely be able to participate. Kay and I will be in touch withinthe next couple of weeks to determine who the best point of contact willbe. Bill, I believe Nancy Shanks from CDOT had put you in touch with her"sign guy" - do you happen to have a name/email/phone # for that person?I know that the trail maintenance is your main area of interest; so Iwould love to help expedite the process with improving signage to theStorm King trail and memorial (if I can)! Let me know as we get closer what time would work well for all of you onNovember 9th and I can come up with a couple options for a venue. K ind Regards, Lindsey LewisDear Kay, Thank you so much for getting back to me - I hope your days out of theoffice were enjoyable! I just spent a couple weeks out of the office aswell, so I completely understand how time consuming it can be to getthrough all the emails that pile up. Congratulations on your newposition with the White River National Forest! What will your role bewith them? I will definitely tou ch base with you in a couple weeks tosee who the best point of contact will be for this project movingforward. Kind Regards,Lindsey LewisMarketing Project ManagerGlenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association
1102 Grand AvenueGlenwood Springs, CO 81601
Phone| 970-945-6589 x110Fax| 970-945-1531www.visitglenwood.com www.glenwoodchamber.com Lindsey,Sorry for the delay in getting back to you....I have been out of theofficefor 12 days and just returned and am finally getting thru some emails.There are a couple of things that we here at the BLM need to decidebeforesaying who indeed is the contact. I have taken a new job with the WhiteRiver National Forest and have indeed been the one that has managed most
things related to the Storm King trail... I need to speak to my supervisor regarding who might be the best persontoturn this over to. Either way someone from the BLM will be able toparticipate...howev er at this time I am not sure who that point ofcontactwill be...I should know more in the next 2 weeks as we start to plan outworkload items. Please contact me in a couple of weeks if you have not heard from me bythen. Its should not be a big deal....its just getting that transitionperiod worked out. Call me with any questions. Thanks.. Kay HopkinsOutdoor Recreation PlannerBureau of Land Management2300 River Frontage RoadSilt, CO 81652
(970)876-9000 Dear Kay and David, I am following up with the email I sent last week regarding a volunteercrew interested in maintaining the memorials on the Storm King trail. Ihave not yet heard back from either or you and was wondering if you wereindeed the appropriate persons to begin this dialogue with. We arehopingto organize a meeting for November 9th and would very much like forsomeonefrom the BLM to be represented. Please let me know if either of you cancommit a few hours on November 9th for a brief meeting, or if I shouldbecommunicating with someone else in your office. I will look forward toyour reply. Kind Regards, Lindsey Lewis Marketing Project ManagerGlenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association
1102 Grand AvenueGlenwood Springs, CO 81601
Storm King / South Canyon Scouting Report
Following the completion of the report summarizing the current status of the Storm King/ South Canyon Memorial through conversations with the organizations responsible for preserving and perpetuating the memorial, Doug Wamsley scouted the incident site and prepared the following report:
Hello All
As most of you know at our last Colorado trail project we discussed what we might do to help maintain the memorial sites which are granite crosses placed where each of the bodies was found following the Storm King disaster in 1994.We have been told that BLM and the firefighter's families want the site to be left, as much as possible, as it was the day they died. With this in mind I will submit to all of you my report on my examination of the site on 8/17/09.
Access
There is a maintained trail from the I-70 exit (109) west of Glenwood Springs CO. From the exit one turns back east on the service road for about a mile to a parking area at the trail head. There is parking for 15-20 cars with a head but no water. THERE IS NO WATER ON THIS SITE AT ALL.
The trail is steep but doable from the tailhead to the Observation Point (about a mile). Minimum hiking time would be 25 min. With tools allow 1 Hour.
The Observation point is as far as most people go but it does provide a complete vista of the entire fire scene. It is an excellent point for a crew briefing.
From this spot the trail drops to the bottom of the canyon and begins climbing toward the memorial sites. Its steep and its rough but its climbable.
The sites
The trail brings one to a tail that run along a North-South ridge that connects to Storm King Peak. From this junction you can go north to Helispot 2 or right (south) to the Smokejumper-Hotshot memorials. The Smokejumper-Hotshot memorials extend down the hillside to the west only a couple of hundred feet.
The Helitack site is further up the mountain to the north. The last 200 feet to the memorials is tough. As you will see from the folder of photos the sites are not overgrown but do need to be cleaned up. Another problem in my mind is all the momentos left on the crosses by well-meaning visitors. Some are so covered that you can barely read the names. This however will not be our call. BLM and I'm sure the families will decide what , if anything, to do about that. If the decision was to collect all of these items and archive them I for one would be willing to collect them.
Mission Assessment
We could do what needs to be done with 7-8 jumpers. Tools would be simple--a couple of Pulaskis and some loppers and /or pruning saws.
I think it would be a one day job with an early start which would probably mean staying overnight in Glenwood the night before.
I would appreciate hearing from any of you but especially those who have been to the site. If you have a different view lets hear it now before Rich, Jimmie and I meet with the BLM people.
I have to add that this was a profound experience for me. It was heartbreaking to see how close they came to making it and how close together they died.
I am having difficulty attaching the photos. I will get them to you by the end of the week.
Doug
