NSA Colorado Projects

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