FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 05, 2005
Contact:
Holly Stewart, Access Fund
holly@accessfund.org
303.545.6772 x100
Access Fund’s Sixth Annual Adopt-a-Crag is a Banner Year
The Access Fund recognizes everyone who contributed to the success of the 6th Annual Adopt-a-Crag as climbers across the country gathered at their favorite crags and boulders for trail construction, litter clean-ups, and visual impact mitigation. Adopt-a-Crag 2005 was once again a banner year, we logged over an estimated 20,000 volunteer hours from over 3,800 individuals at 111 scheduled events in 35 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The climbing community contributed over $300,000.00* of volunteer time to conserve our valuable climbing areas.
Adopt-a-Crag is a national commitment by the climbing community to natural resource stewardship and volunteerism, and would not be possible without the generous support of its sponsors. Title Sponsor Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), Presenting Sponsor GORE-TEX® Products, and Contributing Sponsor CLIF Bar provided key financial backing, allowing the Access Fund to provide each Adopt-a-Crag event with volunteer gifts and clean-up materials, and to present three awards for exemplary events.
The Access Fund and REI are proud to present the Adopt-a-Crag of the Year Award to Greg Sievers, the American Alpine Club (AAC) Central Rockies Section, and all the Lumpy Trail Day volunteers. This is the 5th consecutive year the AAC hosted the Lumpy Trail Days at Lumpy Ridge, in Rocky Mountain National Park. On October 15th, 63 volunteers including Park Service employees collaborated in the spirit of activism and stewardship to improve the popular climbers’ access trail to the Twin Owls. The result of the day-long project was a complete “face lift” of over 500 vertical feet of extremely rugged mountainous trail. Over 133 wood and rock steps and seven drains were installed to help check storm runoff and control erosion. Sievers sums up the spirit of the event:
- “When we met for our lunch break, I wondered if our volunteers knew that the person they were working next to might have been an Everest Summiteer, 5.13 climber, former VP of the American Alpine Club, or Park Ranger. But for 8 hours, we are all trail crew volunteers giving back to our favorite crag, Lumpy Ridge. Projects like these afford us the interaction of all ages of climbers and help the local communities to get involved, realize our 'user group' exists, and that we are willing to maintain a positive image and relationship with our land use managers.
Another huge part of this particular project is the growth in the affiliation of the Access Fund and the American Alpine Club. The most important values of these 2 organizations are: we really need to maintain access to our climbing areas, as well as maintain a historic record of our predecessors, current events and still setting precedent for the future."
We, at the Access Fund, couldn’t agree more!
The Access Fund and GORE-TEX® Products present the Adopt-a-Crag Stewardship Award to the Western Massachusetts Climbers’ Coalition (WMCC) for their efforts in two successful Adopt-a-Crag initiatives this fall. Kicking off the fall work schedule was some impressive effort by 20 volunteers at Chapel Ledge on September 24th. The WMCC coordinated with the property owners, the Trustees of Reservations, and offered materials and the work force to move rocks and logs, haul gravel, and accomplish 4 trail improvement projects at this heavily used area. The WMCC then turned around the next weekend and joined with the Friends of East Mountain to construct and install a new kiosk near the trailhead, pull several bags of litter from the forested hillside and complete some additional trail improvement projects. According to Jedd Hall of the Friends of East Mountain, “many landowners who abut the property volunteered in the clean-up and trail work. This is an excellent avenue for establishing a good dialogue with the town and neighbors!”
The Access Fund and CLIF Bar present the Adopt-a-Crag Conservation Award to Lincoln Else, Ken Yager, Yosemite Climbing Association, Yosemite National Park, and the over 600 Yosemite Facelift volunteers for displaying tremendous levels of activism and stewardship. The second annual “Yosemite Facelift” event, on September 22-25 saw participants of all ages and of varied backgrounds. “We cleaned roadways, campgrounds, lodging areas, parking lots, former construction areas, and river corridors. By the end of the fourth day we had gathered 7,655 lbs. of garbage!” stated Facelift organizer Yager, “We look forward to the Yosemite Facelift growing every year.”
*The Independent Sector www.independetsector.org in 2004 cites $17.55 per hour as the monetary value of volunteer time.
Since 1990, the Access Fund has been the only national advocacy organization that keeps climbing areas open and conserves the climbing environment. The Access Fund supports and represents over 1.6 million climbers nationwide in ALL forms of climbing; rock climbing, ice climbing, mountaineering, and bouldering. Five core programs support the mission on national and local levels: public policy, stewardship & conservation (including grants), grassroots activism, climber education, and land acquisition. For more information visit www.accessfund.org/ or www.boulderproject.org/