Friends of the Dillon Ranger District (FDRD) was proud to receive the Ski Conservation Fund grant in 2016, which helped fund numerous volunteer forest stewardship projects in Colorado’s White River National Forest. In terms of volunteer numbers and project load, 2016 was our biggest season yet and we couldn’t have accomplished this without the ongoing support of the National Forest Foundation. 

All of our projects take place within the Dillon Ranger District of the White River National Forest, supporting our mission to provide opportunities for our community to play an active role in the sustainable management of the local forest. FDRD set forth planning our 2016 season with some ambitious goals in mind. 

Thanks to our funding from the NFF, we were confident that we could improve and restore numerous recreational trails by implementing community trail partnership projects and stewardship projects that are open to the public. We also aimed to increase the level of environmental stewardship among the youth of Summit County by expanding and improving trail maintenance, reforestation and leadership opportunities within FDRD’s programming.

Some program highlights include:

Trail Partner Program increased to 31 partner organizations, enabling us to cast our volunteer net wider and introduce more local and surrounding citizens to our programming.

Completed critical trail improvements through Trail Partner Program to the following heavily used trails: Peaks Trail (both the Breckenridge and the Frisco side), Shrine Mountain Trail, the Golden Horseshoe, Frisco Peninsula, the Tenderfoot Mountain trail systems as well as the Peru Creek drainage.

Coordinated eight distinct forest health projects which were open to community members and visitors. A few projects included rehabilitating damaged areas along Montezuma Road, planting approximately 500 willows to restore an area of Tenmile Creek, and educating hundreds of trail users during our annual Trail Hosting Day.

Implemented 24 “youth only” trail projects and engaged 444 youth from Summit County and surrounding areas.