United States Department of the Interior

NATIONA L PARK SERVICE

Colorado National Monument
1750 Rim Rock Drive
Fruita, CO 81521
Dave Pacheco PO Box 526197 SLC, UT 84152-6197 Dear Mr. Pacheco, Many cheers to the Wild erness Volunteers! On behalf of the staff and visitors of Colorado National Monument, thank you very much for all of your hard work along the Devils Kitchen and Monument Canyon Trails. Your accomplishments went beyond our expectations; they will leave a lasting posit ive impact on the trail system, the visitors, and the natural resources of Colorado Nat ional Monument. Overa ll, the week was a great success ! The Devils Kitchen Trail was in much need of markers to guide visitors up to the Kitchen proper; the existi ng trail across the slickrock had long been a source of confusion for our visitors who had often wandered aimlessly to find the Kitchen. You built high quality stone cairns, and provi ded trail delineation that will assist in keeping hiker s on track and provide prot ection to resources (such as vegetation, undisturbed soil, and archeological sites) adjacent to the trail corridor. Work comp leted along the Monument Canyo n Trai l lends to a safer trail which will also be more resilient to nature's forces of erosion. New and repaired retaining walls stabilize and add longev ity to the trail, new waterbars encourage proper drainage, and the removal of old stone waterbars reduc es safety issu es along the trail. The end result is a more stab le and susta inable trail with increased visitor safety and satisfaction , a tangi ble result to be very proud of. Last year (2012) , volunteers contributed 4,671 hours to Colorado National Monument. If the total is in the same ballpark this year, the Wilderness Volu nteers will have contr ibuted about ten percen t of the total volunteer hours, another big feat to be proud of. Colorado Nationa l Monument is fortunate to host such an excellent group of volunteers and to work with a great organ ization; our public lands need more of the positive stewards hip you provide. We hope you had a great trip and are looking forward to possibl y work with you again in the future; developing a relationship with the Wilderness Volunteers has really paid off. Thank you again for all of your effort to enhance Colorado National Monument.

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Sincerely,
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S. Conrad Cleme nts
Trails Work Leader