Cottonwood Canyons Foundation Receives 11,602 Volunteer Hours in 2012

Cottonwood Canyons Foundation Receives
11,602 Volunteer Hours in 2012

The Cottonwood Canyons Foundation (CCF) announced it received 11,602 hours of service from its volunteers through its educational and environmental stewardship programs this year, including pulling invasive weeds, creating and maintaining trails, and education programs such as guided tours and school field trips with elementary school students.

“We’re incredibly grateful for the extraordinary gift of service we’ve received this year from volunteers,” said Jessie Walthers, Executive Director of CCF. “Volunteers are very much at the heart of our organization, and we’re proud of the difference their efforts have made in the Cottonwood Canyons.”

The mission of CCF is to work to continuously improve the environments of Big and Little Cottonwood canyons through education and stewardship. CCF was created, in partnership with the Cottonwood Canyons ski areas and the U.S. Forest Service, to help educate the public on the canyons’ importance as a watershed and how to promote their ecological health.

“CCF aims to educate as many people as possible who utilize the canyons so their interactions with this unique environment are as careful and sustainable as possible,” said Walthers. “We also aim to create ways we can all give back to a natural environment that gives so much to us, including our drinking water and just an amazing place to be and recreate.” “It’s important to take this step to give back if we wish to continue to enjoy the area into the future. And we feel fortunate so many people in our community choose to give back by participating with us in these projects,” Walthers said.

CCF reaches thousands of people through its educational programs each year, including the Wasatch Wildflower Festival, Tour with a Ranger, naturalist tours and more.

Some highlights this year:

• CCF Education Programs: School Field Trip Program.
Developed in Partnership with the Salt Lake City Watershed, this program is linked to 4th Grade Utah Core Curriculum and includes fall and summer Stream-Side Science Trips at Silver Lake and Winter Snowshoe Ecology field trips. This year, 2,411students participated and volunteers contributed 261 hours for training and guiding.

• Tour with a Ranger.
Naturalist-trained volunteers lead nature tours at the four Cottonwood Canyon ski resorts, and interact with the public to provide watershed, public lands, natural history and ecological information. This year, volunteers gave 5,668 hours of service in this education program and reached over 8,000 people.

• Wildflower Festival.
Volunteer guides lead wildflower walks for the public over three days at the four resorts to celebrate the wildflower blooms and to create a careful interaction with the wildflowers in this peak season of summer visitorship. Volunteers educate visitors on ecology of the area, watershed, and leave-no-trace ways of celebrating this resource. This year, volunteers contributed 690 hours of service for training and leading tours.

• On-the-ground Stewardship Programs.
CCF’s environmental stewardship program also included 190 volunteers contributing 475 hours to pulling invasive weeds, and 672 volunteers contributing 4,139 hours to building and maintaining trails.

CCF was founded in 2002 and has a 10-year track-record of delivering quality education programs and on-the-ground results in its stewardship programs. It is an independent, non-political, 501(c)3 organization.


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