We are excited to announce that Ben Hanus, an employee on CFI projects the past three seasons, has joined the core staff as the coordinator of our Sustainable Trails Project. He will be working part time over the off-season doing data analysis, then working full time through the field season collecting detailed GPS-based trail conditions data on roughly 13 summit trails per year.
Ben worked for Southwest Conservation Corps on CFI’s Chicago Basin project during the 2009 season, then came back in 2010 as CFI’s assistant crew leader. Last summer Ben coordinated the Sustainable Trails Project in its pilot phase and collected complete data for nine summit routes and partial data for three routes. Consultants at Booz Allen Hamilton are donating their professional services to help guide the project, which will give CFI a very powerful tool for maintaining constructed Fourteener summit trails, which represent capital assets of $250,000 to $400,000. The project will provide detailed inventories of constructed trail features and will help project on-going maintenance needs, costs, and staffing requirements.
CFI wants to thank the Colorado Mountain Club Foundation, REI, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Hunt and Carol Walker for funding the pilot phase last summer. The Forest Service has pledged funding to continue the project, and CFI is in the process of approaching other funders to ensure the project continues for the foreseeable future.
