Friends of the Forest

What do sixty volunteers, the U.S. Forest Service, Trout Unlimited and MillerCoors have in common? 

They’re all participating, in one way or another, in the Clear Creek restoration project at the Arapaho National Forest this Saturday, as part of the National Forest Foundation’s third annual Friends of the Forest Day. Other partners include the National Forest Foundation, the Clear Creek Watershed Foundation and the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

“Clear Creek is a major water supply for 20 cities and towns, from Idaho Springs to the Denver-Boulder area,” says Jim Maxwell, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. “People as far down as Omaha, Nebraska drink water from this watershed.”

Volunteers from MillerCoors, Trout Unlimited and the microbiology department of the University of Colorado Denver are seeding native plants along Clear Creek, creating wetland ponds for native boreal toads to colonize, and repairing stream beds by planting vegetation and building buck-and-rail fences to block vehicle access. Eventually, the native greenback cutthroat trout (Colorado’s official state fish) will be re-introduced to the stream.

Volunteers participate in last year's Friends of the Forest Day.

“The real value is getting local people who care about the quality of their water and fish habitats together to do the work in their own back yard,” Maxwell says. “They’re investing their sweat and in the case of MillerCoors $40,000 of their own money to heal wounds on the land.”