North Sand Creek Restoration Partnership OHV Outreach Volunteer Weekend

North Sand Creek, located north of Walden, Colorado and managed by Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is both a unique dune ecosystem and off-highway vehicle (OHV) recreation site, and it is also a vital water source for local ranchers. Since 2011, a large and sustained increase in sand deposits downstream has prevented use of water rights by nearby Stateline Ranch and forced a shift in agricultural use of some downstream lands. This was linked to specific OHV usage on the dunes and a degradation of North Sand Creek, which has been listed as an impaired waterway in 2015.

Since 2020, BLM, Stateline Ranch, Ducks Unlimited, the Center for Collaborative Conservation (CCC), and others, have been working together as the North Sand Creek Restoration Partnership (NSCRP) to address this ecological and social challenge, coupling BLM’s fencing of sensitive areas with collaborative plans for in stream monitoring, restoration efforts, and (most key here) outreach to the local OHV users.

While it could be said that OHV recreationists have been part of the issue since 2011, it must also be said that connecting with them will play a major role in the solution. Up until now, communication with this group of recreationists has been limited to regulatory signage due to a language barrier and lack of work capacity to develop new solutions. We believe the NSC OHV users have a wealth of knowledge and perspective that is important to understand, but not enough of the project partners speak Spanish to meaningfully engage.

CCC is partnering with Stay the Trails, which specializes in OHV outreach, and the rest of the NSCRP to change this via targeted volunteer outreach days on the major holidays that see the most OHV use of the North Sand Creek/Sand Hills area. The goal of this outreach trip would be to bring enthusiastic, bilingual natural resources and tourism students from Colorado State University to North Sand Creek for an impactful and educational weekend in North Sand Creek – all expenses paid. Students with any level of camping experience, including new campers, are welcome.

During this weekend, students would be treated to both an opportunity to contribute directly to a natural resource challenge sitting directly on the nexus of public lands, outdoor recreation, and agricultural land use, and a second day of tours and on-the-ground learning. We plan to involve as many of the project partners as possible to give students a chance to network and converse with different practitioners in their fields.

We aim to enrich our partnership’s outreach efforts by engaging with a previously uninvolved group of Spanish-speaking land users, and enrich student development by providing a fulfilling and educational experience for CSU students. This opportunity would be perfect for any student looking to get some experience and make an impact in conservation and recreation access, to expand their professional network through meeting practitioners, and/or to receive $1200 in professional development value for free. Plus, we’ll do tons of fun camping and off-roading!

View full itinerary: NSC Outreach Weekend Description[42]