Food Ranch sponsored Access Fund’s signature stewardship program Adopt a Crag on Saturday. Workers and volunteers from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the US Forest Service, Access Fund, Salt Lake Climbers Alliance (SLCA) and approximately 40 climbers participated in the event.
The Adopt a Crag program unites local climbing communities with land managers to conserve local climbing areas. These events generally include activities such as litter cleanup, trail construction and restoration, erosion control and invasive weed removal.
As part of a “pilot” bouldering area improvement project, volunteers worked together to improve a bouldering area that suffered erosion around the base of the boulder. They worked to eliminate crossover paths, cleared litter and debris from around the site, moved large rocks to create a path with steps leading to the boulder and designed a structurally sound use area (pad platform).
The Access Fund works with federal, state and local officials, local climbing organizations and land managers to develop and guide climbing management policies for public and private lands and provide guidance on climbing issues that directly impact their land.
The SLCA and the Access Fund have engaged the BLM and the US Forest Service into taking critical steps to begin long term stewardship planning that addresses the increased climber traffic at Joe’s Valley. As a first step, the SLCA funded, with help from Access Fund and AAC, conducted an area assessment to document the current condition of the resources in Joe’s Valley and identify areas of concern. It is clear that infrastructure improvements, management alternatives and climber behavior changes are going to be essential to protect Joe’s Valley.
“If we don’t get ahead of it, it will get a head of us,” BLM field office manager Ahmed Mohsen stated.
To learn more about Salt Lake Climbers Alliance, visit www.saltlakeclimbers.org and for more information about Access Fund, visit www.accessfund.org.
