Challenge Grant
In 2002, an anonymous donor pledged a very generous $500,000 contribution to be paid over five years provided IPF could raise $200,000 in each of those years. For the past four years, the Foundation's supporters have met this challenge. What a wonderful benefit to have all donations to IPF increased by 50 percent!
Since 1996, IPF has concentrated its efforts on the one- and one-half mile stretch of devastated hillsides called the "Top Cut" just below the summit on the western side of the Pass. Over the past decade, IPF has completed restoration of the "Twin Gullies" (Site 1) and the "Big Cut" (Sites 3 and 4). After a massive rock slide closed the Pass for several days in 1999, the Colorado Department of Transportation completed stabilization of the "Dipping Slabs" (Site 5). Work has been underway for several years on the "Below the Road" stabilization and revegetation project (Site 6), and IPF began work on the "Middle Cut" stabilization wall (Site 7) in 2005. Projects remaining to be completed are "Jointed Rock Slope" (Site 2), "Road Stabilization" (Site 8), and the "Top Curve" (Site 9).
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Donors to our $2 million "Friends of Independence Pass" Campaign help IPF raise the funds needed to finish restoring the Top Cut. Supporters have generously contributed funds to complete construction and revegetation of the 500-foot-long "Big Cut" boulder stabilization wall in the most severely eroded section of the Pass.
With the completion of the Big Cut, our supporters enabled us to embark on stabilization of another badly damaged area of the Top Cut—the Middle Cut—in the fall of 2005. We constructed the first 150-foot-long section of retaining wall, and, with successful fundraising this year, we will continue work on the Middle Cut in the fall of 2006.
IPF has developed an eight-page color "Friends of Independence Pass" capital campaign brochure summarizing IPF's goals and activities. Illustrated by color photos by renowned National Geographic photographer David Hiser, this brochure is available on request at no cost.
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