Removing the Snow Fences

The Independence Pass Foundation most visible and dramatic project in 2009-10 was the removal of tons of old snow fence material from the ridgetops along the summit of the Pass. This work has been underway, in one form or another, for the last 15 years. National Guard and private helicopters have removed old snow fencing material in the past, and volunteers have spent countless hours disassembling and stacking snow fence debris in anticipation of future removal efforts.

The snow fence was part of a water development project dating back to the 1960s. The original intent was for the snow fence to create dense windrows of snow and ice that would melt off slowly, thereby allowing for more spring runoff to be captured in Colorado's reservoirs and aquifers. For reasons that remain obscure, the project was discontinued, and the half-assembled snow fence was abandoned on the ridges surrounding the Pass summit. The fencing, consisting of metal sheets and bars 12- to 15-feet-long, has lain on the fragile alpine tundra ever since, choking out plant life and creating a safety hazard and an aesthetic nightmare.

In 2009, years of planning and organizing came together as a private helicopter from Trans-Aero Helicopter Services out of Fort Collins, arrived at the Pass along with 18+ volunteers, a Forest Service crew from the Leadville Ranger District, and an inmate crew from the Buena Vista Correctional Facility. Nine hours later, nearly 90 loads of fencing had been hauled off the high points north and south of the Pass and collected for recycling.

In 2010, IPF partnered with Doug Sheffer and DBS Helicopters, Rifle, Colorado, which donated a day and a half of helicopter time to transporting the material from the Mountain Boy Gulch area just east of the summit of the Pass to the staging area. In one day, the helicopter made 88 round-trips, creating a large stockpile of metal debris for transfer to Rocky Mountain Recycling in Denver. In an additional half-day of work, we cleaned up 99 % of the remaining fencing. Only a few stray pieces are left where they have blown off the ridges into hard-to-reach spots.

Our sincere thanks go to DBS Helicopters and to the U.S. Forest Service for their invaluable contributions to this project. Other important partners included A-1 Traffic Control, Aspen Earthmoving, CiteWaste Management Services, Rocky Mountain Recycling, and the Colorado Department of Transportation. We also want to note our appreciation for the many contributors and volunteers who helped over the years with this major project.

Despite this success, we are not done with the snow fence cleanup. Our next project will be to remove the hundreds of steel rebar stakes that still litter the tundra. These reinforcement bars consist of 1.5- to 2-foot steel dowels that were pounded into the ground to act as anchors for the fencing many years ago. Most of them are deeply embedded in the soil where they pose a hazard to hikers and skiers. Removing the bars will be time-consuming as they will need to be extracted one by one and packed out. Nevertheless, we are confident that with the help of our many volunteers and partners we will be able to restore the tundra to its natural state over the next few years.