Current Projects

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2025 Accomplishments

to read more about the work we accomplished in 2025,
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In 2025, dramatic cuts to US Forest Service funding and staff threatened to result in the closure of all the public toilets on Independence Pass. IPF jumped in to keep the seven toilets at the Grottos, upper Lost Man, and the summit open by raising the funds needed to have the restrooms professionally cleaned and stocked five days/week, from Pass opening until closing, with IPF staff and volunteers filling in the other two days/week. IPF was not willing to see either the natural environment or visitors’ and locals’ experiences on the Pass degraded. We remember well what the summit looked like before toilets were installed there!

IPF also took 100% responsibility for trash pickup in the areas surrounding all the restrooms, day use areas, trailheads, and pullouts. In the past, the Leadville and Aspen-Sopris Ranger Districts shared responsibility for trash detail at the summit, which sees an enormous amount of debris thanks to large numbers of users and high winds sending trash hither and thither.

While IPF is working with local non-profits and governments to advocate for resumed support from Washington D.C. of the Forest Service, we do not anticipate change anytime soon, and therefore anticipate that these stop-gap measures performed by IPF will continue in 2026 and likely beyond.

In June of 2025, IPF convened stakeholders from both sides of Independence Pass—including the Leadville and Sopris Ranger Districts, Pitkin and Lake Counties, CDOT, the Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway, Aspen Historical Society, and other interested parties—to discuss the degraded and quickly deteriorating amenities at the summit, including the entrance area, parking lot, and especially the trails. It was agreed by all parties that the summit, one of the most visited places in the Pike-San Isabel National Forest and an international destination enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of visitors every summer and fall, was in need of a concerted master planning process to address the area, which has seen no material upgrades in three decades.

Following on the site visit, IPF commissioned an existing conditions site plan from ConnectOne Design, based in Carbondale, which will help guide the stakeholders in identifying the greatest needs and opportunities at the summit, to make for a better experience for a greater number of people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. (For example, the existing trail to the summit overlook is inaccessible by wheelchair or by others simply unused to the altitude and steepness of the trail.) We plan to begin stakeholder discussions this winter.

As we do year in and year out, IPF tended the one-of-a-kind Braille/Discovery Trail Day Use Area, trimming encroaching plants, repairing a low-lying rope handle on the Braille Trail, and regularly picking up trash. The Braille Trail, the brainchild of IPF founder Bob Lewis and the first of its kind in the world, was built in 1967. The Discovery Trail introduces people of all abilities, including those in wheelchairs, to the natural and human history of the Pass via a series of interpretive signs along an ADA-compliant trail.

click below To download audio recordings for the Braille Trail, at the recently renovated Discovery/Braille Trail Day use Area:

In 2025, IPF led five naturalist outings, all free of charge, including a bird & wildflower walk with Karin Teague & Rebecca Weiss, an historical tour of Green Mountain with Nina Gabianelli of the Aspen Historical Society, a geology tour with local geologist Shauna Young, a public lands and wildflower outing in partnership with Wilderness Workshop, and a tour of the Grottos and Summit with English in Action students, staff & tutors. What a joy to dive deeply into the natural and human wonders of Independence Pass!

Since its inception 36 years ago, one of IPF’s primary missions has been to stabilize and revegetate slopes above and below Highway 82 that were severely impacted by roadbuilding. Through federal grants and partnerships, IPF has spent millions of dollars doing just that, especially near the summit on the west side of the Pass—what we call the “Top Cut”—and at the Weller Curve. Two lower cuts, one across from Difficult Campground and one just above the winter closure gate, are increasingly eroding and sending rocks down to the road, creating a hazard for drivers and recreationalists, and risking the Pass’s role as a critical alternative access between the Roaring Fork Valley and the Front Range. IPF continued working with CDOT in 2025 to explore stabilization options on these large, dry, steep slopes. In the spring, CDOT conducted extensive rock removal, and in 2026 it plans to replace semi-demolished or missing jersey barriers along the bottom of the slopes with new ones, and clear out more rock debris from behind the jersey barriers. This will increase safety along the road in both summer and winter, when large numbers of snowshoers, skiers, and dog walkers enjoy the closed road below the Tagert Cut.

In 2020, IPF took on the mammoth project of attempting to revegetate and stabilize the slopes above Highway 82 along the Top Cut.

Three generations of Roaring Fork Valley kids have planted trees on Independence Pass, restoring road cuts, replacing trees lost in avalanches or as a result of human impacts (including former parking lots and campgrounds), and adding to the beauty and ecological health of the Pass. IPF believes that getting kids outside, digging in the dirt, and participating in service activities that are challenging, meaningful, and fun—every time kids travel the Pass they look for “their” tree—is one of the best ways to cultivate young stewards.

Tree planting isn’t just for kids, though! IPF engaged two groups of adult volunteers to plant trees along the dry, denuded road cut across from the townsite of Independence, as well as at the turnoff to Lincoln Creek Road, where campers have driven across the forest floor.

North summit snow fence debris

In 2025, completed its removal of rebar, metal cable, and aluminum panels to the north of the summit. Working with hearty volunteers from Holland & Hart, the City of Aspen, and Pitkin County, who climbed the steep, 1,000+ feet up to northeast ridge, where they worked with truck jacks, hack saws, and sledge hammers, to remove the stubborn pieces from the tundra, we can now declare the three-plus decade-long project of clearing the summit’s backcountry of the 1960s failed snow fence experiment . . . just about complete!

hazardous telephone wire removal

IPF also completed its nine-year effort to rid the Pass of abandoned, low-hanging telephone wire, which presents a sometimes deadly hazard to wildlife, as was learned in 2023 with the tragic moose death at Difficult Campground. Here, volunteers from Reese Henry & Company carried out some of the last remaining wire below the Weller curve along the valley floor.

IPF continued its efforts to keep invasive weeds at bay by hand pulling throughout the summer oxeye daisies, plumeless thistle, and yellow toadflax, a species that has taken over hundreds of acres in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.  IPF’s director, Karin Teague, previously served on the Pitkin County Weed Advisory Board, has written a weekly summer column for the Aspen Daily News/Aspen Times on wildflowers, and in 2025 released IPF’s first Field Guide to the Wildflowers of Independence Pass, which can be found at local bookstores or by emailing Karin for quantities of more than 10. IPF is dedicated to protecting the Pass’s extraordinary native fauna from invasive species, which can crowd out natives and disrupt ecological systems evolved over millennia.

Noxious weeds are plants that have been transported either accidentally or purposefully as ornamentals from overseas.  They have an advantage in their new environment because the insects, diseases, and animals that would normally control them are not found here.  And as the toadflax seen near the summit of the Pass demonstrates, they are able to adapt to a wide variety of climatic and environmental conditions.  As a result, invasive weeds can displace native plants at an alarming rate.  

When the native plants that wildlife use for food, shelter, or nesting are gone, wildlife leaves the area.  And because these weeds’ seeds can hitchhike on vehicles and like to establish themselves in disturbed sites such as roadsides, the Independence Pass corridor is prime territory for invasive species to take hold.  By controlling their spread, IPF has committed to protecting the beautiful native wildflowers, plants, and wildlife that call Independence Pass home.

IPF continues to work with experts in alpine flora, fauna, and forest health to better understand the changes our landscape is experiencing and will likely experience in the coming years as a result of climate change, including the possibilities of intensive beetle outbreaks, fire, drought, and extreme weather events.

forest health

IPF is keeping a careful eye on the spruce beetle, which has devastated millions of acres of spruce forests to the south of the Pass and seems to be advancing in this direction. Engelmann spruce is the most prevalent species of evergreen on the Pass, and is what makes up the stunning old growth forests on both sides of the Pass. So far, there is no sign of an intensive spruce beetle outbreak on the Pass.

In contrast, Douglas fir, seen on the lower portion of the Pass, is seeing high mortality throughout our region, owing to a climate change-related beetle outbreak.

And while many (most?) things are out of our control, the good news is that for 36 years, IPF has planted thousands of native trees of different species throughout the Independence Pass corridor, creating diversity of both species and age that will help make the Pass more resilient in the face of a spruce beetle outbreak. And working with experts we will continue to consider other programs to foster resilience and promote restoration in the face of climate change and whatever else Mother Nature may throw our way.

Time lapse of Linkins Lake, 1x/week, early-June through mid-September. The lake sits at 12,000’ in the Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness.

phenology studies & wildflower checklist

IPF conducted its sixth year of phenology (timing of bloom) studies along the Linkins Lake Trail in 2025. This study, along with its bi-annual cover composition study near the summit of the Pass in partnership with AGCI, will provide baseline data on the species types, numbers, and timing of bloom of plants living in the alpine and sub-alpine regions of Independence Pass, which will be invaluable in assessing the effects of climate change in our region and in aiding restoration and planting efforts on the Pass.  (Click on buttons below for this year’s data.) IPF also continued its real-time checklist of wildflowers in bloom on the Pass (click here: 2025 Wildflower Checklist), and produced its first Field Guide to the Wildflowers of Independence Pass, available at local bookstores and in quantities greater than 10 by emailing Karin Teague.

IPF works to protect the native plants we are studying through its noxious weed eradication efforts, its trail and signage work (encouraging people to stay on the trail and off the fragile tundra flowers), and its citizen science work (involving the public and enriching their understanding and appreciation of our native plants).  

year-round conditions monitoring

Nine years ago, IPF partnered with the Aspen Global Change Institute to install a monitoring station at the summit of Independence Pass. The station, part of AGCI’s valley-wide Roaring Fork Observation Network, records real-time soil moisture, snow depths, temperatures, and wind speeds at the summit of Independence Pass 365 days/year. Soil moisture plays a role in everything from plant survival to the water cycle and runoff. Considered alongside additional weather data from SNOTEL, the USGS, and IPF, over time information from this station can offer clues as to how climate change may impact ecosystems on the Pass. Unfortunately, winter 2024-2025 saw multiple glitches in the station, which is subject to brutal winter-time conditions. AGCI worked this year to replace some of the systems and—we hope—restore it to good working order in 2025-2026.

To see some examples of what we've been seeing on the Pass prior to 2024/2025, click the buttons below.

Snow depth at the iRON Independence Pass station varies quite a bit from year to year--and sometimes even from week to week! Snowpack at any site grows during a storm and later diminishes due to sublimation or melt, but because this site is above treeline, the snow depth at this station is also very susceptible to wind and may change in depth simply due to being moved around by gusts.

How deep winter snows on the Pass are plays a role in what streamflows will look like in the Roaring Fork Valley the following spring. Deeper snows also remain on the ground well into summer higher up, influencing how long the growing season will be for high altitude flowers, which impacts the insects, birds, and animals that depend on them for food.

Huge thanks to AGCI for the above descriptions and graphs. To learn more about Indy summit studies and AGCI’s work throughout the valley, please go to https://www.agci.org/iron/station/independence-pass

In addition, we installed a time-lapse camera known on the monitoring station to take photographs eight times a day, 365 days a year.  Stitched together, the images create a movie portraying the ever-changing conditions at the summit, including the rising and falling snowpack, the emergence of alpine plants in the spring, and the tundra’s changing color from green to gold in the fall.  Below is a three minute “movie” of the Pass from October 2022 through October 2023, capturing the snow build-up, snowmelt, the greening & browning of the tundra, and the occasional Homo sapien!

Pika study

Finally, IPF is a proud sponsor of the Colorado Pika Project, a partnership of Rocky Mountain Wild, the Denver Zoo, and the White River National Forest, which is employing citizen scientists to participate in a multi-year study of pikas in our region.

Megan Mueller, Senior Conservation Biologist with Rocky Mountain Wild, says, “with the help of volunteers, we will be able to do research across the mountains in the White River National Forest that will improve our understanding of how climate change may impact American pika and alpine ecosystems, and inform future Forest Service management to make alpine habitats more resilient to climate change. The project will give volunteers an opportunity to contribute to research and conservation, hike beautiful places, and learn about American pika, alpine ecosystems, and climate change.”

This summer, IPF completed 7 surveys at wide-ranging locations on the Pass, thanks to summer field ecologist Evelyn Perry. All but one contained pika or signs of pika nearby. We plan to continue these surveys in 2026 and beyond: see the sample data and study summaries below. If you are interested in participating next summer, please contact Karin Teague, director@independencepass.org.

IPF continued to fill some of the worst potholes on the Pass’s most popular trail, the summit outlook trail, which sees hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world every year. Reese Henry did the heavy lifting of moving asphalt to the site and filling the holes, what we hope will be a temporary stop gap until the trails are realigned and replaced in the next several years.

In addition, as it does year in and year out, this year in partnership with local climbers, Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers, and the US Forest Service, IPF continued its maintenance work on important climbing access trails—again with volunteers from Reese Henry—and the much-loved Lost Man and Linkins Lake Trails.

IPF supported its partners in the Lincoln Creek Work Group in conducting summer and fall-long sampling and monitoring of Lincoln Creek, from Ruby down to the confluence with the Roaring Fork River and below. IPF also helped fund LRE Water, experts in acid mine and acid rock drainage, to prepare their report following 2024 & 2025’s extensive data collection, with the goals of advising the Work Group as to potential remediation options; i.e, to determine what can be done to bring heavily contaminated Lincoln Creek back to life, and to protect the Roaring Fork River from the same fate.

Finally, IPF continued its year-round efforts to keep the US Forest Service, CDOT, Pitkin County, and other partners apprised of off-roading and snowmobiling in Wilderness, oversized vehicle use, and other activities that threaten human safety and the ecological health of the Pass. In particular, IPF stepped up its informal “patrol” of the Lincoln Creek corridor, especially along the stretch of dispersed campsites, where illegal campfires built even during Stage 2 fire bans were common, threatening the forest and the well-being of its wildlife and human visitors. We are also working with the Aspen Wildfire Foundation to explore options for installation of a Pano AI early fire detection camera up Lincoln Creek, to complement the extensive system already in place in the Roaring Fork Valley.