Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers (RFOV) is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and after all of this time is just as dedicated to maintaining a culture of stewardship for the benefit of recreational lands in both the Crystal and Roaring Fork valleys. Founded in 1995 by a group of locals — David Hamilton, Kevin O’Brien and Michael Hutton — after seeing a need to help public land agencies, the organization has become increasingly important as of late, considering federal layoffs at the National Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. RFOV will celebrate the milestone with volunteer project opportunities and a “Toast to Trails” party at Spring Creeks Ranch on June 4.
“We’ve grown quite a bit in the last five years. For 25 years, we were relatively small and operated on a shoestring budget,” Executive Director Becca Schild told The Sopris Sun. “We did a strategic plan and also responded to the impacts from the pandemic, [so] we’ve more than doubled our budget and operating capacity.”
With that exponential growth in the past five years, volunteer numbers have also nearly doubled. “I’m really excited to solidify this new size,” said Schlid. “And we’re excited to celebrate this community that has supported us for 30 years … [by] showing up to volunteer, donating money and partnering with us in other ways.”
To usher in its third decade, RFOV will host commemorative projects this month where the organization has been historically active, including at Red Hill on May 22 from 4 to 8pm and the Maroon Creek Wetlands on May 31, 9am to 3pm. Participants will have the chance to honor the history of stewardship at each location while performing various restoration tasks.
“What we’re doing this year is revisiting some of the earlier project sites that we worked on in our first five years,” explained Schild. “What the commemorative projects are aiming to do is really bring together the partners who were part of these projects originally and showcase to the community RFOV’s lasting presence and how that has made a difference in those areas.”
On June 4 at Spring Creeks Ranch, from 5 to 9pm, the organization will host “A Toast to The Trails,” an evening to mingle with RFOV staff, founders, land managers and volunteers while also fundraising for RFOV programming.
Then, on June 7, which happens to be National Trails Day, following a day of restoration at Coal Basin Ranch, from 9am to 3pm, jam band River Spell featuring Roaring Fork alum Zack Ritchie will perform on site at 4pm simultaneously kicking off Redstone’s Magical Moments Summer Concert Series.
And the celebration doesn’t stop there. According to Marketing and Communications Manager Sophie Ahava, events recognizing the 30 year mark will span the season. “We have about 20 or so projects throughout the season, from May through October, [when] we’ll be talking about our 30th year and all of the work that we do at each [location].”
Ahava looks forward to celebrating the plethora of volunteers with all sorts of backgrounds, and some of whom have been around since the beginning. In 2024, RFOV saw over 2,000 volunteers — including over 1,000 school-aged students — who completed a total of 8,000 hours of land stewardship.
“We’re trying to honor all of the work that’s been done over the last three decades, and shout out the volunteers who have been with us for 30 whole years and that continue to come out to these projects,” concluded Ahava. “We have folks from four years old all the way up to 80 years old working on our projects. One of our goals is to introduce young stewards to our work so that they can keep coming back and, hopefully, continue being adult stewards of our land as well.”
To sign up for volunteer opportunities or snag tickets for the “Toast to Trails” celebration on June 4, visit www.rfov.org