Current Projects

click here to see our current and ongoing work:

Volunteer Opportunities

click here To see the 2024 summer volunteer opportunities:

The Braille Trail

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

2023 Accomplishments

to read more about the work we accomplished in 2023,
Please click on one of the table of contents buttons below,
or scroll down to see all.

IPF is currently redesigning and fabricating the welcome sign at the Braille Trail, the brainchild of IPF founder Bob Lewis and the first of its kind in the world built in 1967. The elements have rendered the old sign unreadable, and, perhaps more importantly, it has never been “readable” by blind or low vision people, as it did not include Braille script (unlike the 22 signs that follow, that line the trail). With crucial input from the Audio Information Network of Colorado, a non-profit dedicated to providing audio access to print information and empowering services for blind, low vision, or individuals that need an alternative to print across Colorado, IPF is remedying this flaw, and creating a welcome sign better targeted to the audience for whom it was intended. We look forward to a “grand opening” next summer with the help of AIN, to bring attention to this wonderful, under-the-radar amenity.

In 2023, IPF led five naturalist outings, all free of charge, including a first-ever plein air watercolor outing with painter Amy Beidleman, a Brewer’s sparrow research project with naturalist and author Rebecca Weiss, a wildflower walk with the Valley Gardeners group, a tour of the Pass with English in Action students, staff & tutors, and a bird & wildflower outing with former IPF director and published photographer Mark Fuller. What a joy to dive deeply into the natural wonders of Independence Pass!

After seeing excellent results in the summer of 2022, following fall 2020’s extensive revegetation effort, 2023’s dry summer seemed to inhibit the further growth we had hoped to see. In response, this fall we hand-seeded the upper portions of the cut, which remain only sparsely vegetated, with native black-tipped senecio and yarrow, two of the most ubiquitous plants on that part of the Pass. We look forward to seeing more progress in 2024!

In 2020, IPF took on the mammoth project of attempting to revegetate and stabilize the slopes above Highway 82 on the west side of the Pass near the summit, the section of road known as the “Top Cut.” Since its inception in 1989, IPF has had demonstrable success re-greening the slopes below the road, along the Weller Curve, and in other locations throughout the Independence Pass corridor. It had not yet attempted, however, to revegetate the steep, high slopes above the Top Cut.

IPF had determined the importance of this work, along with the need for re-anchoring and in some instances replacing the metal netting preventing rocks from falling onto the road, in 2019, when it hired consultants and worked with CDOT to assess deteriorating conditions along the Top Cut. IPF applied for a federally-funded TAP grant in late 2019 to conduct the revegetation portion of the work, to coincide with CDOT’s rockfall mitigation work scheduled for the Fall of 2020.

When IPF did not obtain the grant due to a particularly competitive grant cycle, IPF’s board determined that the urgency of the work, and the synchronicity with CDOT’s scheduled Fall work, which would require among other things occasional lane closures and traffic control, great enough to merit dipping into reserves as needed to fund the effort.

After interviewing a number of suppliers and contractors, which involved numerous on-site meetings and in-depth analyses of the challenges presented by the Top Cut’s steep slopes, poor soil, high altitude, and difficult access, IPF hired Colorado companies Bowman Supplies—to provide the native seed, fertilizer, tackifier, and mulch to apply to the slopes—and Powell Restoration—to provide the thousands of gallons of water and equipment needed to spray the products 100+ feet upslope. IPF determined Bowman and Powell offered the most cutting-edge materials and approach, and best chance of success for this challenging project.

After a number of days staging water, equipment, and materials, project day itself as well as anyone could have hoped for: the weather cooperated beautifully and Powell was able to thoroughly cover the barren slopes with the seed/fertilizer/tackifier slurry followed by the mulch cover.

Three generations of Roaring Fork Valley kids have planted trees on Independence Pass, restoring road cuts, replacing trees lost in avalanches, 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.

snow fence prototype deconstruction and removal

In 2022, IPF and the US Forest Service agreed it was time to tackle the enormous, steel snow fence that had marred the Continental Divide south of the summit for over 60 years. This was the prototype for the mammoth 1960s Continental Divide snow fence project, the aim of which was to alter snow deposition patterns to allow for a larger and more gradual runoff throughout the summer into the Roaring Fork drainage and, via a series of ditches and tunnels, eventually into the Twin Lakes Reservoir.  The project was abandoned midway through construction when other fully-built prototypes demonstrated the project as designed wouldn’t work.  While IPF was able to remove most of those portions of the snow fence that ran along the Continental Divide to the south by helicopter, the prototype was within the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness boundary, and thus couldn’t be decommissioned or moved with mechanized or motorized tools.

Fortunately, our friends at the Forest Service had the brilliant idea of using a cutting torch—which like a backcountry camp stove is not considered “mechanized,” and is therefore allowed—which worked to cut the bolts and sever the joints holding the prototype in place.

This was only step one, however, as every piece of the steel fence weighed upwards of 40-50 lbs, and per Wilderness regs had to be removed by hand. This is where volunteers of all ages came in. ACES Trook interns, Aspen Community School 6th graders, and dozens of community volunteers all took turns carrying out the heavy pieces, with the last removed this summer.

North summit snow fence debris

In the summer of 2023, IPF also undertook the arduous process of finding and removing aluminum panels from the north side of the summit, more remnants of the unconstructed, 1960s snow fence. Over the decades, aluminum panels had been moved by snow, wind, and gravity onto the east side of the Continental Divide, as well as into hard-to-reach rock outcrops. With the help of Wilderness Workshop, Jaywalker Lodge, local volunteers, and Aspen Ski Co employees, nearly all of the metal debris was stockpiled and hauled down the mountain. There remain a couple pieces to tackle in 2024!

hazardous telephone wire removal

IPF also continued its 7+ year effort to rid the Pass of abandoned, low-hanging telephone wire, which presents a sometimes deadly hazard to wildlife, as was learned this year with the tragic moose death at Difficult Campground. Here, volunteers from Jaywalker Lodge, which has been instrumental in carrying out this project over the years, are cutting some of the last remaining wire below the Weller curve along the valley floor.

Mountain boy rebar removal

Since 2016, inmate work crews, school groups, and numerous volunteers have spent long, hard days hiking 12,500’ slopes, loosening, pulling, and prying the deeply-buried rebar out of the ground, using sledgehammers, truck jacks and chains, and tree removers. The rebar is then carried out by hand (and in 2018 by a USFS mule team).

This multi-year, physically demanding project has turned out to be a hugely popular and satisfying one for our community’s incredible kids and volunteers. IPF estimates that a couple thousand pounds of rebar still remain in the basin just to the northeast of the summit of Mountain Boy, interspersed in the willows and wetlands of an area affectionately known as “Mountain Girl,” along with aluminum panels and scattered rebar on the north and northeast side of the summit. IPF hopes to pull and haul out these last remnants of snow fence in the coming summers.

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, and writes a weekly column in the summer for the Aspen Daily News on wildflowers. IPF is dedicated to protecting the Pass’s native species from invasives, 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 35 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 fourth year of phenology (timing of bloom) studies along the Linkins Lake Trail in 2023, as well as its annual cover composition study near the summit of the Pass in partnership with AGCI. These studies 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 for our 2023 Wildflower Checklist).

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

In 2016, 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. To see some examples of what we're seeing, 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 8 surveys at wide-ranging locations on the Pass, thanks to summer field ecologist Cat Corona. All but one contained pika or signs of pika nearby. We plan to continue these surveys in 2024 and beyond: see the sample data and study summary below. If you are interested in participating next summer, please contact Karin Teague, director@independencepass.org.

In partnership with Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers, we returned to the hugely popular Lost Man loop trail this summer for a weekend of rock step-building, cleaning and adding water bars, and trimming encroaching willow. The project drew a hearty crew of 15 participants (the maximum allowed in the Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness) and resulted in a more sustainable, enjoyable trail in one of the Pass’s most-loved areas.

IPF also worked with the local rock climbing community to address erosion and create a more sustainable trail to the popular Classy Cliffs climbing area.

IPF will continue to monitor concerning contamination in Lincoln Creek and the upper Roaring Fork River, as well as apply pressure to local and state officials to share sampling results, which may have human health implications and certainly have wildlife implications, with the wider public.

IPF will also continue to keep the US Forest Service, CDOT, Pitkin County, and other partners apprised of off-roading and snowmobiling in Wilderness, oversized vehicle use, illegal campfires, and other activities that threaten human safety and the ecological health of the Pass.