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Volunteer Recognition l Volunteer Profiles l Volunteer Projects
Volunteer RecognitionGrand Junction BLM Rec Planner Named "Land Manager of the Year"
Chris Pipkin, who has worked with the recreation program at the BLM Grand Junction Field Office since 1993, received the award at the VOC volunteer recognition dinner in Denver Nov. 5. "Chris is totally committed to getting people involved in caring for our public lands in a hands-on way," said Sue Anderson, VOC Director of Programs. "He has successfully managed the BLM’s partnership with VOC on a number of outdoor stewardship projects in the Grand Junction area." Pipkin has served as an instructor for VOC’s Outdoor Stewardship Institute since 2007, teaching volunteers the basics of trail building, trail maintenance, and successful crew leadership. Most recently, he was instrumental in the development of a new partnership between the BLM and VOC to build the volunteer management capacity of the BLM in Grand Junction. Through this partnership, a VOC employee has been hired as full time volunteer and partnership coordinator for the Grand Junction Field Office. "My first experience working with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado was in 1988 when I was a freshman at Colorado State University and volunteered for a VOC trail construction project north of Ft. Collins at Phantom Canyon," Pipkin said "That project was instrumental in getting me hooked on trail building and trail management, which has been one of the major focuses of my career with the BLM." Pipkin graduated from CSU in wildlife biology in 1992. Pipkin has received numerous awards for his contributions to public lands stewardship and volunteer development. In 2006, he was the recipient of the Bureau of Land Management’s "Making a Difference" National Volunteer Award for his accomplishments in improving the quality and sustainability and trails in the Grand Junction area and for his work in recruiting and motivating a powerful volunteer workforce. Locally, Mesa County Partners chose him to receive the Pete Larson Memorial Award in 2010 and Hilltop Community Resources selected him as a Hometown Hero in May 2008 for providing at risk youth with valuable educational opportunities through trail building on public lands. Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado is a statewide nonprofit volunteer organization whose mission is to motivate and enable citizens to be active stewards of Colorado’s natural resources. Since 1984, more than 60,000 citizens led by skilled volunteer leaders have helped protect, conserve, sustain, and enhance Colorado’s natural places through their work with VOC – a total donated labor value of over $16 million. Throughout the year, VOC offers hands-on opportunities for people of all ages and skill levels to volunteer outdoors and help with stewardship efforts such as restoring trails in wilderness areas, constructing paths in city parks, and protecting fragile riverside habitat. For more information, go to www.voc.org . Committed Volunteers Awarded “America the Beautiful” Volunteer PassesBobby Evans, Jeffery Fleming, and Marty Felix have earned America the Beautiful Volunteer Passes ! They qualified for these passes by accruing 500 hours of volunteer service on federal lands. The passes cover entrance fees on lands managed by the Department of Interior‘s Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Bureau of Reclamation as well as the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service. Passes are valid for one year from the date of issue.
Bobby Evans is a familiar face at many volunteer projects. A Board member of the Colorado Canyons Association, Bobby has spent 539 hours in volunteer service on federal lands since 2007. This has included being the Adopt a Trail sponsor for Devils Canyons in the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area, volunteering for trail building projects managed by Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) and the Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association (COPMOBA) and assisting with numerous cleanup projects. He’s an avid photographer and freely shares his photographs on Facebook and with local nonprofit organizations. You’ll see Bobby and his Mohawk haircut at most National Public Lands Day and National Trails Day volunteer events.
Jeffery Fleming has volunteered 597 hours since October 2007. Jeffery has been an active volunteer on public lands managed by the Grand Junction Field Office since 2005. He started out working on various trail construction and maintenance projects and became a certified crew leader in March 2006. In May 2006, Jeffery became the Adopt-a-Trail sponsor for the Mica Mine and the Rough Canyon trails, and the Adopt-a-Site sponsor for the Bangs Canyon Trailhead, all in the Bangs Canyon Special Recreation Management Area. He has continued to work with the BLM, COPMOBA, and VOC on trail construction and maintenance projects. In July 2010, Jeffery became a volunteer for the Cultural Resources Program and completed the cultural site steward training program.
Marty Felix, a founding member of Friends of the Mustangs, has received several prestigious awards for her volunteer work, including the President’s Volunteer Service Award and the BLM National Volunteer Award. A passionate advocate for wild horses, she has volunteered 970 hours helping the Grand Junction Field Office with the management of the Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Area since November 2008. Each year, she helps with contraceptive darting process that reduces the number of foals born into the wild horse herd. She participated in the development of this fertility control project in 2002 while working for the USGS Biological Research Division. The project has reduced competition for scarce resources on the range and thus improved the health and longevity of the horses. It has also reduced the frequency of wild horse gathers. BLM staff view her work as invaluable.
Volunteer Profile
Interviewed by Betty Jensen (BLM volunteer) October 12, 2011  Janice Shepherd is a scientist with a literary bent, a somewhat rare combination. A naturalized citizen who grew up in Canada, she came to Grand Junction with her husband from New York in 2002. Both Janice and her husband had been employees of IBM, working as computer programmers. Their semi-retired lifestyle has allowed Janice plenty of time to enjoy her passions; backpacking, world-wide traveling (34 countries), storytelling and geocaching (a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game). Outgoing and gregarious, Janice joined the Newcomers Club soon after arriving in Grand Junction. While no longer a newcomer, she continues to enjoy the activities of this social club. Not surprisingly, she is involved in two of the “traveling” committees for the organization, the Armchair Travelers and Tour/lunch committees. Traveling in the community eventually led her to Great Old Broads for Wilderness, a group that focuses on raising awareness and lobbying for the protection of public lands in the Western United States. She joined the group in 2009. It was also while traveling the community that Janice discovered Spellbinders. Spellbinders members visit elementary schools to engage children in the age old tradition of storytelling. Janice visits three 5 th grade classes at a local school once a month. The purpose of telling the stories is to help children develop their abilities to visualize and think creatively. The delight in Janice’s eyes when she speaks of her work as a spellbinder makes her passion for storytelling palpable. Janice’s passion for her work for the BLM is just as obvious. She began that work as an extension of her involvement with the Broads group. Janice believes that limited funding for the BLM does not provide the agency with sufficient personnel to monitor the 1.2 million acres of land managed by the agency. It is here that Janice can bring her math/science background to bear. She likes to think of herself as “eyes” for the BLM as she and fellow volunteer Dave Griffin walk the vast public lands with GPS and camera in hand to document areas that need attention. As Janice became aware of the cultural sites that also exist on BLM land, she decided to add to her expertise by taking the cultural training offered by the agency. Now she is better able to identify cultural resources and to participate in surveys of the areas conducted by the BLM. How lucky the BLM is to have this bright, energetic, world traveler committed to the preservation of Western Colorado’s public lands.
Avid hunter and outdoorsman Dean Talbot, found the perfect place to retire when he moved to Grand Junction in 1995. The retired assistant fire chief from East Moline, Illinois and his wife, Chris, had enjoyed Colorado’s many outdoor experiences over the years, so after rearing three daughters and reaching his “golden years”, Dean decided to make Colorado his retirement “home”. Since coming to the state, Dean has hunted most of the animals in the area at one time or another and volunteered with local agencies, including Mesa County RSVP, Inc. and the Division of Wildlife (DOW). Dean is a successful hunter with two impressive bull elk heads among other trophies on his wall at home, but he is also an animal conservationist, helping distressed animals as a volunteer for the Division of Wildlife. It was Dean’s love of guns and hunting that brought him to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). When Dean and his wife moved to Grand Junction, he discovered the shooting range on 27 ¼ Road. Over time he began to assist with clean up at the range. Dean says that 40,000 vehicles a year make the trip out to the shooting range. That is a lot of milk cartons full of holes that need to be picked up, not to mention empty shells and other trash. Eventually, Dean assumed responsibility for the clean up at the range. Today he visits the range two to three times a week to collect the garbage bags that have been filled by those who use the area. In addition, it is Dean who gathers other volunteers on occasion to do a more thorough clean up of the desert area. These clean ups are known to be popular as Dean has a special “in” with the owner of Chick-fil-A off Highway 6 & 50. It seems that people who enjoy the shooting range also enjoy chicken sandwiches. Dean says, “The reason I volunteer is to keep the public range open.” It appears that his efforts are paying off for the Grand Junction community. Volunteer ProjectsVolunteers make National Public Lands Day a Huge Success!!by Betty Jensen, BLM Volunteer Eighty-six hearty volunteers rolled up their sleeves on September 24, 2011 to celebrate National Public Lands Day (NPLD) by cleaning and maintaining three areas of the 1.2 million acres of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management Grand Junction Field Office. By the end of the day, old computers, printers, stereos, tires, refrigerators, and 7600 lbs. of trash had been hauled away from the desert north of Grand Junction. Volunteers cleared brush and installed eleven water bars to prevent erosion along the 1.3 miles of the popular Mica Mine Trail in Bangs Canyon. The massive effort could not have been completed without the enthusiastic energy of local people who enjoy the public lands surrounding Grand Junction. Local businesses, Which Wich, Chick-Fil-A, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Main Street Bagels, Starbucks, and Cabela’s, supported the effort by supplying the volunteers with bagels, coffee, sandwiches and other tokens of appreciation.  The Western Slope ATV Association (WSATVA) was crucial in helping with the north desert clean-up. Thirty-eight members, using their ATV’s, helped to extract and haul trash from the area. According to Steve Chapel, club president, “We’ve always been interested in cleaning up public lands. A lot of big things are impossible to pick up unless you have an OHV [Off Highway Vehicle]. We found a refrigerator that was half buried. It took three ATVs [All Terrain Vehicles] to pull it out…” An additional seven volunteers and two BLM staff worked with the WSATV to collect tons of trash in the area while others worked farther north at the desert shooting range.
Dean Talbot, an avid rifleman and hunter, organizes clean-ups at the 27 ¼ Road shooting range year round. He headed up the twenty-six volunteer team that worked on the range clean-up on National Public Lands Day. “We want to promote shooting and hunting with youth so that upcoming generations will enjoy it. By helping to keep the range clean, we can continue to keep it open and accessible to the public. In many other areas of the country, hunters have to go on private lands in order to hunt.”
Yet another devoted outdoorsman, Jeffrey Fleming, organized the third NPLD project. Jeffrey has adopted the Mica Mine Trail, and as part of his stewardship, he led the efforts of fifteen volunteers and two BLM staff working on trail maintenance. “Doing trail work is a great way to get to know fellow hikers. National Public Lands Day is an opportunity to give back and to support the trails I enjoy hiking on throughout the year,” Jeffrey said.
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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado recently awarded a Bureau of Land Management Grand Junction outdoor recreation planner its Land Manager of the Year award.
