Poudre Wilderness Volunteers

No organization magically springs, full-blown, into the world. Much planning, experimenting, trial and error, and gathering of information is involved. But before any of that happens, one person has to have an idea, an inspiration, which is so compelling that it must be pursued. In the case of the Poudre Wilderness Volunteers, that person is Chuck Bell. While volunteering for the Forest Service, he saw a vital need for ordinary citizens to assist the Forest Service in maintaining the wilderness.

Here, in Chuck Bell’s own words, is the story of how we started.

Curious about PWV’s activities and programs?  Want to learn about the growth and diversification of Poudre Wilderness Volunteers since its founding in 1996?  The 16-page 2010 Annual Report provides an overview of PWV’s scope and highlights the activities and accomplishments of several of its programs.

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PWV is comprised of about 270 individuals who live primarily in northern Colorado and who range in age from 18 to 80 years old. Our volunteers represent nearly every imaginable background and all walks of life. The group consists of retirees as well as people still actively working in such fields as medicine, education, public and private administration and business.

The mission of Poudre Wilderness Volunteers is to assist the Canyon Lakes Ranger District of the United States Forest Service in managing and protecting wilderness and backcountry areas within its jurisdiction. To achieve this mission, Poudre Wilderness Volunteers recruits, trains, equips and fields citizen volunteers to serve as wilderness rangers and hosts for the purpose of educating the public, and provides other appropriate support to these wild areas.

In 1995, a volunteer ranger for the USFS, Charles Bell, who patrolled the trails of what is now the Canyon Lakes Ranger District, became extremely worried about the cuts to the ranger district’s budget over the previous three years – from 3 full-time persons and 30 seasonal employees down to just 1 full-time person and 2 part-timers to look after its extensive backcountry and wilderness areas.