Thank a destination that is hosting your group and have a teambuilding activity all wrapped in one. Here are a variety of groups to plug into for projects involving trails, historic places, waterways, and open space.
The City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks hosts one-day volunteer projects. Spend the day constructing or maintaining a nearby trail for Boulder locals and visitors alike to enjoy.
The Colorado Trail stretches 500 miles from Denver to Durango. It’s a well-known pathway for hikers who want to travel much of the state on foot, passing over mountains, around lakes, and through a number of Colorado communities. The Colorado Trail Foundation volunteer crews make improvements to the trail, and groups are welcome to take part in the weeklong trips.
Colorado has 58 peaks that rise at least 14,000 feet above sea level—more than any other state in the continental United States. Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI) is a nonprofit, volunteer-dependent organization that helps restore and maintain the trails and fragile plant life. Volunteer outings range from three-day trail builds that involve camping near the worksite to wildflower seed collection, where seeds from native flowers will be used to repopulate barren trails. The organization’s Adopt-a-Peak program partners with corporate groups to perform trail maintenance and vegetation restoration work. CFI provides trained crew leaders, fully planned projects, and all the equipment needed to perform a stewardship project.
The Friends of Breckenridge Trails offers a way to provide a helping hand in the upkeep of fragile habitats, open spaces, and trail systems unique to Breckenridge. Through volunteer projects offered throughout the summer, open spaces, trails, historic sites, and ecologically sensitive areas are maintained and restored.
Since 1984, Denver-based Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) has been motivating and enabling people to become active stewards of Colorado’s natural resources. VOC works with conservation and land agencies and relies on thousands of people annually to provide a volunteer workforce for outdoor stewardship projects. For corporate teams of at least 15 people, VOC can customize a Stewardship with a Team (SWAT) volunteer project based on a group’s needs. SWAT projects require a minimum donation to address the additional coordination, logistics, and supplies needed.
From land to water, Wildlands Restoration Volunteers in Fort Collins and Boulder County offers a wide range of projects. Whether groups are into clearing and maintaining trails, picking up litter from waterways, or building rock structures to maintain natural habitats, there’s something for everyone.
HistoriCorps based in Morrison works with volunteers to save at-risk places like settlers’ log cabins, century-old fire lookout towers, or the remnants of mining infrastructure in alpine meadows. This summer, HistoriCorps is leading the restoration of the historic Devil’s Head Lookout Tower.
