County commits $5,000 to the Gunnison Stewardship Fund

First fund of its kind in nation

By Cayla Vidmar

There’s nothing but support from the county for the new Gunnison Stewardship Fund, which was responsible for the West Maroon Trailhead toilet, installed last fall. Emily Olsen, Colorado program manager for the National Forest Foundation (NFF), which is managing the fund, stopped by this week’s meeting of the Gunnison Board of County Commissioners to discuss the fund’s progress, and the county committed $5,000 to leverage a challenge donation from the Mt. Emmons Mining Company.

Olsen kicked off the discussion by thanking the county for its contribution to the pilot fund last year, which funded a new pit-toilet at the West Maroon Trailhead that was installed as the snow started to fly. Apparently, photos of the famous toilet have been circulating through local conservation groups and at the National Forest Foundation meetings because of the unique funding mechanism that was employed.

During a phone conversation, Olsen said the Gunnison Stewardship Fund launched last year and is a partnership between local government, community leaders, the NFF, land managers, local businesses, and non-profits. The vision, she says, is to create a sustainable source of funding on an annual basis for outdoor recreation projects.

Contribution to the fund is flexible in terms of how businesses and entities can contribute funds. Olsen says groups can have customers donate a dollar or two to the fund with their purchases, as one example, and any business or entity can contribute. Olsen said at the meeting that she’s actively trying to recruit outfitters and guides, those businesses that make money through outdoor recreation on public lands.

The fund is unique and the first of its kind in the country, because it’s “locally grown, with a diverse group of contributors, and the project selection happens with a local body,” says Olsen. The Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Committee (STOR) formed a subcommittee called the “STOR Project Selection Committee,” which oversees the projects that are selected for funding.

“Projects come from land management agencies, who will suggest and bring forward priority projects for consideration,” says Olsen. The selection committee is made up of STOR members, the NFF, land management agencies and fund contributors.

Olsen told the BOCC that Mt. Emmons Mining Company has announced they’re donating a $10,000 “challenge donation,” meaning they’re challenging the Stewardship Fund to raise a matching $10,000 in order to unlock the original $10,000. The BOCC members in attendance—John Messner and Roland Mason—spoke up about their support for the fund, and Messner stated his support for leveraging matching donations.

“This is one of the most exciting things we have going on right now, as far as funding outdoor recreation infrastructure … and it’s been clearly prioritized by the community, so I’m on board,” said Messner.

Mason and Messner moved to grant the Gunnison Stewardship Fund $5,000 from the commissioner discretionary fund, to go towards the matching donation from Mt. Emmons Mining Company.

Messner said he would also be interested in looking at committing $10,000 to $15,000 in the future, but wanted to give Olsen the opportunity to find other supporters for the matching donation.

Olsen says she’s hoping the STOR Project Selection Committee will meet for the first time this year in April or May, in order to implement a project between June and September. She said the fund might be smaller for 2019, since it hasn’t had a lot of time to grow, but her goal is to grow the pot for larger projects in 2020.

Interested contributors can reach out to Olsen at eolsen@nationalforests.org.