CBMBA reports busy year of stewardship

And argues case for Snodgrass reroute…

By Kendra Walker

In a recent report to the Mt. Crested Butte town council, Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association executive director Dave Ochs provided an overview of the work done by the Crested Butte Conservation Corps (CBCC) during the 2025 season. He also provided his position regarding the community petition to reroute the Snodgrass trail, explaining that it is a CBMBA and Forest Service principle to remove trails from private lands and put them onto public lands.

This past year was the ninth season for the CBCC, CBMBA’s professional trail and stewardship crew. “We tend to 433 square miles,” said Ochs. “It’s a massive amount of open space area.”

In 2025, the CBCC performed lots of trail work, including 62 trail armoring projects and creating 414 drainage structures. Additionally, CBMBA hosted seven trail workdays, totaling 502 community volunteers and 2,178 hours. “A big part of who we are and what we do is this community,” said Ochs. “Doing trail work and helping our Forest Service partners out there, it’s amazing what our community does. There is no shortage of incredible work by this community and how much they care for these trails.”

The group was hard at work with stewardship as always, managing 208 campsites, removing trash and waste, and cleaning the West Maroon trailhead bathroom. They collected 2,654 pounds of trash, 68 human waste piles and 68 dog waste bags. “The human waste and TP just doesn’t end,” said Ochs. They also put out six unattended fires, down from eight in 2024. “But any unattended fire left out there is always incredibly scary,” he said.

However, Ochs said they have noticed some progress – decommissioning 24 illegal campsites, down from 64 in 2024, and decommissioning 43 illegal fire rings, down from 103 the previous year.

The Backcountry Outreach Crew (BOC) were also posted up at popular trailheads 24 times during the busiest weeks of the summer. They counted 4,969 users, reached 1,780 people and helped park 100 cars.

Ochs reminded the council that Mt. Crested Butte was the first financial supporter of the CBCC nine years ago. “It still means a lot to us. The fact that we have been a line item in your budget every year means the most. We can’t tell you what it means to us and to our board and to our organization.”

The council unanimously approved a 2026 service agreement with CBMBA for $20,000.

Councilmember Steve Morris asked Ochs if there had been any activity from CBMBA regarding the community petition to reroute the Snodgrass trail off of private land so that it would run entirely through public lands and no longer be subject to seasonal closures.

“Very much so, we have been talking about it for 40 years,” said Ochs. He also pointed out that the number one comment they receive in surveys to the community is to ‘please reroute Snodgrass.’ “So it does mean a lot to us because we do feel like we want to represent our constituency,” he said.

“If the collaborative effort was there… this is not just a CBMBA priority, or a good practice… it’s federal principle within the forest service… you do everything you can to remove a trail from private lands and put it onto public lands because it eliminates the problems, the gray area, the unclarity of it all. It just makes it public land-accessible.”

Ochs noted that CBMBA has rerouted trails from private to public land in the past, including 401, 403, Middle Cement and Deer Creek. “We’ve done it four times in the last 11 years to massive success.”

He continued, “We understand that there are some very touchy components to it. We understand that there are neighbors here, we understand that these are ranchers…we’re talking about an area where a lot of lands were homesteaded, we’re talking about fences that are not on private property, they are on public lands, we’re talking about signs that go up that say you can’t be here on public lands. Those are not right, they’re wrong. And it’s easy to say that this is the way it’s been for a long time, we’re not trying to ruffle feathers, not trying to disrupt anybody’s operations… but it’s a simple, simple principle to remove a trail from private onto public lands.”

Ochs said the reroute on Snodgrass would be very simple and solvable. “In one weekend, if we ever got word from the forest ranger that said, ‘Go do it,’ in one weekend it would be done.”

He explained that it’s a Gunnison Ranger District decision, in which the district could decide internally that the reroute does not necessarily need to trigger a formal process through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and could give CBMBA written jurisdiction to reroute the trail. Otherwise, the reroute could go through the full scientific NEPA process, said Ochs. “It just depends on who is in charge and how they want to approach doing something like that.”

However, he did admit that rerouting Snodgrass would change the character of the trail, explaining that a “mean shoulder” is the reason why the trail dipped into private land when it was created. “And it worked out in a community in a time in the ‘80s when there were not as many people here, not as many impacts, the ranchers and the recreationists worked together and said you can keep it open for these times but then we’re going to close it.”

He noted that when the trail does close for the season, active grazing operations are not always going on. “So it’s a little bit frustrating to have something basically holding the community hostage. In many ways people are threatened, there are signs saying ‘you can’t go out there, you can’t do this.’ You can. There are public lands out there, you do have a right to be there and there is proper access to them. But signs go up, comments go out saying you can’t recreate anywhere on Snodgrass. That is not factual information.”