Embrace the automatic compassion response

Connecting with all the people that are alive

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com


I have always lived locally, but at times, think globally. Every now and then, in this world that can isolate us from other forms of human kindness, we need to embrace the automatic compassion response that usually kicks in for a country beset by tragedy, disaster and discord.

“There’s been so much ugliness, division and fear on our screens and in our hearts over the past two years that it was getting hard to imagine how we’d ever stitch the country together again.,” notes Time magazine columnist Susanna Schrobsdorff. “Then a once-in-a-thousand year storm hit.” Referring to Harvey. And the acts of kindness followed.

“They are a reminder of something we feared extinct: that aspect of America that brims with compassion -- the kind that doesn’t discriminate.”

Locally, we have seen folks come together in trying times. Think only of the firestorms of Waldo Canyon, Black Forest, and even Hayman, the flooding and destruction of Fountain Creek in the Ute Pass, Manitou Springs, and along Colorado Highway 67, and out in the burn areas in the forest.

But remember as well, the response, the compassion and the humanity shown as local folks and others rose to the occasion. And are still rising, because there are still things to do.

The fire in Cripple Creek last week that left folks without. Anything. Earlier disasters, large and small, here close to home and abroad, we have suffered through.

Born of floods, following fires, one local organization philosophically and metaphorically, has held up like a three-legged table, the Coalition for the Upper South Platte (or CUSP), now serves as a model, and has for years ... statewide, nationally and internationally.

Through the three legs: economic sustainability, community values, and cooperative efforts of the stakeholders; CUSP seeks to protect the water quality and ecological health of the Upper South Platte Watershed, that began after the Buffalo Creek Fire and Flood (which did more than $35 million in damage resulted in two deaths) in Jefferson County 1996.

Black Forest Together (BFT), an organization formed about four years ago, also has a three-pronged strategy of compassion: recover, rebuild, restore.

It will likely be sponsoring its Annual Fundraising Event in October, at the Black Forest Community Club (NW corner of Shoup Rd & Black Forest Rd). The event commonly includes a BBQ dinner, activities for the kids and music.

The purpose of the fundraiser is to raise operating capital to pay the expenses related to BFT’s community projects of recovery, mitigation, preservation, preparedness, and education. In order to hold a successful fundraiser, they need a number of volunteers to assist with the event, serving food, setting up and cleaning up and other tasks. If you have any questions, about that effort, please call the office at 495-2445.

In the meantime, if you need help, Do you have trees blown over from our recent storms? Burned property still requiring cleanup? Out of control slash you need help with? If so, Black Forest Together (BFT) is taking applications for this season’s projects. Project focus will be continued post-fire cleanup/restoration and mitigation to reduce the risk of another wildfire. Although they don’t have the capability to cut down trees, we can help with chipping, slash piling, cleanup of debris, seedling planting and other restoration work and offer neighborhood chipping projects.

Certainly other local organizations (too numerous to name) share in that uplifting effort.

The fires in Montana, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado are everyday reminders of the need for vigilance, and the truth that we may one day need help again. The recent national tragedies in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands drive that message home.

Empathy is an important and motivating response for us. Perhaps pain and heartbreak are all part of the human condition, and such suffering might seem unprecedented, but at the same time, as James Baldwin suggests, it connects us with all the people who are alive -- all the people who have ever been alive.

Photo information:
1. Fighting the Black Forest Fire in the first few days of July, 2013.
2. Coalition for the Upper South Platte with a winter-time controlled burn in 2015.

A changed condition: Rampart Range Road offers a hard look at the fire

It is not the same forest

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

When Rampart Range Road opened Oct. 10, 2014, more than two years after it was closed during the first day of the Waldo Canyon Fire, visitors were able to get a whole new understanding of the scope the devastating wildfire.
“I really wanted to see first-hand – sorry I did, and yet at the same time, glad I know for a fact that in some areas – 10 years, most likely will not be enough of an estimated time for healing from flooding. Great to see beaming, white and good-smelling Aspen trees, a few yellow leaves and five feet away on the side of the road, a ‘war zone - a look alike’ of total devastation.” Said local long-time resident Clara Meury who toured the area in the first few days the road was open.
“Whew! Glad I went and saw and came down off the Ramparts...with hope. Very thankful to see acres, miles, and hillsides of hundreds of dedicated footprints of CUSP (Coalition for the Upper South Platte) volunteers back-breaking work that has been done, and more yet to happen to protect our towns, and cities. Our communities. Our mountains. I love our Mountains,” Meury said.
Rampart Range Road offers an elevated vantage point to view the extent of the damage.
The fire, which was first reported June 23, 2012, had caused the evacuation of over 32,000 residents of Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Cascade, Chipita Park, Green Mountain Falls, Crystola, Woodland Park and partial evacuation of the United States Air Force Academy. As many as 346 homes were destroyed by the fire. U.S. Highway 24, was closed in both directions for days. The Waldo Canyon Fire resulted in insurance claims totaling more than $453.7 million. Until the Black Forest Fire, it was the most destructive fire in Colorado state history, as measured by the number of homes destroyed, (Black Forest fire destroyed 486 homes and damaged 28 others).
“If you choose to go into the Waldo Canyon area, expect a changed condition. It is not the same forest that many remember prior to the 2012 wildfire. There are many dangers so be very cautious with a plan of escape when the winds increase or it starts to rain. Your safety is our priority,”said Pikes Peak District Ranger Oscar Martinez, upon the road’s opening.
Visitors should use extreme caution and expect to encounter falling dead trees and limbs, steep slopes, stump holes and the potential for flooding in this burned area.

Three legs of the table elevate CUSP

Born of floods, following fires, the organization philosophically and metaphorically, is held up like a three-legged table.
In what some call the double disasters, the Coalition for the Upper South Platte (or CUSP), now serves as a model... statewide, nationally and perhaps internationally.
"We have more fire experience, and we have seen time and time again, that floods follow wildfire, so our main focus was to keep people safe and infrastructure intact when the inevitable flooding strikes the communities around the burn scar,"said Carol Ekarius, CUSP Executive Director last week.
Through the three legs: economic sustainability, community values, and cooperative efforts of the stakeholders; CUSP seeks to protect the water quality and ecological health of the Upper South Platte Watershed.
It all started after the Buffalo Creek Fire and Flood (which did more than $35 million in damage resulted in two deaths) in Jefferson County 1996, when 11 government entities saw the need for a non-profit organization to coordinate volunteer projects according to the principals of the three-legged table or stool.
Now, its 17-member board of directors reads like a who's who, and encompasses stakeholders representing the City of Aurora, Jefferson County, The Wilderness Society, Center of Colorado Conservancy District, Park County, Jefferson Conservancy District, Centennial Water & Sanitation, Douglas County, Upper South Platte Water Conservancy, Denver Water, Trout Unlimited - Cheyenne Mountain Chapter, Teller County, Colorado Springs Utilities, and interested individuals.
The in-and-out budget last year was nearly $3.7 million and allowed for a 25-person staff (19 full-time equivalent) headquartered in the small office in Lake George. For 2014, they are conservatively budgeting $2.5 million, but it will likely grow as driven by need and funding, as last year's did.
Most of their work, of course, is in the 2,600 square miles of the district (area larger than the state of Rhode Island), though increasingly, their expertise is sought out for projects outside of their boundaries.
Because of their experience, similar fire and flood issues in Northern Colorado and elsewhere, has prompted requests for staff to go to other fires in an advisory capacity. East Peak, West Fork complex, Arizona fires, conferences in Washington, have all benefited from that considerable expertise.
When dealing with four major water providers, multiple organizations and four different constituent counties, it might seem impossible to stay out of the crossfire created by emotionally-charged issues of water, property and politics,.
"We are apolitical," but Ekarius says.
"We don't comment, and stay out of contentious issues. By the time the dust settles, advocacy is not our role."
Instead they focus on robust monitoring programs, mapping, organizing volunteer efforts, education, and in her words, "doing no harm," as the result of unintended consequences.
"We work with Mother Nature."
About 6,500 people helped in their volunteer force this past year.
Historic information gathering, evacuation considerations, data recording, and generally trying to understand and function within the given resources optimally, sometimes gets them labeled. Especially when warning of possible impending danger.
"We haven't hit the worse-case scenario yet," says Ekarius, in describing the possible problems in the case of the Waldo Burn Scar area. Though, that area is not in their district, they have been asked to help  and have done extensive work in the last years following the fire.
"It is amazing how fast we go from 'fear mongers' and 'Chicken Little' to 'expert,'" notes CUSP Environmental Education Coordinator Theresa Springer.

"While the life-theatening, post-fire impacts in and around the Waldo Canyon burn scar were the most immediate concern this year, we still found time to do some exciting work in the Upper South Platte Watershed," observed CUSP's most-recent quarterly newsletter.
"Volunteers of all ages worked on projects doing rehab in the Waldo Canyon, Springer, and Haymen burn scars; fuels mitigation; river restoration; and improving water quality."
All efforts, three legs, working with Mother Nature, and holding up the stool or table.