Some partnerships are made in heaven.
Then there are the others.
One of the more frustrating examples of the latter drags on at Mount Evans, between the U.S. Forest Service and some of its most devoted supporters. The Dos Chappell Nature Center was completed in 2003 but is not yet open. It’s been a 10-year saga with no end in sight, much to the despair of those who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the project and are eager to share knowledge about that wonderful mountain’s flora and fauna with visitors.
The Forest Service insisted a parking lot (costing $160,000, to be paid by the agency) had to be built first, but despite work on it this summer, it still won’t be completed in 2006. The superb exhibits for the center wait in the Denver Botanic Gardens’ basement.
How did this happen? In 1996, a committee of Botanic Gardens volunteers, Garden Club of Denver and the Forest Service began planning improvements to the M. Walter Pesman Trail at the Mount Goliath site beside the Mount Evans Historic and Scenic Byway. The trail was badly eroded and needed considerable work.
Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado made this its main project for 1998. Under the leadership of VOC executive director Delos “Dos” Chappell, the group began moving huge boulders, repairing the trail and adding to it, plus crafting a new, universally accessible loop through the bristlecones.
VOC also helped the Botanic Gardens build a magnificent rock garden, “the world’s highest alpine garden” designed by two foremost landscape architects from Europe, at the lower trailhead. An exhibit was installed in a temporary trailer, a color brochure created for 330 native wildflowers, and another for bristlecone pines, the oldest species on Earth.
A permanent nature center was planned. But tragedy struck, with Chappell’s death in February 1999. He was an inspirational leader, and his heart attack at 52 crushed the group’s momentum.
Soon after, the troops rallied and decided that the center would be built and honor Chappell. Volunteers from Botanic Gardens, the Garden Club and VOC started fund-raising. The Dos Chappell Nature Center cost $508,000, of which $347,000 was cash. Donors included the Scenic Byways program ($100,000 for information kiosk and restrooms, which the Forest Service doesn’t open); the Garden Club of Denver ($21,327); the Gates and Boettcher foundations; and numerous smaller donations. The Forest Service made grant matches of $136,000, and VOC gave $22,000 in cash and $161,000 in- kind donations in work on the site.
This is in addition to the $216,600 the Denver Botanic Gardens raised earlier for the landscaping of trails and rock garden, signs and exhibits.
At this point, the volunteers have lost patience with all the delays. “They have ‘analysis paralysis,”‘ laments one participant. “Nobody wants to make a decision.”
The nature center’s history is bumpy. The site was changed three times before construction began, yet it still had avalanche damage in 2003. At one point, the Clear Creek District ranger said the building could not be named for Chappell, even after that had been agreed upon. It was only when Kate Boland, VOC’s executive director, refused to release the funds that the original decision was accepted.
Rangers came to planning meetings unprepared or powerless to make decisions. Meetings were ignored and reset. At one meeting, a ranger questioned the volunteers’ commitment, after they already had invested 7 years and raised thousands of dollars for the project.
Now the Mount Evans road is closed for the season. “By the time the road opens next spring, I hope the center will, too,” said Daniel Lavoto, Clear Creek District Ranger.
Kate Boland was hopeful. “I’ll be delighted when the nature center is open and enjoyed by the public. It’s a beautiful building, the views are phenomenal, and the nature exhibits are just great. We just want the public to be able to enjoy them, and learn about the mountain.”
It is time the Forest Service offers this magnificent gift to the world.
Joanne Ditmer’s column on environmental and urban issues for The Post began in 1962 and now appears once a month.
