All the Way Up.

As you’re probably aware, I’m a big fan of protecting Colorado’s open spaces. You may know Relish is involved with 1% for the Planet, but I think it’s also of interest that I’ve chosen to live deep in the forest of Colorado’s Front Range. It’s fair to say environmental stewardship is engrained in what I do. That’s why this episode of Relish This was so much fun. I got to chat with two people—Stephanie Weber and David Taft—who work with the San Juan Mountains Association . The organization was started in the Durango area, and since their inception, they’ve expanded their reach. Now they preserve and protect forests with a solid ambassador program, education program, and volunteer program. All of these initiatives help people who are enjoying the forests understand the importance of protecting these pristine locations. SJMA now impacts more than half of Colorado’s wilderness areas! This episode focused on helping SJMA hone their message and expand their reach and engagement with stakeholders. Through social media, email, and general community networking, we look at strategies and ways to answer the question, “How do you reinforce all the good you are doing?” This was a fun conversation with a group doing some real good for Colorado’s public lands and forests. I hope you enjoy the show. — Link: SJMA Action ask: Get involved in your own backyard to protect public lands. — Listen to the podcast here: Hone Your Message To Reinforce The Work You Do With Stephanie And David From SJMA This episode features two great people from San Juan Mountains Association . They are doing some great work touching over half of Colorado’s wilderness forest areas with their influence and benefit. They have this great organization down in the Durango area that started as a focus on the San Juan Mountains and the forest down there to help preserve and protect a lot of that area from use. They have a cool educational program, ambassador program, volunteers and donors. They are doing some fantastic stuff. We talked a lot about ways that they can help hone that message, show up more effectively to people who know them and expand their reach through social media and email. There are some good gold nuggets of information that we were able to unearth. This is a fantastic episode. I’m excited to share it with you and I hope you have a great time reading it. Have a good one. — Stephanie and David, how are you doing? We’re doing great. Thank you both so much for joining me on the show. I’m excited to learn a lot more about your organization and what you guys are doing there at San Juan Mountains Association . You’re both in the Durango area. Is that correct? We are, yes. Is San Juan Mountains Association headquartered in Durango? Our offices are based out of the public land center, which is the home base for the San Juan National Forest. At this point, we have staff spread from Monte Vista over to the furthest West and up to Montrose. We’re looking for a new staff person in the town of Norwood as part of the Norwood District for the Grand Mesa Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests. I was fortunate enough to do some work on Grizzly Peak Trailhead with the Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado , which is over in your zone by Lake City. It’s a gorgeous part of the state. It’s one of my favorite places to be. I grew up in Gunnison. I have been fortunate to spend a little bit of time in the San Juan’s down there. It’s an amazing country. I commend you for all the work that you’re doing to help preserve things. Tell us all a little bit more about what you do there at your organization and how you’re helping to protect those forest lands and public spaces. San Juan Mountains Association was born out of a community effort to be more involved in caring for public lands. A lot of that started out with the idea of conservation education and providing visitor information. A lot of the folks who are on SJMA staff are front desk folks in public land offices. We started with the San Juan National Forest here in Durango and we also have folks in Dolores and Pagosa Springs. We have been expanding our partnerships with other forests and with the BLM as well. Another component of that is with our conservation education. SJMA merged with Durango Nature Studies right before everything shut down due to COVID-19 in 2020. That strengthened both organizations’ environmental education efforts. We start young. We start with preschoolers and kindergarteners through elementary, middle school and high school, believing that when we are exposed to the natural world, we learn to understand it. From that understanding comes appreciation and from that appreciation comes the desire to protect it. That sums up a philosophy that carries through everything that we’re doing with San Juan Mountains Association. The area where we have grown is in some of the stewardship efforts and Dave, being the Conservation Director, can speak to that in much more detail. SJMA started their stewardship and field conservation programs through the volunteer program, primarily through the San Juan National Forest but also working with the BLM and the Canyon of the Ancients National Monument. That also expanded beyond San Juan to the Rio Grande over time. Our flagship volunteer program is our Volunteer Ranger Program, which started as our Wilderness Information Specialists, in which volunteers would suit up in a forest service uniform.