Andrew Atencia (he/him)This week, we are excited to feature a guest post by Andrew Atencia, a member of Southwest Conservation Corps out of their Los Valles office in Salida, Colorado! At the time of writing, Andrew is a member of crew 245, an adult crew that has traveled and worked around Southern Colorado for the duration of their service term. Big thanks to Andrew for sharing his story with us!
Howdy folks, it’s Andrew Atencia (he/him) checking in! I am 20 years old hailing from Phoenix, Arizona. This is my first season working on a conservation corps, and so far, I’m loving every moment! From working with my hands in nature to simply being in the middle of it. I am already looking forward to working another season with the Southwest Conservation Corps (SCC) and potentially leading a crew. This work has humbled me, to say the least, with the many opportunities that it holds to teach leadership, land stewardship, personal development and life skills applicable beyond the conservation world.
My identity stems mainly from my drive to explore the world, understand the people that live in it, work to preserve wild places and document it through different mediums: photography, written word and film. Fully immersing myself in the world to understand a place and a people, to me, is best done by traveling on two wheels. The bicycle is the rawest form of encountering the changing world around us – you have no shelter from the weather or surroundings. You’re constantly ‘in it’. If you encounter mechanical issues, you ought to be self-sustaining to fix said issues and carry on. There is no motor to save you when the going gets tough – nothing about riding a bike is easy and that’s why I’m so drawn to it. Something about seeing the world dynamically change before you, combined with the personalities that you meet along the way, has shaped the way I interact and learn from the human experience we all share. The imposed title of “self-contained life exploratory vehicle” gets to the root of who I am: an observer of the world. Seeing, listening and understanding are descriptors that I most associate with myself currently.
I joined Southwest Conservation Corps (SCC) Los Valles because I wanted to be a part of a conservation agency that was active in making a change in the way we see the outdoors. SCC encompasses work in the outdoors as a holistic experience, rather than simply a job one clocks in and out of. Their creation of a Leaders of Color crew to expose and educate BIPOC individuals like me to conservation work and outdoor experiences is a physical manifestation of change that is needed to begin to start making the outdoors inclusive to all. Additionally, I wanted to learn more about Colorado, the diverse landscapes it has to offer and the history behind this land.
Aside from being on the bike, I am an avid photographer (follow me on Instagram—@aten.xiaz), appreciator of a mean banana bread recipe, lover of the golden hour sunset, can stare at topographic maps for days planning the next great expedition, experienced motorcycle rider and saltwater fisherman.
Self-Contained
Life Exploratory Vehicle
Our Task: Clear corridor, clean tread, and reinforce rock drains on 4 miles of sub-alpine trail in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness of Southern Colorado. Dubbed the Medano Lake Trail for its proximity to Medano Lake, the trail is a foot-accessible path which leads the hiker deep into the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness within in the Great Sand Dunes National Preserve.
Driving there was a trip in itself.
We navigated 10 or so miles of loose 4×4 roads as we ascended to 9600’. The unmaintained road required careful tire placement, well-treaded tires, four wheel drive and locked hubs. Wash-outs and loose dirt as a result of a long winter consistently showed each mile we climbed. One wrong turn, a “scenic” detour later, and we made it to camp unscathed – save for a ripped trailer wiring harness.
The Medano Lake Trail grants visitors access to sub-alpine forest, traversing grand Aspen stacks and roaring Medano Creek. Navigating the trail starts off easily with defined tread, but as you ascend closer to tree line, snowpack can make navigation impossible without an eye for the trail. At the terminus, Medano Lake sits beautifully at the base of Mount Herald (elevation 13,345’), surrounded by rugged mountain peaks and delicate flora. You can’t help but to gasp and be silent – the insignificance of man rears itself through the towering majesty and tranquil peace that nature untouched by man brings.
Our crew started at the top of the trail—at Medano Lake, four miles up—and worked downward past knee-deep snow fields and steep gullies. Crosscut saws were deployed to buck three feet diameter pine logs, while axes were utilized to buck smaller aspens out and away from the tread. We also worked to redefine the tread of the trail where the long winter had taken its toll, leaving only slivers of a rutted-out path to follow. Drains were cleared and reinforced with rock to ensure longevity after strong rainstorms. The sun shone in the morning and clouds set in by noon. Every day at around 2PM, snow or rain would douse both us and the parched landscape. The last full day of work even showed us thick, moody fog reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest. At the end of each workday, tools were cached at the last spot worked on for the day, then reclaimed in the morning. This allowed for energy preservation—hiking up to the job site was laborious in itself. As we hiked in to our worksite each day, we passed through portions of the trail we had not yet worked on, which was an added bonus and allowed us to envision the tasks to come.
There are several problems facing this part of the Wilderness. Unfortunately, ‘beetle kill’ has ravaged the area, leaving many dead and dying trees. Spruce beetles have killed roughly 1.9 million acres of trees since 2000, impacting about 41% of the state’s spruce and fir forests. It isn’t uncommon to see mighty conifers, dead and leafless, just off of the trail waiting to fall from wind. Most trees on the trail have fallen as a result of this, requiring near-constant maintenance of the trail to make it passable. Our crew gained experience using crosscut saws and ‘bucking’ (the process of cutting a felled and de-limbed tree into logs) with axes in order to clear these fallen trees.
Traversing during high wind days around the south Sangres is ill-advised, because of the danger of unstable trees falling. Snowpack is rapidly decreasing due to climate change and a constant warming trend.
Representatives from several government agencies came around while we worked on trail. Colorado Parks and Wildlife fish surveyors carrying pack rafts, nets, paddles, pH testers and measuring apparatuses—all on top of camping gear—hiked past us to track the fish population and their habitat. Turns out, there’s some 12-to-14-inch trout up there weighing around 10 pounds! Our National Parks Service project partner, Jessica, came up to check on our progress and share her life experience leading up to working in the outdoors. Her story reflected mine and outlined an appealing pathway to someone who is undecided about continuing college. As I advance down this path and find my life career—hopefully working outside with the land—I will attribute my decision to her sharing her story.
It’s places like this that make me fall more in love with this state and the work that we do. That’s what draws folks from all over the country to Southwest Conservation Corps: working on trail in beautiful places with others that share the same passion. I am completely in awe with the places this job has taken me and I cannot wait to see what else it has in store.
