2018 GRANT APPLICATION PITKIN COUNTY HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (HHS) CITY OF ASPEN HHS ONLY AND PITKIN COUNTY COMMUNITY NON-PROFITS (CNP) Non-Eligible Organizations for County Funding: The Healthy Community Fund does not consider applications for funding in the following areas: capital projects, the Arts (e.g. theatre, art, and music programs), day care, one-time sports events or for grant-making foundations or organizations which distribute funds to recipients of their own selection. Agency Name: Wilderness Workshop Tax ID#: 74-1900412 Year 501.C.3 Status Obtained: 1967 Website: www.wildernessworkshop.org Email: [email protected] Executive Director: Sloan Shoemaker Address: PO Box 1442 City: Carbondale State: CO Zip Code: 81656 Contact Person: Rebecca Mirsky, Development Director Contact Person Email: [email protected] Contact Person Phone #: 970-963-3977 Agency/Program Description (check one): Health & Human Services* Community Non-Profit** Funds Requested for (check one): Annual Grant We are not accepting new Partnerships as 2019 is the HCF renewal year. Amount Requested: $20,000 Amount ReceiVed in 2017: $16,000 *Health and Human Services agencies are defined as programs addressing issues related to youth, family and senior well-being, physical health and substance abuse prevention. **Community Non-Profit organizations are defined as programs that enhance and enrich the quality of life in Pitkin County and complement basic health and human services offered through providing additional needed services and optimize efforts to improve and sustain the County’s natural resources. New Grant Requirement: Pitkin County is requiring agencies seeking HCF funding to create and maintain an updated profile in the Western Slope 2-1-1 database. Please take the time to create (or update) your profile and program descriptions by visiting www.wc211.org. City of Aspen Funding: Agencies may request City of Aspen Health and Human Services funding by completing this page. The request will be considered as part of the HCF Citizen Grant Review Process with City of Aspen staff participation. All City of Aspen Health and Humans Services Funding is on an annual basis ONLY. To apply, please answer the following questions: PLEASE NOTE: For City of Aspen Community Non-Profit (CNP) funding, please see the City Arts and CNP Application located at: http://www.aspenpitkin.com/departments/finance-city-of-aspen/grants Amount of the annual grant request to the City: $5,500 Purpose of request (Please review your text carefully, as responses are limited to a maximum of 1,000 characters, including spaces): To support the Wilderness Monitoring Program, the Habitat Resoration Program, and the Naturalist Nights speaker series. More details are given in our full City grant application. Please indicate the number of City residents who use the services provided by your program: All City residents – everyone benefits from a healthy backcountry. Please describe why the City should support your program (Please review your text carefully, as responses are limited to a maximum of 2,000 characters, including spaces): The programs for which we’re requesting funding in this application are unique, and are conducted in collaboration with other entities: • Our Wilderness Monitoring Program, operating in partnership with the Aspen-Sopris Ranger District since 1984, provides the only scientific baseline dataset on air and water pollutants – which are of particular concern for our area, since the natural gas boom now occurring in Garfield County is directly upwind. • Our Habitat Restoration Series Program, operating in partnership with the Forest Service and other valley non-profits each summer on 4-5 restoration projects in the valley. These projects accomplish two important goals: on the ground benefits to ecosystems and deepening the connection of valley residents to the surrounding public lands. • Our Naturalist Nights winter speaker series, co-hosted with ACES and Roaring Fork Audubon, offers a unique program of natural history presentations that has grown to be an important component of Aspen’s educational calendar. All new and annual Healthy Community Fund grantees please continue to complete this application. Should you have any questions, please contact: Lisa Yorker | Health & Human SerVices | (970) 920-5179 | [email protected] Part I: Community Goals Please indicate which ONE of the Community Goals best describes your grant’s primary focus: HHS Agencies (programs addressing issues related to youth, family, and senior well-being, physical health, mental health and substance abuse prevention): ☐ Family and Youth Well-Being: Promote the social, emotional and economic well-being of families and youth ☐ Physical Health: Promote the preventive, palliative and primary health needs of individuals and families ☐ Mental Health & Substance Abuse PreVention: Promote the psychological well-being of individuals, provide treatment and promote prevention of substance abuse ☐ The Well-Being of Seniors: Provide a variety of physical, social and educational activities CNP Agencies (programs that enhance and enrich the quality of life in Pitkin County, complement basic health and human services offered through providing additional needed services, and optimize efforts to improve and sustain the County's natural resources): ☐ Cultural, Recreational and Educational Treasurers: Promote and optimize quality of life for residents and workers of Pitkin County ☐ Environmental Quality: Enhance and sustain the natural resources in Pitkin County and the Roaring Fork Valley Please note that all information proVided in your grant application with become part of the public record. Part II: Proposal Narrative: 1) Please state your organization’s mission statement: The Wilderness Workshop’s mission is to protect and conserve the wilderness and natural resources of the Roaring Fork Watershed, the White River National Forest, and adjacent public lands. 2) What community need does your program fill? What community benefit are you providing? (Please review your text carefully, as responses are limited to a maximum of 1,600 characters, including spaces): The Wilderness Workshop provides environmental protection services to the people of Pitkin County. We are the conservation watchdog of the public lands of the Roaring Fork Valley and the Central Mountains. Simply, we keep surrounding wildlands wild, ecologically important areas "as is" - natural, unspoiled, undeveloped - and protect our environment from the impacts of development elsewhere. The existing wilderness areas that we all cherish are protected in perpetuity from extractive uses and other forms of development. However, certain high-use areas are in danger of being “loved to death”; the Wilderness Monitoring Program provides the solid data on which to base management decisions to ensure the sustainable use of the wilderness that forms an important engine of our valley’s prosperity and a vital component of our quality of life. Additionally, our local wilderness areas are vulnerable to air and water pollution from upwind sources and invasive weeds brought in from the outside. WW's Oil & Gas Defense Program intervenes through bureaucratic processes, legislative advocacy, grassroots organizing and communications – typically in partnership with other local, regional and national groups – to prevent drilling in ecologically sensitive areas and to minimize the impacts where development occurs. This of course has become a critical community need, as the Thompson Divide in western Pitkin County faces the threat of oil and gas development. Our request of $20,000 is intended to be split between Wilderness Monitoring ($10000) and Oil & Gas Defense ($10000). 3) What programs or serVices will this money support (who, when, where and how)? (Please review your text carefully, as responses are limited to a maximum of 2,000 characters, including spaces): This grant request is to support two service delivery goals. (See appendix for details) 1. Collect baseline data to provide an early-warning system of adverse impacts to the environment and population of Pitkin County and the wider region. • Air quality monitoring - WW staff collects filters from the monitoring station atop Aspen Mountain and Sunlight Peak and ship them to the Crocker Nuclear Lab at UC Davis for processing and analysis. • Water monitoring - Water samples are collected from 16 sensitive alpine wilderness lakes across the WRNF and shipped to a USFS lab to test for pollutants. • Invasive weed monitoring - WW id's and maps noxious weeds in the high-elevation wilderness lands to assist the USFS eradications efforts, preventing weed spread onto adjacent private lands in Pitco. • Monitoring of Wilderness Overuse Management – WW will be partnering with the Aspen Sopris Ranger District to develop and implement a monitoring regime testing the efficacy of new management strategies. 2. Minimize the impacts of oil & gas development to Pitkin County and the region While we aren’t categorically opposed to natural gas drilling. We think it doesn’t belong everywhere and, where it’s done, it must be done right. WW will focus on the following main objectives in 2017-2018. (Please note that this is sensitive strategic information and we ask you to keep it in confidence.) • Minimize further oil and gas development on ecologically important public lands. • Oppose Thompson Divide drilling plans. We want to reassure you that we are not asking HCF to fund any work involving actual litigation