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Chaffee Rec Adopters

A Program of Chaffee County & GARNA

Program Overview

Stewarding Our Public Lands

Chaffee County is over 80% public lands that sees high visitation rates. The Chaffee Rec Adopter program is a land stewardship volunteer program funded by Chaffee County through the Lodging Tax and implemented by GARNA. We work collaboratively with the USFS, BLM, and CPW to take care of our public lands through implementing dispersed campsite cleanups, fencing installations and removals, sign installation and other projects.

Register for a Chaffee Rec Adopter Workday

 Sign up for our monthly public lands volunteer opportunities email list :

Name:
Email:
Metal campfire ring installation at Burmac (2024)
Ash and trash removal along CR 365 (2025)
Barbed wire fencing removal in Fourmile (2024)
Post and cable fencing installation in Droney Gulch (2025)

Join Smoke Patrol

Chaffee Rec Adopters patrol public lands for unattended smoking campfires and extinguish them before they become wildfires. Volunteers needed!

Sign Up for the brown's creek smoke patrol
Sign Up for the Shavano Smoke Patrol
Sign up for the game trail smoke Patrol by email
Coming soon- Sign up for the Fourmile Smoke Patrol
CMC RIMS App

Report Issues On Public Lands with the CMC RIMS App

You can report issues you see on public lands like campsite maintenance needs, downed trees on trails, and vandalism using Colorado Mountain Club's Recreation Impact Monitoring System (RIMS). Your reports help overstretched land managers and the Chaffee Rec Adopters identify and address these problems.

Get Started with RIMS:

  1.  Download the app. Search CMC RIMS in the Google Play or Apple App Store
  2.  Take the training. Click here to watch a training video, and then click here to take a short quiz. When you pass the quiz, you will gain access to all the reporting functions in the app within 48 hours.
  3.  Make reports using CMC RIMS!
 
Click here for detailed instructions for downloading and using CMC RIMS. Email rose@garna.org with questions.

program history

Recreation in Balance Initiative

The Recreation in Balance initiative was born from a desire to protect Chaffee County’s recreation opportunities amidst a growing population. The program is one of the prongs of the Chaffee Common Ground effort, and seeks to establish baselines for outdoor recreation visitor impacts, and then find solutions to mitigate those impacts while supporting our tourism based economy. Envision Chaffee County started in 2016 when a group of citizens came together to discuss the future of Chaffee County. In 2017, the County signed the initiative as an official proclamation, and the group created the Envision Community Action Plan. GARNA helped to develop the initiative as a Core Team member. In 2025, funded through Common Grounds and Chaffee County, GARNA continues the work of caring for our public lands through volunteer stewardship events.

Chaffee County Outdoor Recreation Management Plan

In 2021, the Chaffee Rec Plan was released by the Rec in Balance task force to address the growth of recreation in Chaffee County. Some of the top objectives including sustainable camping, volunteer impact, infrastructure and protecting wildlife. GARNA supports these efforts through programs such as Porta-Potties on Public Lands, Boreal Toad Monitoring and the Chaffee Rec Adopters program. See The Plan →

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