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History
The beginning of Wildlands Restoration Volunteers can be traced back to March 20, 1999, when the founder, Ed Self, organized about 20 volunteers to plant willows to improve wetland habitat around Heron Pond at Pella Crossing Open Space near Hygiene. From this humble beginning, a core group of committed volunteers steadily grew from a few dozen to several hundred by 2002. Throughout this time, our group didn’t even have a name!
In the fall of 2002, the founding board formally established a non-profit corporation, “Wildlands Restoration Volunteers” (WRV). Soon after, we officially became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.
With a fast growing volunteer community, and only one paid staff, Ed Self, WRV needed volunteer leaders! Volunteer project leaders, technical advisors, cooks, crew leaders, tool managers, and others are our most valuable resource. Many people want to volunteer, but without leaders, it would just be chaos! Our trained leaders plan and execute safe, fun, well-organized projects that produce high quality results.
In 2003, WRV began developing a leadership training program, training our first home grown crop of crew leaders. In 2004, we added trainings for project support cooks, and basic trainings for project leaders and technical advisors, which were expanded in 2005 and 2006. We added restoration and trail skill trainings in 2006, and a tool manager training in 2007. We have added additional trainings such as wilderness first aid, willow skills, project mangagment and faciliation since then.
By the spring of 2007, our community of volunteer leaders has grown to nearly 150 and by the spring of 2009 nearly 300.
Our growth in the early years averaged 50 to 80% per year. Naturally, it has begun to level off to a more modest pace of 10 to 20% growth each year.
All this growth requires more staff. Kimberly Kosmenko joined us as a part-time program coordinator in the summer of 2004, and worked as our Community Programs Director untill December 2007. She made major contributions to our leadership training and youth programs. Beth Andrews, joined WRV in summer 2006 as apart-time administrative assistant and contributed greatly to the behind-the-scenes office work. Diane Rieck has been WRV's loyal bookeeper since 2007 and manages all of our records. John Giordanengo, our Projects Director, joined WRV in the spring of 2007 and is now working hard to increase our efforts in a Fort Collins office. Angie Francis joined WRV in Dec 2007 and is our Community Programs Director and works to postively engage the community in our efforts. Mary Eldred joined our efforts in April of 2008 as the Volunteer Manager and is responsible for keeping the office running smoothly and meeting the needs of our volunteers. Over the years WRV has had various interns that have also supported WRV.
By the end of 2008, WRV volunteers had completed 180 projects, contributing over 125,900 volunteer hours, valued at over $2.1 million toward the care and restoration of public lands. In 2010 we celebrate our 10th anniversery!! In 2010 WRV is opening a sister office in Fort Collins to futher expand our efforts.
Wildlands Restoration Volunteers is always evolving as an organization, identifying new opportunities to engage the community in ecological restoration. Some new initiatives include site monitoring, and developing leadership mentor trainings. Throughout our growth process, though, we remain committed to the core ideas that were the foundation of our success: offering an excellent, educational experience for every volunteer; completing important, high-quality restoration work; and building a thriving community. Join us!
