Beyond the Trail

Alex Schupp • May 2, 2019

Beyond the Trail

Summit County local, Tom Koehler, has helped care for Colorado’s outdoors for years as a volunteer with outdoor stewardship organizations including Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) and many others. Now, he has founded Sustainable Hiker to inspire others to care for the health and sustainability of water and forests in the Blue River Watershed and beyond.

As the snow begins to melt in the high country, I anxiously look forward to another season as a proud steward of our land and water through trail and eco-restoration projects. As volunteers, we all give what we can on the ground to restore our heavily used land and over tapped waters.

Over the last few years, my appreciation for our natural resources was heightened while engaged on many volunteer projects with VOC, Wildlands Restoration Volunteers (WRV), Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI), and Friends of the Dillon Ranger District (FDRD).

We worked passionately to rejuvenate our natural assets, and through these magnificent – and at times unrecognized – efforts, satisfaction and an even deeper passion for the landscape with its beauty and ecological power rose within me.

Recognizing the value in the trail system for recreation and health, and our most treasured riparian zones for our water and wildlife, I contemplated if there was anything else that I, or any of us, could be doing beyond the trail and decided emphatically that we can.

I began to acquaint myself with legislation that promotes funding and protections for the public land we take care of on the ground as well as clean water bills that foster healthy rivers and streams, the ones that we help on streambank restoration projects.

The pollution and emissions that adversely affects the air- and water-filtering properties inherent in our soil and plants began to resonate, so I began to contribute more time to helping the High Country Conservation Center here in Summit County. Their organization leads the efforts in the county for businesses and individuals to become more energy and water efficient, which in turn helps our forests and rivers.

As the dots between the environment all around us and the work we do with the land and water began to connect with me, I wondered what else I could explore in this journey to heal and rejuvenate our eco-system.

Sustainable Hiker was born out of this journey. Over time, I aim to bring awareness to all our work that helps the land and water we love and need, from stewardship to advocacy for our natural resources and environmental conservation.

Let’s all continue to seek ways to support the outdoors beyond the vastly important trail and eco-system work we do as volunteers. If you would like to explore other paths, please let me know. As more of us go beyond the trail and learn about other levers we can pull to affect positive change, the same will happen for stewardship.

Sincerely,

Tom Koehler

Sustainable Hiker

< Older Post

Newer Post >

Grossman Scholar Spotlight: Kace Vazquez del Mercado

July 10, 2025

Grossman Scholar Kace reflects on their path in conservation biology and how VOC’s scholarship is helping them pursue hands-on research and fieldwork at CSU.

Dos Chappell Bathhouse in Denver's Washington Park

Turning the Page: A New Chapter for VOC After 30 Years at Dos Chappell Bathhouse

June 26, 2025

After three meaningful decades, Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) will be saying goodbye to our longtime home at the Dos Chappell Bathhouse in Denver's beloved Washington Park. In the early 1990s, VOC signed a 30-year lease with the City of Denver to transform the historic bathhouse in Washington Park into a headquarters that could support our growing mission. With generous support from our community, we launched a capital campaign and raised $700,000 to complete the initial renovations, which were finalized in 1996. Altogether, including the original renovations, VOC has invested more than $1 million in improvements and ongoing maintenance, creating a space that is enjoyed by our staff, volunteers, and the broader Washington Park community. In 2000, the building was renamed in honor of Dos Chappell, VOC’s former Executive Director (1988–1999), whose vision and leadership left a lasting legacy on our organization and Colorado’s outdoor stewardship movement. This space has been more than just an office—it’s been a gathering place, a launchpad for thousands of volunteers, and a visible symbol of our commitment to caring for Colorado.