Who:
Steve Welter
Rocky Mountain Chapter Chair
Where:
Boulder, CO
One of the great assets of living in Boulder Colorado is the access that residents have to local open space trails. I like to set up and lead half-day educational outings that give our outdoor-minded citizens a chance to learn a bit about their natural surroundings. I find that rather than setting aside an entire weekend day in order to visit a wilderness lake or climb one of the lofty peaks in Rocky Mountain Park, many folks enjoy taking a morning hike in our local foothills and then using the rest of the day to accomplish the many other tasks that take up our busy lives.
On August 6, eighteen people showed up for an Indian Peaks Group outing with our guest Dr. Peter Birkeland, a retired geology professor from the University of Colorado. We learned about large floods and debris flows that periodically issue from the local steep mountain canyons and saw house-sized boulders that had been carried down by one particularly large event that occurred about 250,000 years ago. The group was thoroughly engaged and our discussion included such topics as landscape evolution, climate change, natural hazards, and floodplain management. Dr. Birkeland and his wife Sue have been Sierra Club members for 43 years.
