ACES Annual Report 2022

ANNUAL REPORT 2022

About ACES

Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES) is a non-profit environmental science education organization with three locations in the Roaring Fork Valley: Hallam Lake, Rock Bottom Ranch, and the Catto Center at Toklat.

Since 1968, ACES has inspired a life-long commitment to the earth by providing innovative and immersive programming for all ages. Our programs focus on ecological literacy, regenerative agriculture, forest and ecosystem health, land restoration, and environmental leadership.

ACES contributes to a national agenda for increased environmental awareness. With support from 70 partner organizations, our programs reach over 140,000 individuals every year. We teach daily in local schools, lead camps in the summer, and host adult classes. We share the beauty and ecology of our area with locals and visitors through naturalist-led hikes and field programs for all ages. We also engage our community by hosting public lectures and events. ACES collaborates with land trusts, public agencies, and other nonprofits to achieve our mission.

In the next 50 years, ACES seeks to cultivate a community of environmental stewards so that children, parents, consumers, decision-makers, and leaders can make informed decisions in an increasingly complex world.

Table of Contents

Letter from the CEO Our Sites School Programs Creating Connections with Place Why Do You Farm?

Regenerative Agriculture What Does a Naturalist Do? Naturalist Program Forest & Climate Program

Experiencing the Evolving Landscape of Hallam Lake Community Programs

3 4 6 7 8 9 10 12 13 14 16 17 18 20 22 23 24

Words Shape Our World

from the CEO

Since 1990, the American Dialect Society has designated its annual Word of the Year. In 2021, it was “insurrection.” In 2020, it was…you guessed it: “COVID.” “Fake news” topped the list in 2017. There has yet to be an environmental word to top the list, though “climate anxiety” recently made honorable mention.

In the drive to protect our natural environment, words have the power to shape and reflect where our world is headed. In the 1970s, few had heard the term “hole in the ozone layer.” The same applies to “biodiversity,” popularized in 1980 by friends of ACES, the late Thomas Lovejoy and E. O. Wilson. However, mainstream understanding of such terms historically has been a prerequisite for gaining the political and cultural will to take significant action. For example, recent Words of the Year include “my pronouns” and “hashtag me too.”

Fast-forward to today. It’s been decades now, and the general population is still grappling with understanding the common term “climate change.” Even though we clearly understand the dire implications, we still struggle for the political will to take enough action to solve it. To make more progress, we must even learn other climate-related terms like afforestation (planting trees), carbon sequestration (storing carbon), and enteric fermentation (belching cows).

Today’s mainstream environmental vernacular that is critical for us all to understand includes: the plastisphere (the ocean layer so polluted with plastic it created its own microbial layer), the Anthropocene (our human dominated epoch in time), pyrocumulonimbus clouds (weather systems created by mega-fires), and regenerative agriculture (food production that actually improves soil), just to name a few!

For 53 years, ACES has worked to introduce the latest environmental science concepts (words) to our community, the region, and even the country. We are providing environmental education full time in four regional schools from Aspen to Rifle, growing the education movement to more under-resourced populations and implementing new state science standards. We are transforming the way people think about food systems and farming, making Rock Bottom Ranch a national center on how to grow food that doesn’t deplete our soils, pollute rivers, or emit carbon. We are restoring ecosystems through on-the-ground restoration projects. And more than anything, we are connecting people to nature, helping shape and promote the next generation of “eco-vernacular.”

Our north star is aimed at educating for environmental responsibility and ecological literacy.

We expanded experiential education field program locations to four new sites in western Garfield County to get more youths outside and off screens while continuing to provide field programs to 24 regional schools.

Our on-mountain Naturalist Guided Tours had a record number of participants this year, many tours introducing guests to dendrochronology and natural history.

This past fall, we broke ground on the renovation of ACES’ Catto Center at Toklat. Slated for completion in May of 2023, this new one-of-a-kind wilderness retreat center will bring people together to connect with nature, aka biophilia.

A short walk from the Catto Center is ACES’ new 10-acre Riverdance property, a children’s outdoor education hub. Through place-based, experiential programs, Riverdance will connect youths from diverse backgrounds with the natural world.

ACES’ new farmer training program is in full swing in its second year of bringing future farmers from around the country to learn how to grow food using regenerative techniques that restore — not degrade — the soil.

This spring, ACES and its partners, the City of Aspen, Pitkin County, Aspen Fire District, and the White River National Forest conducted another prescribed burn in the Hunter Creek area, improving wildlife habitat while decreasing wildfire fuels.

We completed the habitat restoration of Hallam Lake, creating a more diverse aquatic ecosystem and increasing emergent wetland species to enhance the rich ecology of the preserve so that it continues to support the hundreds of living species that call it home. The lake’s leaky levee was also repaired, ensuring that Hallam Lake remains a lake for decades to come.

In this report, we share our progress this past year and how we are working to help people understand the words that shape our environment—in hopes of improving it.

While progress at ACES is gratifying, I look forward to the day when the Word of the Year is “regenerative” or “carbon free,” or better yet… “peace”!

Chris Lane Chief Executive Officer

Letter

Our Sites Rock Bottom Ranch

Hallam Lake, a 25-acre nature preserve and environmental learning center, is the heart and hub of ACES programming in the Aspen community. It is where a variety of people — children and adults, residents and visitors — come to develop and satisfy a curiosity and connection to the natural world. It is a place for individuals and groups to visit alone or join with program staff and others in pursuit of our mission.

At Hallam Lake, ACES focuses on environmental education for all ages in spaces that represent the natural communities adjacent to Aspen’s urban center. It has space for visitors to observe, learn, celebrate and contemplate the balance and interaction of natural communities and humankind’s role within them.

Hallam Lake is the “home base” for various integrated program offerings, by us and others, including School Programs, Naturalist Programs, Forest and Climate Programs, and administration. It houses our shared organizational expertise in the natural history and ecology of the Aspen area, educational theory and methods, forestry, climate, wildfire study, and wildlife care and rehabilitation.

To learn more about the recent restoration work at Hallam Lake, check out “Experiencing the Evolving Landscape of Hallam Lake” on page 14-15.

Rock Bottom Ranch is a 113-acre regenerative agriculture center which includes 40 acres managed for agriculture and education and 73 acres maintained for wildlife conservation.

At the ranch, we aim to change the way people think about food systems and agriculture, growing food that doesn’t deplete soils, pollute rivers, or emit carbon. We focus on the natural world — its connection to our food systems and why that connection matters. We create models of replicable, regenerative farming practices to share with our community through educational outreach programs up and down the Roaring Fork Valley.

To learn more about our work at Rock Bottom Ranch, check out our Regenerative Agriculture feature on pages 8-9.

The Catto Center at Toklat

The Catto Center at Toklat, often compared to Thoreau’s Walden Pond, Leopold’s Shack, or the Murie Ranch, was built by renowned environmentalist, Stuart Mace, and his wife Isabel in 1948 as a wilderness lodge and family home. In 2004, with the help of long-time ACES supporters Jessica Hobby Catto and her husband Henry, ACES bought Toklat to preserve Stuart’s legacy.

Today, it is a one-of-a-kind wilderness retreat center where visitors experience inspiring dialogue, reflect on nature, and motivate for environmental protection. Located near the headwaters of Castle Creek in a dramatic landscape, the Catto Center serves as a gathering place for cultural and ecological discourse for visitors from the region and also from around the world. It is also a place for environmental educational classes for all ages, retreats, community gatherings (often still around the campfire), hosting artists (or scientists) in residence, and naturalist-led excursions into the forest.

After more than 70 years of use, the Catto Center was in dire need of renovation. With the help of Michael Fuller Architects, Louthis Custom Builders, Stan Clauson Associates, and numerous others in our community, ACES broke ground on the renovation of the Catto Center in the fall of 2021. Plans include preserving historic elements of the building in combination with new and improved meeting spaces, entrance, employee housing, kitchen, bathrooms, outdoor spaces, caretaker unit, artist/scientist in residence cabin, and more, all powered on site by solar and micro-hydro-powered renewable energy.

The facility should reopen in the spring of 2023, ready for the next 70 years of connecting people to nature.

Introducing Riverdance

Nestled against an aspen-forested hillside just a short walk from the Catto Center at Toklat is ACES’ new 10-acre Riverdance property, an outdoor education hub. Surrounded by National Forest, the goal of this property is to provide inspiration and education to all who experience its beauty. The property overlooks a riparian area of Castle Creek that includes shrub and wildflower meadows, aspen and spruce forests, game trails, beaver ponds and a natural spring.

An understanding of natural systems and our role within them is necessary to make informed decisions that affect the future of the planet. With this in mind, Riverdance, with limited infrastructure in the process of being constructed, will connect youths from diverse backgrounds with the natural world so they can develop a knowledge of and appreciation for protecting nature.

Renovating the Catto Center at Toklat, Fall 2021

5 Stats:

• ACES’ 15-person Education Team provides full-time environmental education in four (4) public schools: Aspen, Basalt, Carbondale, and New Castle.

• ACES provides inspiring outdoor field science programs for more than 2,000 PreK-12 th grade students from Aspen to Rifle.

• ACES leads in-classroom and field-based programs for 35+ schools and youth organizations.

• 95% of schools that participate in ACES’ field programs receive a full or partial scholarship.

• 1,566 students receive weekly environmental education in the classroom.

About Our School Programs

ACES Ed provides place-based educational experiences for students and teachers that inspire a curiosity about, connection to, and responsibility for the environment. Our standards-aligned, integrated classroom and field programs offer students opportunities to ask questions and investigate the natural world. In these programs, kids explore local phenomena, develop an interest in science, and learn how to care for our natural resources.

Since 1975, ACES Ed has partnered with local schools to provide a broad spectrum of environmental education. In the 2021-2022 school year, ACES Educators taught daily in our four partner schools— Aspen Elementary, Basalt Elementary, Crystal

River Elementary and Kathryn Senor Elementary. Each grade level in ACES’ partner schools also received two field programs that applied what the students were learning in the ACES classroom to our local places. ACES expanded field program locations this year to include sites closer to schools in the Garfield Re-2 School District. We offered new programs at Rifle Falls State Park, Rifle Gap State Park, East Elk Creek and Sunlight Mountain.

We offered tomorrow’s Voices, ACES’ course for Roaring Fork Valley high school students, in the spring semester this year. In this college-level course, students explored and discussed timely and relevant social justice issues while discovering the power of their own civic voices.

Creating Connections with Place: Snowpack Observations at Sunlight Mountain

by Emily Williams, Field Programs Coordinator

I always look forward to the moment my group of students takes their first step onto the trail. Today we are learning about snow science — how our snowpack changes through time and space. I give the group a question to talk about as we set off on our snowshoe adventure: “How is our snowpack changing today?”

We have students from Riverside Middle School in New Castle on our field program at Sunlight Mountain Resort outside of Glenwood Springs. There have been many steps to get to this moment: emails sent, buses scheduled, educators booked, materials moved, gear organized, reminders received, lunches packed, water filled, and students transported. Students step off the bus into the hubbub of a large group introduction and strap on snowshoes before heading up the trail.

As we walk, I turn to talk to the student next to me. We chat a little about the weather (sunny) and how the snow is changing (probably melting a little) before she says to me with a smile, “It’s so cool that you, ACES, are here!” The comment sparks my curiosity, and I ask her how she has been involved with ACES in the past. She tells me that she went to Crystal River Elementary School (one of our partner schools since 2010) and remembers visiting the animals at Rock Bottom Ranch and the birds of prey at Hallam Lake. She even rattles off the names of some of her previous ACES educators! I share with her that I’m thrilled to be here at Sunlight, too, and that one of our goals for the ACES Education team is to offer more field programs in more locations, especially in western Garfield County.

We find a spot to pull off the trail and dig a snowpit to investigate the layers in the snow. I give my students our next question for the day: “How has our snowpack changed over the winter?” Their challenge is to dig all the way to the ground and see what they can discover about how the winter has created and affected the layers in the snow. Over the past year, ACES’ education department has expanded field program offerings to include three new sites: East Elk Creek, Sunlight Mountain Resort, and Rifle Falls State Park. In my new role as the Field Programs Coordinator, I’ve been building on the work of previous educators to develop field programs at sites closer to schools in the Garfield Re-2 School District. With support from our donors, including Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO), we have both adapted field programs from other locations within the Roaring Fork Valley and created new field programs that highlight the geology and ecology of these places.

Our field programs integrate with our classroom curriculum to offer the opportunity to spend more time exploring our local phenomena. While students investigate why snowshoe hares and cottontail rabbits live in different places, they also get to go into the field where they can find snowshoe hare tracks and experience why the mountain environment is a hard place for animals to survive.

After observing the layers in our snow pit, we turn to our final question for the day: “How will our snowpack change between now and July?” I pull out a snow saw, and we collect a wedge of snow. We weigh the snow and measure the snow water equivalent. As we talk about where this snow will travel between now and July, I feel so fortunate to have these experiences building connections with students, teachers, and our broader community.

Why Do You Farm?

Introduction by Mariah Foley, Agriculture Manager

“Why do you farm?” It's a question asked of us constantly. By parents and extended family, college advisors and college buddies, strangers met at parties and on every first date. We each have a spectrum of answers, all true. “I farm because I love to eat.” “An interest in environmental conservation and biology led me to thinking about food systems.” “Growing food cares for people and the land.”

But we all have reasons that cut a little closer to the bone, deeply connect to our identities and histories, are floaty and harder to fit into short sound bites. Many of them come down to this: This work creates a refuge, from societal pressures, from our anxieties, from our disconnection. The routine nature of farming makes it possible to have larger deeper conversations during the work day. These conversations happen in a bubble amongst the RBR staff — and we were excited to have an opportunity to share some of the things we talk about while we farm. Here are some answers to the question, “What refuge do you find in farming?”

Oliver Simmering Livestock Apprentice

Farming reflects life in the world and so many bigger systems. Each day the work provides and requires a spectrum of emotions, and I am forced to reckon with life and death while also being given gifts and tools to cope with it all. Farming allows me to simply be a person — to be seen for exactly what I am — and subverts boxes and expectations of other areas of life.

Mary Kate Wilcox Livestock Apprentice

Farming to me is both a refuge for body and mind. It is the only place or occupation I have ever found where I can truly appreciate my body. Here it doesn’t matter how I look or what size I am. What matters is getting the job done, and this body does that everyday. The refuge of farming goes beyond physical work. Being outside everyday with people of such diverse backgrounds, yet similar passions, using all of our collective mental strengths to solve problems, is a glorious contrast and balm to the society we all came from.

Jess Burroughs Vegetable Apprentice

Drifting through my early twenties, trying to find where meaning fit into my life, I found myself struggling with increasing disconnection and an untethering of self. After my first year farming, I started to dream of a more grounded future for myself and to imagine a community that could come together to heal many of the wounds we all share. In farming I can come back to restoring health, spirit, and community.

Masha Brumer Vegetable Apprentice

Farming gives me refuge from the increasing disconnect between Nature and Humans. Farming has empowered me through an understanding of the seasonal and cyclical nature of plants, soil, and ultimately, ourselves. This has been key in understanding human health and rebuilding my own. We are extensions of the earth, yet we question the ever-increasing incidence of illness resulting from attempting to exist independent of nature. Such a fallacy reveals a tragic arrogance — which farming has helped me to slowly overcome.

“Growing food people and the

Ariel Rittenhouse Vegetable Lead

Everyone has to eat, and finding systems that are more attuned to natural processes brings a sense of longevity and importance to my work. Farming provides refuge by working my physical body and mind, keeping me aligned with the seasons, and providing an inclusive and supportive community.

Agriculture Stats:

• 2,042 animals on the farm.

• 6,173 food transactions (sales).

• 6,150 + hours of hands-on work experience and education for beginning farmers.

• 2,173 bunches of radishes harvested.

About Regenerative Agriculture at Rock Bottom Ranch

At Rock Bottom Ranch, ACES develops models for replicable, regenerative agriculture to restore soil biodiversity and positively affect our climate. We educate farmers and eaters alike about the link between land stewardship and food production.

Our vegetable and livestock production systems are designed to mimic nature and work with natural cycles. Holistic livestock management is critical to the process of nutrient-cycling and carbon sequestration. We raise sheep, cattle, laying hens, broiler chickens, and rabbits — all with a focus on animal welfare and pasture health.

Low-till vegetable production minimizes soil disturbance to preserve soil structure. This allows for intensive spacing between rows, maximizing the land’s productivity. Our passively heated greenhouses allow us to produce year-round without the need for any fossil fuels or supplemental heat.

We educate beginning farmers through the Farmer Training Program, made up of seven-and-a-half-month Agriculture Apprentice positions and two-and-a-halfmonth Agriculture Steward positions.

During the school year, we welcome classes from neighboring schools to learn about regenerative agriculture in our outdoor classrooms. Community programs, events, and farmers markets enable us to connect with our local community.

“…Environmental conservation and biology led me to thinking about food systems.”

food cares for the land.”

What Does a Naturalist Do?

by Sam Blair, ACES Naturalist, Summer 2021-Winter 2022

I left Aspen in mid-April, as the snowpack was starting to melt out of the high country of the Elk and Sawatch mountains. I drove down Highway 82 the same way I had driven up at the beginning of last summer, saying goodbye (for now) to a place that had become, in just ten months of work as a naturalist at the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, my home. As I drove, I was thinking loosely of a question I often encountered in my work at ACES: What, exactly, does a naturalist do?

When I first walked through the door of the ACES nature preserve at Hallam Lake, on a Sunday afternoon in early June, I wasn’t so sure myself. I didn’t yet know the name of the narrow-leafed cottonwoods that line the ACES driveway, or the feel of the stirring wind that precedes an afternoon thunderstorm in mid-July, or the sound of an American Dipper burbling to himself in the cold of a still September morning.

The first thing I did when I got to Aspen — before I even set foot in my apartment or unpacked my car — was walk out onto the preserve, for just a few minutes, with ACES’ Director of Naturalist Programs, Jim Kravitz.

Looking back, I recognize that the seed of an answer — or really, many answers — was there already. I don’t know how to say it in a single sentence. But I hope that, in the telling of a story, the answers that matter most might rise to the top. —

As we wandered from the nature center to the lake along a narrow, spruce-shaded path, talking perhaps about beavers or pondweed, Jim stopped what he was saying midsentence to point out a small, pale plant growing in the duff beside the trail. It was about five inches tall, purple-stemmed, and almost translucent, with miniscule maroon flowers and no visible leaves. Upon closer examination — a naturalist phrase which means “I got down on all fours and crawled up until my nose was touching it” — I could see that the plant’s flowers were actually white with finely traced, deep red stripes extending from the base to the tip of each petal. This was a striped coralroot orchid, Jim told me, a plant that lives by stealing sugars from other plants. Its pale, almost ghostly color suggests its lifestyle: lacking greenpigmented chlorophyll, it cannot make its own energy from the sun.

A naturalist finds beauty.

—

Striped coralroot orchid, along with many similarly unusual and unassuming plants, turns out to have a fascinating history of being misunderstood, overlooked, or deliberately ignored by the scientific community. Just ten years ago, most botanists called these plants “saprophytes,” and thought (when they thought about them at all) they survived by eating dead and decaying organic matter. I met one such plant, the small, colorless ghost pipe, Monotropa uniflora, on childhood walks with my uncle in the Massachusetts woods. He introduced it to me as a saprophyte, and for years afterward, I imagined the supine body of a dead mouse curled, as if sleeping, beneath each translucent ghost pipe I encountered.

Now, plant biologists recognize that “saprophytic” plants are actually incapable of breaking down and eating woody structures like lignin and cellulose, much less flesh and bone, on their own. What they can do is parasitize fungi that decompose organic matter. Even more commonly, they parasitize fungi that form symbiotic associations with the roots of all sorts of green and growing things, linking plant communities together into mycorrhizal networks. In this view, plants like the coralroot orchid are something called myco-heterotrophs, “mycorrhizal cheaters” that tap into symbiotic communities and siphon off nutrients from the other, rule-abiding plant and fungus citizens.

A naturalist looks beneath the surface.

Although these changing understandings of the orchid are fascinating, it’s my sense that the terms themselves — saprophyte and myco-heterotroph, symbiosis and parasitism — sometimes obscure more than they reveal, seeming to denote opposites when they actually stand in for similarities. The truth is that the whole evolutionary history of the orchid, which is almost entirely shared with the plants whose sugars it steals, is full of transformative relationships. Evidence of one such relationship lives in the chloroplasts that the orchid has lost. Chloroplasts possess their own DNA, profoundly different from the DNA of the plant cells they inhabit. Biologists understand this difference as strong evidence that chloroplasts descend from photosynthetic bacteria which were engulfed by larger and hungrier non-photosynthetic cells.

For plants, this is the original symbiosis that has made possible every subsequent act of theft and cooperation. But it’s hard for me to imagine it as a gentle or mutually agreeable process — being “engulfed,” in the lexicon of a single-celled organism, tends to equal being eaten. What is symbiosis, then, but the hunger of different beings that comes to resemble love? And what is a “mycorrhizal cheater,” but an unruly participant in a relationship that has complicated and conflicting drives at its heart?

A naturalist draws connections.

Anna Tsing, an anthropologist whose work has often come to mind during my time in Aspen, observes of chloroplasts and humans alike: “The evolution of our ‘selves’ is already polluted by histories of encounter." In other words, we — and I mean to use “we” in the most inclusive sense, to include flowers and chickadees and springfed lakes and piles of mine tailings — are caught up in tangles of relationship before we ever meet one another anew. Like the intertwined roots of the coralroot orchid, like the chloroplasts whirring inside the cells of a cottonwood leaf, we cannot help but be implicated in personal histories that extend past ourselves.

This is a lesson I teach on my tours, but it is also a lesson I learn anew each time I take people into the mountains. I cannot begin to describe how lucky I have felt to meet and learn from so many seemingly dissimilar people—from Midwestern grocery store executives to Filipina pharmacists, from a Brazilian electrical engineer to a gaggle of sorority sisters from Texas—all curious, all unaffectedly moved, all seeing new and wondrous things in a place I had imagined I knew. Their "histories of encounter" became, in the space of two hours, part of my history, too.

The work of a naturalist, as I have practiced and understood it, is to make personal the history of the beings who share their homes with us — to express attention, care, and wonder for them, whether “they” are a deep-scoured glacial valley or a green lacewing fly overwintering under the bark of a dead spruce tree. This work teaches me daily that learning to pay attention is not different from learning to love. It is in that fact that the simplest and truest hope I know resides. Driving down Highway 82 to the confluence of the Roaring Fork and Colorado rivers, and then turning away from the water’s course to chart my own, it is this thought that I carry with me:

A naturalist inspires hope.

5 Stats:

• 1621 guests on ACES guided tours on Aspen and Snowmass Mountains in partnership with Aspen Skiing Company during Winter 2021-2022.

• 12-16 new Summer Naturalists have been hired every year since 1991.

• 510 Naturalists trained since 1991.

• 32 years ACES has partnered with United States Forest Service, Aspen Skiing Company, and Snowmass Village.

About Our Naturalist Program

Each summer, ACES trains up to 16 Summer Naturalists. These enthusiastic college graduates act as ambassadors to Aspen, inspiring connections to our area and reaching over 40,000 locals and visitors. They spend the summer months guiding hikes and providing educational outreach on Aspen Mountain, Snowmass Mountain, Maroon Bells, and other iconic sites. In the winter, they guide snowshoe and ski tours on Aspen Mountain, Snowmass Mountain, and in the Castle Creek Valley.

Through training, guiding, and individual research, Naturalists develop a deep knowledge of local ecology, environmental issues, human history, and the physical landscape. While at ACES, Naturalists gain a greater understanding and passion for their favorite subjects as they plot their own career paths. For more than 30 years, Naturalists in this ever-growing group of ACES alumni go on to become conservation activists, scientists, teachers, land managers, policymakers, non-profit administrators, and sustainability experts. With ACES as a foundation, Naturalists further the ACES mission by bringing their knowledge, communication skills, and appreciation of the natural world to new communities.

Number of attendees

All-Time Snowshoe Tour Attendance

About Our Forest & Climate Program

ACES’ Forest & Climate Program occupies the nexus between forests and climate. Forests are one of the most important ecosystems in the Roaring Fork Watershed. They are also harbingers of climate change. Declining aspen stands, conifers killed by bark beetles, and increasing wildfires are all symptoms of persistent drought caused by climate change.

While the trends we see in forests are alarming, there is hope. Action now to improve forest stewardship and reduce greenhouse gas emissions can protect our forests. ACES connects the community to forests, helping to promote an understanding of our impacts and how to reduce them. Our work includes education, research, monitoring, and restoration.

ACES’ Forest & Climate Program works on research and monitoring through Colorado’s Forest Health Index (FHI) and the State of the Forest Report. The FHI tracks critical drivers of forest health for 38 Colorado watersheds. This year, ACES published our sixth State of the Forest Report, focused on the connections between community and forests.

Our restoration projects are examples of how human actions can improve forests health and promote sustainability. ACES and our partners are taking action to mitigate the impacts of Douglas fir beetle on Aspen Mountain and conduct a second prescribed fire in Hunter Creek.

5 Stats:

• ACES has guided 200 people through local burn areas.

• 7,000 MCH packets distributed on Aspen Mountain to prevent Douglas fir beetle outbreak.

• ACES restored 1,022 acres of forest.

• 6 State of the Forest reports published.

Walk through the Lake Christine Fire Burn Zone with Forest & Climate Director Adam McCurdy

Experiencing the Evolving Landscape of Hallam Lake

by Phebe Meyers, Community Programs Senior Manager

In September 2022, ACES began work on a major habitat improvement and infrastructure repair project at Hallam Lake. The Hallam Lake Habitat Improvement and Berm Repair project had two primary goals. The first goal was to repair the earthen berm and outlet structures that create Hallam Lake, ensuring the lake persists for the foreseeable future. The second goal was to improve habitat diversity at Hallam Lake by creating additional deep sections of the lake and building new emergent wetlands along the edge of the lake.

The sun rose across Hallam Lake, illuminating the golden leaves and green needles of the nearby cottonwood and spruce trees whose roots escaped through the banks into the water. We’d ventured beyond the green temporary chain link fence, onto the preserve that had been closed to the public for a month. The sound of heavy machinery added to the fall soundscape that is typically limited to bird calls. It was Tuesday, October 5, and the conditions were perfect for our Morning Birding outing at Hallam Lake. ACES' bird guide, Rebecca Weiss, and five other birders, and I giggled on the bank as we listened to the smacking beaks of dozens of Mallard ducks and Greenwinged Teal and a Spotted Sandpiper probing and foraging in the newly exposed lake bottom. This was a new sound for us — a feeding frenzy before the cold weather ahead.

During this time, our preserve was closed to the public — with the exception of guided outings like this one led by ACES guides. The ACES community birding program continued to share this space with the public on our monthly birding outings, documenting and observing bird behavior and activity during this project and sharing our species lists with the community. This was our outdoor classroom, and there was so much to engage with, observe, and explore. From the bank, we watched the corvids feasting on the goodies in the newly exposed lakebed, taking advantage of new food resources, driven by their natural curiosity that serves them so well as successful opportunists. Getting to share this project with community members and exploring the birdlife adapting to the transitional and temporary landscape was a highlight of our birding outings for me this year. People who had been birding at Hallam Lake for decades got to explore exposed parts of our preserve and interact with this place in a new way. There we stood observing the necks of the geese making similar movements to that of the excavator — extending and retracting. It was “business as usual” for these birds.

Building a sense of place through exploration, education, and community and stewarding this land for future generations are key to our mission. Throughout the fall, Belted Kingfishers darted overhead, Canada Geese and Mallards enjoyed the lake by the dozen, and five Wilson’s Snipe took up residence, enjoying the exposed banks and streams as springs continued to fill the lake. Snipe and other birds that use very shallow water (wetlands and shorelines) are of necessity very adaptable to changing conditions. They make use of shallow water wherever it occurs, and are adept at both seeking out these conditions and moving on when water levels change less favorably (either drying up or getting too deep). It was fascinating to see the snipe being so responsive to opportunities as the conditions in the preserve changed throughout the project.

Change in nature is often very slow. But, after a disturbance, change happens rapidly — for example, after a fire, avalanche, or flood. At these times, change can happen on the scale of weeks or years rather than decades or centuries. While the restoration work at Hallam Lake isn’t naturally occurring, it is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see an ecosystem change at a rapid pace. We encourage you to come see Hallam Lake over the next several years as the new wetlands and disturbed areas evolve from barren soil into a fully functional ecosystem.

Community Programs & Special Events

ACES preserves its long-standing tradition of bringing the community together through events and programs that engage, inform, and inspire. Ranging from community lectures, to morning birding, to gourmet farm-to-table dinners, ACES special events and programs nourish the mind, while building community and affecting positive change. This year, we established new Ranch Experiences at Rock Bottom Ranch, and we continue to develop programming that is fun and accessible for people of all ages and backgrounds.

Summer Camps

Burlap Dinners at RBR

Little Ranchers and Nature

Birds of Prey Demonstrations

SPECIAL EVENTS

SPEAKER SERIES

ACES Speaker Series include Naturalist Nights, Potbelly Perspectives, Wild Perspectives, and Jessica Catto Dialogues. They feature scientists, adventurers, and other experts — giving them a platform to share their passions while inspiring, informing, and empowering attendees Many of our lectures are available to stream at aspennature.org.

“Stars Above Aspen is such a testament to all the hard work ACES does during a summer season, and every year — to have it all culminate in such a large community gathering with low-cost barriers and all-age access is so incredible. Not to mention simply being a part of an event where people are smiling in the August wildflowers, then in the firelight dusk, and then up at the stars and planets… there’s nothing like it and I will miss it dearly.”

Events Stats:

• 4,500 attendees at ACES summer events.

• 1,413 tickets sold to Stars Above Aspen.

• 36+ public events.

• 48 minutes to sell out our Farm to Table Dinners.

Stars Above Aspen on Aspen Mountain

Picnic on the Preserve

Raptor Fair

Harvest Party

—Erin Bucchin, former ACES’ Admin Assistant

Financials

When removing Capital Campaign contributions, operating revenue for the 2021 fiscal year totaled $3.47 million. This is an $844,000 increase in revenue from 2020 when pandemic impacts resulted in reduced participation in community programs and events. The increase is also attributable to our ability to restore our summer fundraiser, An Evening on the Lake, after it was canceled in 2020.

Total operating expenses for 2021 increased by $332,582 from 2020 to $2.88 million, corresponding to an increase in ACES programming as the pandemic’s impact on ACES operations and programs reduced.

ACES’ 50th Anniversary Capital Campaign reached its goal of raising $12.5 million in 2021. These annualized pledges are reflected in the 2019, 2020 and 2021 contributions line item.

Revenue & Other Support

Contributions Endowment

Membership Income Admission & Tuition Other Income Investment Income Total Revenue Expenses Educational Expenses Management & General Expenses Fundraising Expenses Total Expenses Excess of Revenue over Expenses Assets Cash & Cash Equivalents Pledges Receivable (net) Inventory Investments Land, Building & Equipment (net) Total Assets Liabilities Accrued Expenses

Note Payable Total Liabilities Net Assets Without Donor Restrictions: Undesignated

Invested in Land, Buildings, Equipment (net) With Donor Restrictions

Total Net Assets Total Liabilities & Net Assets

2021 2,091,471 437,380 351,854 2,880,705 3,795,538

2020 8,782,884 480,000 231,501 529,586 525,991 55,677 10,605,639

2021 9,874,004 5,984,944 97,069 5,246,984 11,402,714 32,605,715

2020 6,015,971 6,291,986 81,647 5,870,376 `10,279,185 28,539,165

2021 525,127 281,196 806,323

2020 229,285 306,026 535,311

2021 5,613,211 11,121,518 15,064,663 31,799,392 32,605,715

2020 4,634,939 9,973,159 13,395,756 28,003,854 28,539,165

Revenue & Other Support

Contributions Endowment Membership Income Admission & Tuition Other Income Investment Income

2019 1,958,548 483,90 516,116 2,958,565 6,087,200

2019 6,816,38 455,000 216,854 765,079 730,627 61,822 9,045,765 2019 5,238,565 4,101,654 22,686 3,818,392 7,313,898 20,495,195 2019 218,548 330,309 548,857 2019 5,041,478 6,983,589 7,921,271 19,946,338 20,495,195

The financial statements of ACES were audited by Reese Henry & Company, Inc. A copy of the complete Independent Auditor’s Report and 990 are available on the ACES website.

Expenses

Educational Expense Management & General Expenses Fundraising Expenses

Membership

Thank you! We would like to express our gratitude to the contributors who generously supported ACES annual fund, capital campaign, summer benefit, special projects and programs between the dates of November 1, 2020 and October 31, 2021.

Recognition in the ACES annual report is a membership benefit of the Bighorn Sheep membership level ($300) and above.

Our Donors

Chairman’s Circle ($50,000 and above)

Anonymous (3)

Argonautica

Currie and Tom Barron

Annabelle Bond and Ken Hitchner

Carla and John Brozovich

Carolyn S. Bucksbaum

Jacolyn and John Bucksbaum

Catena Foundation

Catto Shaw Foundation

Ann Dahmer and Kevin Geiser

Jan and Neal Dempsey

Ann and John Doerr

Fidel Duke

Helen Hough Feinberg

Sherri and Dean Goodwin Carol and Mike Hundert

Adam and Melony Lewis

Margaret and Daniel Loeb Malott Family Foundation Gina and Jerry Murdock

David Newberger Penner Family Foundation

Pettit Foundation

Margot and Thomas Pritzker Barbara and Don Rosenberg

Restorer’s Circle ($25,000 - $49,999)

Lydia and Bill Addy

Aspen Business Center Foundation

Ella and Scott Brittingham

Alison Teal and Sam Brown

Laurence and Lori Fink

Patricia Goudvis

Ellen Bronfman Hauptman and Andrew Hauptman

Soledad and Robert Hurst

Living Peace Foundation

Willem and Lisa Mesdag

Marcie and Robert Musser

Ann Richards Nitze

Hensley and James Peterson

Barbara Reid and David Hyman

Lynda and Stuart Resnick

Pat and Mary Scanlan

Jill Soffer and Steve Elder

Jeffrey and Elisha Zander

Benefactor ($10,000 - $24,999)

Anonymous (2)

David and Lisa Alpern

Zoë Baird and Bill Budinger

Amy and Gilchrist Berg Jackie and Mike Bezos

Sarah Broughton and John Rowland Ruth Carver

Kristina and William Catto

Sarah Challinor

City of Aspen Charles William Cole

Paula and Jim Crown

Pat and Dorian Damoorgian

Merle Jean Dulien Trust

Marcy and Leo Edelstein

The Environment Foundation

Clayton and Shel Erikson

Suzanne Farver and Clint VanZee John and Jessica Fullerton Wally and Kristen Graham Margaret and Bill Greenfield

Jody Guralnick and Michael Lipkin Amanda and Ashton Hudson Bill Hunt

Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation Dana and Jim Jacobsen

Rusty and John Jaggers Shana and Clint Johnstone Reenie Kinney and Scott Hicks Flo and Scott Miller

Christina and Tad O'Donnell Chad and Ilona Oppenheim

Norman and Melinda Payson

Ben Pritzker and Aimee Acklen

Pitkin County Healthy Community Fund

Robert Purvis

Ilona Nemeth-Quasha and Alan Quasha

Ashley Schiff Ramos and Mike Ramos

Katharine Johnson Rayner

Jane L. Richards

Becky and Chris Steere Katherine Tomford and David Grossman Rob and Melani Walton

Tillie Walton Helen Ward and Walter Obermeyer

Innovator ($5,000 - $9,999)

Aspen Community Foundation Meredith Bell

Sheri Sanzone and Chris Bendon Jeffrey and Jody Black Jo and Bill Brandt Morgan and Matthew Brown Janet Clark Rona and Jeff Citrin

Sally R. Cole Sylvie and Gary Crum Sabrina and Stephane DeBaets Chelsea and Chace Dillon Dee and Dave David Dillon Maja and Nicholas Paepcke DuBrul Lauren and Ryan Elston John and Muriel Eulich

Elizabeth and George Farish Kirsten and Andrew Firman Diane and Alan Franco Kristina Fraser and Jeffrey Goldstein Ann and Tom Friedman Mary and Jim Griffith Michelle and Perry Griffith Margot and Richard Hampleman Leelee and Bill Harriman Cecil and Noelle Hernandez Marianne and Richard Kipper Michael Kobey

The Laffey-McHugh Foundation Leonard and Judy Lauder

Toby Devan Lewis

Jonathan Lewis and Mark Zitelli Shelly and Tony Malkin Kim Master and Noah Lieb

Peter McBride Leslie and John McQuown Andrea and Bobby McTamaney Constance Hoguet Neel and Richard Neel Ashley and Matt O'Reilly William and Susan Oberndorf Mark and Lorraine Schapiro Mark Pincus and Hilary Shaw William Stolz Linda Strickland Barbara Reese Betty and Lloyd Schermer Lisa and David Schiff Polly Scott and Jim Maher Rachel and Tony Sherman Jennifer and Daniel Shorr Sarah and Paul Sohn Mary Ann and Ray Tittle Hugh Uhalt Heather and Phillip Wilhelm

Advocate ($2,500 - $4,999)

Susannah and Jim Adelson Cara and Robert Barnes Jeff and Becky Berkus Sallie and Thomas Bernard Kristen and Charles Bieler Judy and Jake Brace Laurel and John Catto David Cordish Linda and Ben Davis Jamie and Steven Dell Muffy and Andy DiSabatino

Laura Donnelley

Marsha and David Dowler

Dubose Family Foundation

Wally and Terry Durham

Sandra Eskin

Joan Fabry and Micheal Klein

Stephen Farish Martha Farish Oti

Nanette Finger

Orly Friedman

Andi and Jim Gordon

Jo and Bill Guenzel

Shirley and Barnett Helzberg

The William H. and Mattie Wattis Harris Foundation

Daniel and Toni Hunt

Pam Joseph

Kevin Messerschmidt and Denise Jurgens

Jack and Diane Kennedy

Sheila King

Valerie Kinkade and Kevin Grant

Rachel and Rick Klausner

Linda Lay

Barabra and Jon Lee

Mary Schmidt-Libby and Russell Libby Francine and Tag Liebel

Elizabeth and Adam Lowenstein

Judy and Robbie Mann

Diane Moore and Joel Sax

Nancy and Joe Nevin

Corinne Nevinny

Ruth Owens

Shereen and Jordan Sarick

Wendy and Mike Sidley

Jill St. John

Patsy Tisch

Arden and Bob Travers

Brittany and Colter Van Domelen

Jay and Patti Webster

Joe and Carrie Wells

Jessica Worth

Alison and Boniface Zaino

Steward ($1,000 - $2,499)

Vanessa and Karl Adam

Pamela Alexander

Erin Ankin

Claudia and Richard Balderston

Connie and Buddy Bates

Caroyln Bellinson

Barbara and Bruce Berger

Marla and Lawrence Butler

Cinda and Michael Carron

Annie and Coley Cassidy

Katherin and David Chase

Sarah Chiles

Megan and Tom Clark

David Corbin

Marcia Corbin

Carol Craig

Donna Lynn Crown

P. Cunningham and Rick Schultz

Sarah Davis and Steve Harris

Monica De Turris

Andy Docken

Aubrey Epstein

Shannon Fairbanks

George and Susan Fesus

Donor Circles

ACES' Donor Circles members are knowledgeable, powerful voices for the environment, both in the Roaring Fork Valley and across the nation. Donor Circles members donate $1,200 and above each year, and see their investments make a tangible difference by shaping our future for generations to come.

Donor Circles members enjoy special opportunities to meet with visiting environmental leaders and speakers, as well as receive priority registration to events or programs and invitations to unique events and receptions.

To further acknowledge their generosity, Donor Circles members are recognized in ACES’ Annual Report and on our donor wall at ACES' Hallam Lake visitor center.

Judith Fisher

Ruth and Dan Flournoy

Jan Fox

Donna and Gary Freedman

Barbara Fretz

Andrew Gibas

Laurel Gilbert and Bruce Etkin

Neil Glaser and Richie Lin

Dr. Lisa Braun Glazer and Dr. Jeff Glazer

Joanna Golden

Helen and Scott Graves

Jan and Ronald Greenberg

Lisa and Bill Guth

Julie and Jim Hager

Carolyn Hagist

Kristen Henry Sue Helm

Ambassador Bruce and Vicki Heyman

Joan and Eugene Hill

Carol Hood Peterson and Brooke A. Peterson

Mary and Dan Horn

Max Hoshino

Louise and Phil Hoversten

Holly Hunt

Breckie and Matt Hunt

Jessica and Matthew Jay

Kimberly Jones

Sandy and George Kahle

Mike and Laura Kaplan

Katherine Kendrick

Dr. and Mrs. Tom Kurt

Anne Kerr L'Heureux and Matthew L'Heureux

Sheila and Bill Lambert

Gary and Laura Lauder

Elaine Le Buhn

Lee and Zachry Lee

Kim Lewis

Peter Looram

Jessica Kaplan Lundevall and Torjus Lundevall

Marlene Malek

Kate McBride

Stephen T. McDonald

Barbara and John Patrick McMahon

Anne Welsh McNulty

Sarah Meserve

Natalia Lupi-Oeate and Doug Peate

Bobbi Cunningham and Michael Ortiz

Hensley and James Peterson

Lynn Nichols and Jim Gilchrist

Sam and Anita Michaels

Diane Morris

David Neunuebel

Nancy Paley Fonda Paterson

Victoria Smith

Steve Stunda

Linda Vidal

Jim and Jan Patterson

Ken and Emily Ransford

Phillip and Emily Ring

Louisa and James Rudolph

Phyllis and David Scruggs

Karyn and Nate Simmons

William Lundeen Stirling Allison and Ben Tiller

Lucy Tremols and Galen Bright

Snowmass Village Rotary Club

Barbara Trueman

Janet Van Dyke

Bob and Ruth Wade

Nancy and Edward White

Stuart Wilson

Cheryl Wyly Martha and Gerry Wyrsch

Black Bear ($600 - $999)

Anonymous

Duane and Sherry Abbott

Elizabeth Ballinger

Dawn Barton

Tony and Terri Caine

Jim and Betsy Chaffin

Dan W. Daly

Kam and Michael Davies

Tom and Darlynn Fellman

Griff Foxley

Edmund Frank Alyson and Justin Gish

Liz Coplon and Carl Eichstaedt

Karen and John Gray-Krehbiel

Stacy and Mike Greenberg

Elizabeth Paepcke Society

Planned Giving - Leave a Lasting Legacy

Many of our supporters choose to leave a gift to ACES in their wills or trusts to protect our environment for future generations. You can, too. When you do, you play a key role in sustaining ACES’ mission, expanding its programs, and ensuring its future.

To learn more about planned giving through ACES’ Elizabeth Paepcke Society, please contact Development Director, Christy Mahon at 970.925.5756 or cmahon@aspennature.org.

Donor Circles Breakfast at Mojo Gardens, Summer 2021

Nicholas Groos

Roger Gurrentz

Chonnie and Paul Jacobson

Warren and Kathleen Jones

Janis and George Huggins

Valerie and Patrick Lally

Patricia Marino

Caroline McBride

Johno McBride

Diane Morris

Nona Niland

Diane Oshin and Sidney Mandelbaum

Karl and Holly Peterson

Avi Peterson

Missy and Steve Prudden

Sheryl Schreiber

Deborah and John Scott

Carole and Gordon Segal

Dr. and Mrs. Brian and Lisa Shaw

Jim Stafford

Mike and Kit Strang

Lea Tucker

Linda and Dennis Vaughn

Kay Watson

Susan Wolf and Doug MacLean

Robert and Sarah Woods

Bighorn Sheep ($300 - $599)

Alison Coenen Abrams and Dale Abrams

Stephen Adams

Joanne and David Applebaum

Nadine Asin and Thomas Van Straaten

Suzanne Atkinson

Anne Austin Clapper

Lisa Avila

Morton Baird

John Ball

Steve and Janette Barsanti

Linda Bedell

Skip and Donna Behrhorst

Gina Berko and David Fleisher

Drs. Paula and William Bernstein

Sarah Blaine

Liz and John Bokram

Clare Bronowski

Lee and Keith Bryant

Karen Brooks

Ruthie Burrus

Barbara Bussell

Tony Cannistra

Julie Case

David and Katherin Chase

Lee Ann and Tucker Cheadle

Cristal Clarke

Julie Comins Pickrell and Greg Pickrell

Annie Cooke

Brian and Andy Davies

Suzette De Marginy Smith

Deanna Denning

Carol Donnally

Robynn Dorffi

Bruce Ducker and Mary McGrath

Amy and Doug Throm

Jonathan Eisenberg

Dana Ellis

Darin Eydenberg

Carol and Jim Farnsworth

Sara Finkle

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Freimuth

John and Barb French

Bert and Dyana Furmansky

Lacy and Ernie Fyrwald

Daryl and Henry Gelender

Ephi and Rachel Gildor

Sarah Girgis

Shawn and Katherine Gleason

Denise and Andy Goldfarb

Lindsay and Thomas Gorman

Jane and Allen Grossman

Kim and Mark Hamilton

Christie Hefner

Casady Henry

Jessica Herzstein and Elliot Gerson

Sacha and Kirk Hinderberger

David and Ruth Hoff

Linda and Gregg Hollomon

Carolyn Hyde

Peter and Sandy Johnson

Kyle and Kirsten Johnstone

Yvonne Klausmann

Missy and Chris Klug

Judy Kravitz

Marian Krogh Bill and Sheila Lambert

Leslie Lamont and Lance Luckett

Martha Lamphere Margo Langenberg Mark Lantz

Charles Pratt and Co Helen Leeke

Suzanne Leydecker Gary and Daylene Lichtenwalter

Camilla Locker

Kim Lubel

Liz Lynch

Wendy MacPhail-Brigham and Dan McCabe

Susan and Lawrence Marx Joe and Jennifer Mason

Jacqui Matthews

Richard Thompson and Dee Matthews

Liza and John Mauck

Kelly and Bryan May

Monica Mayotte Fern Mazo

Sunni McBride

Maddie and Christopher McDowell

Sherry and Gerald Merfish

Todd and Wendy Mitchell

Beth Mobilian

Ellen-Jane and Ben Moss

Ann Mullins

Shannon Murphy Swati and Rohan Nath

John Neil Sara and Don Nelson

Mary Ann and Chris Neumann Clas Nilstoft

Roberta and Samuel Pepkowitz

Ali and David Phillips Daria Rickett

Jones Robb PLLC

Beverly and Howard Robinson

John Rodney Marvin Rosenberg

Tobin and Oakleigh Ryan

Jay and Linda Sandrich

Kirk Scales and Pat Curry Susan and Ford Schumann

Nathan Segall and Harriet Landau May and Troy Selby

Shelley Senterfitt

Marcelina and Joshua Seymour Jamay and David Shook Torrey Simons

Terri and Rich Slivka

Elizabeth Slossberg

Sandra Smith

Wendy and David Smith Holly Sollod and John Chanin Danette Stephens

Nancy and Bruce Stevens William Lundeen Stirling Clifford and Natasha Stowe Melissa Temple

Anne Tobey

Edgar Toledano and Rebecca McCurdy

Elissa Topol and A. Lee Osterman

Joe McGuire and Matthew Tenzin

Cathy and Peter Toren

Nadine Asin and Thomas Van Straaten

Cheryl Velasquez and Tamas Kovacs

Soffia Wardy

Misty Weihs

Susan Welsch

Laura Werlin

Carlotta and Wendell Willke

Natalie Winston

Charles and Barbara Winton

Steven Wolff and Lynne Feigenbaum

Samantha and Jack Woodruff

Carolyn Workman and Kurt Wacker

Sara and Nat Zilkha

Corporate Sponsors

Our Partners

Anderson Ranch Arts Center

The Art Base

Ashcroft Ski Touring

Aspen Art Museum

Aspen Community Foundation

Aspen Chamber Resort Association

Aspen Fire Department

Aspen Global Change Institute

Aspen Historical Society

The Aspen Institute

Aspen Public Radio

Aspen School District

Aspen Skiing Company

Aspen Valley Land Trust

Cap K Ranch

Citizens Climate Lobby

City of Aspen

City of Aspen Parks & Open Space

City of Aspen Environmental Health Clean Rivers Initiative

CO Natural Heritage Program

CO Parks and Wildlife

CO State Forest Service

CO State University

The Collective Snowmass Community Office for Resource Efficiency

EverGreen ZeroWaste

The Forest Conservancy

Garfield County Outdoors

Garfield Re-2 School District

Grassroots TV

Great Outdoors Colorado

Holy Cross Energy

Independence Pass Foundation

The Little Nell

The Nature Conservancy

Pitkin County Healthy Rivers & Streams

Pitkin County Open Space & Trails

Ritz Carlton Club

Roaring Fork Audubon

Roaring Fork Conservancy

Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association

Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers

Roaring Fork School District

Snowmass Tourism

Sunlight Mountain Resort

Town of Snowmass Village U.S. Forest Service

Upper CO River Interagency Fire Management Unit

Wilderness Workshop Watershed Biodiversity Initiative

Where We Work

Aspen Area

American Lake

Aspen Elementary School

Aspen Meadows Trail

Aspen Mountain

Buttermilk Mountain Castle Creek Valley Cathedral Lake Catto Center at Toklat

The Collective Snowmass Crater Lake

East of Aspen

Ashcroft Ghost Town

Hallam Lake

Hunter Creek

Maroon Creek Trail

Maroon Lake

North Star Nature Preserve Red Butte

Ritz Carlton Club

Riverdance

Snowmass Nature Trail U.S. Forest Service Office Weller Lake

Basalt Area

Basalt Elementary School Rock Bottom Ranch Lake Christine Burn Area

Carbondale Area Grizzly Creek Burn Area

Glenwood Springs Area

Sunlight Mountain Resort

Rifle/New Castle Area

East Elk Creek

Kathryn Senor Elementary School

Rifle Falls State Park

Rifle Gap State Park

Silt River Preserve

Administrative Staff

Chris Lane Chief Executive Officer

Mariah Foley Agriculture Manager

Jim Kravitz Naturalist Programs Director

Christy Mahon Development Director

Andrea Aust Education Director

Christina Green Development Coordinator

Grayson Bauer Hallam Lake Site & Programs Coordinator

Brodie Kettelkamp

Finance & Operations Director

Phebe Meyers

Community Programs Senior Manager Adam McCurdy Climate & Forest Programs Director

Molly O'Leary Events Manager

Emily Taylor Marketing Director

Emily Williams Field Programs Coordinator

Kitty Winograd

RBR Community Programs Coordinator

Trustees

Daniel Shaw, Chair

Sam Brown

Neal Dempsey

Andy Docken

Mark Hamilton

Jennifer Goldfarb

Reenie Kinney

Leslie Lamont

Adam Lewis

Kim Master

Diane Moore

Gina Murdock

Jerry Murdock

Robert Musser

Walter Obermeyer, Treasurer

Ben Pritzker

Barbara Rosenberg Alex Sanchez

Sheri Sanzone

Ashley Schiff Ramos

Rachel Sherman, Secretary

Maile Spung, Officer

Colter Van Domelen

Annual report photos courtesy of Chris Cohen Photography, Olive & West Photography, Aspen Historical Society, and ACES staff. Rendering of Riverdance provided by Stan Clauson Associates, planning and landscape design consultants for the project.

Annual report design by Amy Gurrentz.

Kamille Winslow

School Programs Manager

Legacy Council

Margot and Tom Pritzker, Chairs

Zoë Baird and Bill Budinger

Amy and Gilchrist Berg

Jacolyn and John Bucksbaum

Ann and John Doerr

Lori and Larry Fink Allison and Warren Kanders

Melony and Adam Lewis

An Evening on the Lake | ACES Summer Benefit

Farmer Panel at Rock Bottom Ranch

Birds of Prey Demonstrations at Hallam Lake Wild & Scenic Film Festival at the Wheeler Opera House & TACAW