A group of hikers, Manitou Springs residents and Colorado Springs community members are banding together to clean up the forest by removing garbage and fire hazards from homeless encampments along the base of the mountains.
The group, Pikes Peak Clean Up Crew, formed on Facebook shortly after the Incline fire ignited in a homeless encampment between Barr Trail and The Manitou Incline in early October and burned several acres.
Trevor Becker, the creator of the Facebook group, lives near the Incline and was at home when he saw plumes of smoke billowing off the mountain.
“It was pretty scary,” Becker said. “And I have a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old and it really hit home. So that was really the motivation to go in there and remove those fire hazards.”
Becker’s public Facebook group serves as a hub for its 283 members to communicate about what they see on the trails, identify abandoned encampments and coordinate cleanup efforts to keep the area rid of fire hazards.
“We constantly go in and remove the fire pits, remove propane tanks and gasoline tanks and car batteries, grills, things like that,” Becker said.
So far, Becker estimates a total of 40 volunteers helped remove garbage from some of the 17 encampment sites surrounding Manitou Springs that Becker mapped.
“I think that kind of an important thing to note is it’s not like we’re going in and kicking people out,” Becker said. “What we're doing is we are cleaning up abandoned sites. Honestly, it's really just a lot of trash.”
Other supporters of the group donated money and equipment to help the cleanup efforts.
“This is not pleasant work,” Nicole Rosa, a donor for the group said, “It's filthy, there's needles, it's disgusting. And here they are giving up their time on a weekend to help keep our wonderful mountain clean. I mean, this is Pikes Peak, America's mountain, and it's trashed.”
After the Incline fire, 40 bags of trash were removed from the burn site, Steve Bremner, a Manitou Springs city council member, said.
Bremner also tried to help the Pike Peak Clean Up Crew’s efforts by coordinating trash pick ups at the Barr Trailhead for materials the crew carried down.
“What Pikes Peak Clean Up Crews is doing is they're going in and they're seeing the sites and they're just cleaning them up, which I support, I think it's great because these sites, they just stay there until somebody comes and cleans them up,” Bremner said.
Encampments within Manitou Springs City limits are illegal. When an illegal encampment is found, police post a notice to vacate within 48 hours, then the site is cleaned up, Bremner said.
But the encampments are spread out across a patchwork of properties, some areas are federal land, such as the Pike National Forest and other areas belong to the Colorado Springs or the Manitou & Pikes Peak Railway — making it difficult for a cohesive response, Bremner said.
The police department serves as the main liaison between the city and people experiencing homelessness. But Bremner said it’s too expensive to have officers patrol the encampments.
That’s why he wants to hire an employee for Manitou Springs who would monitor the surrounding area for encampments and serve as a liaison between the city and people experiencing homelessness. Bremner envisions the employee would connect people with resources for shelter, food and other needs.
He said if the city launches the position it would start in spring 2021.
“We don't want to be cruel, you know, and say, ‘Okay, tough luck, get out of our town.’ We want to help them,” Bremner said.
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December 15, 2020 at 01:14AM
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