Only park service employees may use chainsaws within park boundaries.
-Grand Teton National Park mandate

The key to tearing down a buck rail fence is not to take it down with the ease of a chainsaw, but to demolish it point blank in the center of the rail with the roaring, onslaught of a sledge hammer. Makes you feel like a pioneer!

After an all office vote, it was declared that all Cloudveil employees would volunteer for one eight hour day to the Fence Removal Project. If you’re from a place with less savage scenery, it might be difficult to understand why Cloudveil would pick removing a fence for our first ever community volunteer day. I guess the idea of being out in the wilds of the Wyoming front range was just too tempting for our rough country crew (we wanted to use chainsaws). Not to mention, we wanted to partake in an activity that would help cultivate and protect the surroundings we love so deeply.

Throughout the Jackson Hole region there are a ton of decrepit fences no one uses that impede the movement of wild life. It’s common to hear stories of yearling elk and moose - unable to jump over the rails – who get caught up by barb wire.

The safe passage of wildlife is also imperative for the dispersal of indigenous seed and the life of local vegetation. All those avalanche bowls we would love to ski need to be reseeded for new growth each year.

So Cloudveil traded in tired and weary keyboard fingers for working gloves and - disappointedly - not chainsaws but sledgehammers. We arrived out on Highway 89 at 9 a.m. on a Thursday to a beautiful sunny day with our familiar Teton range backdrop.

Both our founders Stephen “Sulli” Sullivan and Brian “Cuzz” Cousins were ready for a hard day’s work. I believe the rest of us had no idea what we were getting into. After a briefing from the local Grand Teton National Park service and an introduction from the Wildlife Foundation, we set up down the line of fence in small groups. Turns out removing a fence involves 10 percent tearing it down and 90 percent carrying that dang thing to the road.

Carrying bucks over head, rails on shoulders, hips and necks, we gradually ripped down portions of the fence in 50 to 100 yard increments - stopping only for a nicely staged rail smashing photo op and our scrumptious lunch spread donated by Backcountry Provisions.

All told, we ripped down about a mile of fence, not all that bad for a day of work normally spent at the office.

We plan to make a trend out of this Cloudveil Community Day by donating one work day a quarter. So please post any ideas you might have for our next volunteer project in the Jackson area. I’ve posted a bunch of pictures of our relentless wood carrying crew. Please enjoy the ones I’ve posted of Sulli! Aside from waking up to massive shoulder and neck pain, I sleep well at night knowing that Cloudveil has an enduring commitment to protect and revitalize Jackson and the places we love.

To see a slideshow of photos from the Cloudveil Community Service Day, click here.