History
It is safe to say that FOW would not be the successful Forest Service partner that it is today without the dedication and inspiration of the many individuals who blazed the trail over the years, the support and encouragement of the community – and the vision and persistence of one determined woman.
Elaine Dermody standing by the Mt Zirkel Wilderness sign.
When the hiking season began in 2000, Elaine Dermody who had been volunteering since 1995, saw that the Forest Service staff was continuing to shrink due to reduced government funding. There was now only one full-time seasonal ranger instead of three and only one crew of trail workers instead of multiple crews. As a result of this situation, she began talking about creating a volunteer organization to assist the Forest Service. The idea was not met with enthusiasm from some of the other volunteers or the Forest Service. However, she was determined and persistent, and by the latter part of August, with the help of her husband Win Dermody, an agreement was reached, but with stipulations to limit the duties of volunteers and the growth of the organization in the early years.
FOW’s Founding Members – Wade and Jan Hatcher, Pat Wessel and Bob Mayfield, and Elaine and Win Dermody.
She named the organization “Friends of Wilderness” with the hope that when they had enough volunteers they would be able to assist the Forest Service in all the nearby Wilderness Areas, which they currently do. She named the Founding Members of FOW as herself and Win, as well as Jan and Wade Hatcher, Bob Mayfield and Pat Wessel, all of whom were serving as Volunteer Wilderness Rangers at that time. She noted she could not have been successful without their help, especially Win’s, along with the generous donation of llamas from John and Mary Ann Duffey.
Today, Friends of Wilderness continues as a volunteer-powered organization dedicated to fulfilling Elaine Dermody’s original vision of supporting and protecting Colorado’s Mt. Zirkel, Sarvis Creek, and northern Flat Tops Wilderness areas. In partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, trained volunteers carry forward a legacy of stewardship—maintaining trails, educating visitors, and caring for these wild places with skill and preparedness, fostering a deeper understanding of how individual actions impact wilderness ecosystems.
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that Wilderness is a necessity,” John Muir, early American environmentalist and founder of The Sierra Club