Living a Year at the Catto Center at Toklat

ACES staff share a meal with visiting environmental experts outside of the Catto Center at Toklat.

REFLECTIONS FROM AN ACES NATURALIST

Olivia Niosi, ACES Naturalist

Was this going to be something like Leopold’s Shack, Thoreau’s Walden Pond cabin, or the Murie Ranch?

New to town, I wasn’t sure. But the moment I arrived at the Catto Center at Toklat I knew I had made the right choice. The beauty. The history. The plea to help protect the place.

I shyly opened the doors through a leather shop that stung my nose and into a cold, large living room. I was greeted by a hurried Trevor, the caretaker, who showed me my room, told me to get unpacked, then we’d get to work. We needed to carry some wood and pipes up to the intake of Devaney Creek – the source of both our water and electricity. Trevor explained that the big snow year’s peak water was approaching, possibly the next day, and might overwhelm our micro–hydroelectric generation system. Not even five minutes up I felt my heart racing, my lungs burning, and my forehead sweating. I realized maybe I wasn’t invincible to this whole altitude thing. We fixed the flow gate, walked back down, and shared some beers around the pond. This was going to be an alright place. My first few weeks at Toklat were spent learning how to get warm water in the shower (derived from the magic of the pilot-lighted stoves), listening to Trevor’s stories of the place, and somehow answering the ooohs and ahhs from guests who walked in the door.

Every week, I met someone who was a respected artist, ecologist, philosopher, or outdoors person. I lived with Nika, an avid trail runner and thru–hiker. I attended a drum–making workshop Trevor hosted in memory of his late mentor. I sat around a fire with people who helped start ACES and had deep roots with both Toklat and Aspen. I met Eddie Running Wolf, a talented Native American wood carver. Stuart and Isabel Mace mentored so many people in the art and conservation world in their family home, Toklat, and here I was decades later hearing their voices, their stories. Meeting these inspiring people made me realize that by living here, I was joining their unique community that celebrates a connection to nature through many forms. I also shared a love for this place and grew tremendously over the summer. I was gaining so–called “Stuartship” for the Castle Creek Valley.

I didn’t know what I was going to do, become a poet or author? Thru–hiker? Summit all the peaks? Continue teaching others about the natural world? How am I going to leave my mark on Toklat like it has on me? This was going to be a powerful place. When fall off–season came, I found myself alone at Toklat. I no longer had the people who made it special; it was just me, the wood, and the occasional mouse. It was an odd time and a beautiful time. I saw my first real fall ever. Watching all the aspens turn from green to strong gold in just a few days reminded me of my time here passing quickly. I hiked to the top of Ashcroft Mountain and was so struck by my new view of the valley that I didn’t even think to take a single picture. This was going to be a changing place.

Winter came quickly. Toklat got even colder, the valley turned white, and suddenly I had four roommates again. The holidays consisted of us naturalists taking turns giving nature tours and hosting people at Toklat. We talked to people for hours on end, retelling the Mace story, and never tiring of sharing the valley. Our alarm clocks turned to coyotes howling each morning. We watched moose recreate in the willows just outside the door. Everyday we saw new tracks and could tell a new story as to the nightly happenings of the valley. Powder days at the ski resorts were few and far between. The longer we stayed up here, the farther town got. We really were in our own world. This was going to be a secluded place.

As quickly as winter came, it went. The coronavirus came to town, the mountains closed, and our nature tours were cancelled. It was abrupt, confusing, and hard to comprehend. But Toklat had prepared us, and I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. We were already professionals at entertaining ourselves without the luxuries of TV or internet. We already knew what it felt like to not go to town for weeks. So there we were, making puzzles, going through the VHS collection, writing, reading together in the geranium room, going out to cross–country ski, snowshoeing, cooking, painting, drawing, organizing the library, maintaining trails, and shoveling lots and lots of snow.

I feel rooted here. I feel the potential for me to continue growing. To become what, I don’t know. But I realize that I’ve joined this Toklat community just as I am – someone trying to connect others to nature through shared experiences, continuing my own small steps toward finding ways to protect this planet, and growing my deepest passions for ecology and storytelling. This is going to be a hard place to leave.

I was gaining so–called Stuartship” “ for the Castle Creek Valley.

ACES’ Catto Center at Toklat provides a unique “window into wildness,” helping visitors to experience a connection to the natural world and to understand the rich ecological diversity of the upper Castle Creek Valley.

The Catto Center at Toklat

The Catto Center at Toklat, an iconic wilderness retreat center, embodies ACES’ environmental ethic and spirit of stewardship. Since the late 1940s, the Catto Center at Toklat has been a place of quiet refuge where visitors can engage in thoughtful inquiry and reconnect to the natural world. Originally built by the Mace family, the Catto Center at Toklat continues to act as a gathering place for community members and visitors alike, offering a space where people can come together to reflect, rejuvenate, and feel inspired by the local environment. Visitors find their way to the Catto Center at Toklat for a variety of reasons, whether as part of a professional retreat, workshop, community potluck, field science class, to visit with one of our seasonal artists in residence, or simply to take in the stunning natural beauty of the Castle Creek Valley. But no matter how or why they arrive, visitors leave this special place with a renewed sense of connectedness to the land and appreciation for the value of environmental stewardship.

Our Naturalist Program Work

Each June, ACES trains 16 new Summer Naturalists – enthusiastic college graduates who spend the next two and a half months guiding hikes and providing educational outreach for both visitors and residents at iconic sites throughout the Aspen area.

Through training, individual research, and guiding, Naturalists develop a deep knowledge of local ecology, environmental issues, human history, and the physical landscape. Over the course of the summer, Naturalists learn to use storytelling to explain a range of subjects, inspiring a connection to the Aspen area for over 42,500 locals and visitors in 2019.

While at ACES, Naturalists often develop greater understanding and passion for the subjects they are most interested in as they plot their own career paths. For more than 30 years, this ever–growing group of ACES alumni has gone out into the world effecting change. As scientists, teachers, land managers, policy makers, non–profit administrators, and sustainability experts, Naturalists further ACES mission when they bring their knowledge, communication skills, and appreciation of the natural world to new communities.

The Numbers

440 Naturalists trained by ACES since 1987 3,849 tour participants at the Maroon Bells/ Snowmass/Aspen Mountain in summer 2019

An ACES Naturalist leads a tour along the edge of Maroon Lake, sharing information about natural history, local ecology, and more.