Members of the Team Rubicon volunteered for a three day deployment in Estes last week to clear trees around the Town’s communication towers on Prospect Mountain. The greyshirts, as they call themselves, are expertly trained sawyers employing chainsaws to do debris removal and route clearance after natural disasters and to clear forests for a fire mitigation operation.
Members of the Team Rubicon volunteered for a three day deployment in Estes last week to clear trees around the Town’s communication towers on Prospect Mountain. The greyshirts, as they call themselves, are expertly trained sawyers employing chainsaws to do debris removal and route clearance after natural disasters and to clear forests for a fire mitigation operation.

More than three dozen members of Team Rubicon, a veteran-led humanitarian organization, kicked off Fire Prevention Week in Estes last weekend, working for three days with the Estes Valley Fire Protection District’s wildfire mitigation crew to protect the town’s critical communication infrastructure.

With chainsaws and muscle, the “greyshirts” — as they call themselves because of the color of their uniform t-shirts — spent three days clearing branches on trees and cleaning slash in and around the communications towers on top of Prospect Mountain.

In all, Team Rubicon cleared more than 20,000 square feet of property, including removing trees leaning on buildings and branches touching the communication towers. They also fed the downed limbs into woodchippers and stacked piles of firewood.

Mobilized primarily out of Denver and Colorado Springs, the Team Rubicon members slept on cots at the Events Center and ate meals provided by Country Market, Smoking Dave’s BBQ, Himalayan Curry and Kabob, and the Hive. The Estes Park Aerial Tram also provided logistics support for the operation.

Napoleon famously said, "An army marches on its stomach,” and Team Rubicon is no different. Several Estes Valley businesses stepped up to provide meals for Team Rubicon including The Country Market, Smoking Dave’s BBQ, Himalayan Curry and Kabob, and the Hive.
Napoleon famously said, “An army marches on its stomach,” and Team Rubicon is no different. Several Estes Valley businesses stepped up to provide meals for Team Rubicon, including The Country Market, Smoking Dave’s BBQ, Himalayan Curry and Kabob, and the Hive.

Thomas Permuy, who served as incident commander for the Estes operation, said that the Team members who volunteered came from a radius of 450 miles from Estes, including Nebraska, Wyoming, and various Colorado communities, to lend their skills.

When asked about the bare-bones accommodations, Permuy said Team Rubicon members are not on a deployment for comfort but to get a job done.

Permuy is proud of what Team Rubicon accomplished in three days and said they would consider returning to help with more fire mitigation work.

“We accomplished what we came to do. We thinned out the fuels,” said Permuy, who explained that the volunteers are trained as sawyers capable of working with chainsaws to remove debris, tree limbs, and fell trees and perform route clearance operations.

Training before deployment involves a combination of online coursework, hands-on skill building, and a background check.

Made up mostly of veterans from all service branches, Team Rubicon’s members know how to work in teams, lean in, and get a job done. Founded 15 years ago by two Marine veterans following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the service organization provides volunteer disaster relief and mitigation aid to vulnerable communities. Today, more than 160,000 greyshirt volunteers have launched over 1,100 operations domestically and internationally.

As a 501(c)(3), Team Rubicon is supported by individual and corporate sponsorships. The organization does not take any government funding. Recently, Ford provided a fleet of co-branded wrapped vehicles, which gives the group visibility when they are in a community.