Category: Front Page

AURORA – The Colorado State Patrol has been asked to investigate a fatal crash involving an on-duty Aurora Police Department vehicle versus a pedestrian that resulted in one death.  At approximately 11:25 PM on January 17, a 37 year old male officer with the Aurora Police Department (APD) was traveling eastbound on E. Quincy Ave in a fully marked 2018 Ford Police SUV; he was not responding to a call for service at the time.  The officer advised he had hit a pedestrian and requested medical assistance to the location.  However, the 37 year old male pedestrian from Salt Lake City, Utah was declared deceased on scene. 

On scene investigation determined the pedestrian was dressed in dark clothes and laying in the eastbound lanes of E. Quincy Ave prior to being run over by the police SUV.  The pedestrian had been earlier observed to be highly intoxicated in a nearby store prior to the crash.

The name of the deceased is being withheld while next of kin are being identified and notified.  For information related to the officer, please contact the Aurora Police Department.  The APD vehicle has been taken for inspection and the case remains under investigation.  No charges have been filed.

Interview video here. 

Due to increasing cases of COVID-19, Arapahoe County Public Works and Development is closing its Lima Office (6924 S. Lima St., Centennial) to the public at 1 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 10. The closure will remain in effect through Friday, Jan. 14. The office will reopen to the public on Tuesday, Jan. 18. If you have questions, please visit www.arapahoegov.com/publicworks for contact numbers.

Every 10 years, the Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder’s Office is legally responsible for updating precinct boundaries and numbers to reflect new United States Congressional and Colorado legislative districts redrawn based on U.S. Census Bureau data.

This process is nonpartisan, with mapping and elections professionals incorporating the new district lines and calculating active voter counts. The new precinct map must be approved by the Arapahoe County Board of County Commissioners before January 31, 2022.

Arapahoe County is proposing to increase the number of precincts from 399 to 409. Most precincts within the County will not have new boundaries, but almost all precincts will have modified 10-digit identification numbers. This webpage on ArapahoeVotes.comhas information on all proposed changes to precinct numbers and boundaries, interactive maps to compare old and new boundaries, and a comment form to submit your feedback.

If you wish to add your comment on any proposed redrawing of precinct boundaries, please complete the comment form on the webpage.

Comments must be received by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday Jan. 11, 2022.

Denver, CO – It’s that time of year again! Livestock will walk through the streets of Denver, kicking off the National Western Stock Show. A crowd favorite, alpacas, are returning to this year’s parade.

Beginning at noon on Thursday, January 6, Alpacas and members of Alpaca Breeders of the Rockies, as well as a truck and trailer will make their way from Union Station twelve blocks down 17^th Street to Glenarm place.

Joining this year’s festivities is Executive Director of the national Alpaca Owners Association (AOA) Robin Gifford. Located in Lincoln, Nebraska, AOA is the world’s largest alpaca association.

The alpaca show will take place on January 8, beginning with an opportunity for the public to come into the arena and talk to the exhibitors and experience the softness of alpaca fleece first-hand. Immediately after, the alpaca halter show will begin, judged by AOA certified judges Kevin O’Leary and Diana Timmerman.

Don’t miss the alpacas at this year’s National Western Stock Show January 8 – 23, 2022.

About Alpaca Breeders of the Rockies

The Alpaca Breeders of the Rockies is an organization of volunteers capable of leading and influencing the future of the alpaca industry by supporting its members through education, marketing, events, and public awareness. ABR is dedicated to promoting ethical conduct in the alpaca industry, to enhancing the public’s perception of the industry, to the health and welfare of the alpacas, to the long-term well-being of the market, and to being an active voice for its members throughout the industry, all for the purpose of helping our members succeed.

For more information visit http://www.alpacabreeders.org/.

STATEWIDE (Dec. 17, 2021) — As part of the state’s continuing outreach and COVID-19 vaccination campaign, a special mobile vaccine clinic will be held at Camp Christmas on Tuesday, Dec. 21 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a free entry voucher giveaway for anyone aged 5 and up getting a vaccine. Appointments are strongly encouraged. The mobile COVID-19 clinic will be held in the parking lot of Camp Christmas, an over-the-top outdoor extravaganza as big as the holiday it celebrates. Located at Heritage Lakewood Belmar Park (801 South Yarrow St., Lakewood, CO 80226), internationally-noted visual installation artist Lonnie Hanzon uses the park’s historic structures along with six acres of outdoor space to create a whimsical winter wonderland unlike any other, where people can snag the perfect holiday photo and enjoy mesmerizing yuletide scenes.  

A complete list of this week’s clinics is available at a new permanent location at: covid19.colorado.gov/community-vaccination-clinics. These clinics are in addition to the more than 1800 vaccine providers across the state. Vaccines are free, and no identification, proof of residency, or insurance is required.

The Reach out and Read Colorado children’s book giveaway will continue at select eastern plains clinic locations. Reach Out and Read Colorado is a statewide organization that helps health care providers, families, and communities encourage early literacy skills.. Reach Out and Read Colorado generously donated nearly 1,000 children’s books for kids who receive their COVID-19 vaccines, and the book giveaways are available while supplies last at clinics with noted incentives.

Additionally, several large vaccination sites will continue including: Aurora Municipal Center (15151 E. Alameda Pkwy, Aurora, CO 80012), Chapel Hills Mall (1710 Briargate Blvd., Colorado Springs, CO 80920), Citadel Mall (680 Citadel Dr. E, Colorado Springs, CO 80909) Douglas County Fairgrounds (500 Fairgrounds Road, Castle Rock, CO 80104), Mesa County Public Health (510 29 1/2 Road, Grand Junction, CO 81504) and the Pueblo Mall (3201 Dillon Dr., Pueblo, CO 81008) Advance appointments are available and encouraged, and walk-ups are accepted while inventory remains available each day. 

Need a ride? Mile High United Way’s Ride United program is providing access to free rides (up to 25 miles each way) to vaccination sites across Colorado. Dial 2-1-1 or visit 211colorado.org to learn more.

Ball Arena will continue to host large vaccine clinics prior to certain Colorado Avalanche, Mammoth and Denver Nuggets events. The current confirmed dates for Ball Arena clinics are:

 

Dec. 23: Noon – 8:30 p.m. (Nuggets game)

Dec. 29: 1:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. (Avalanche game)

Dec. 30: Noon – 8:30 p.m. (Nuggets game)

Dec. 31: 11 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. (Mammoth game)

Visit the COVID vaccine bus in the Ball Arena parking lot just north of Chopper Circle and 9th Street.The arena offers free parking on non-event days OR on event days if you arrive before the arena doors open (usually two hours before the arena event). 

Transit in the Denver-Boulder metro area: Use RTD’s trip planner

All bus vaccine clinics and many standalone clinics are offering pediatric Pfizer vaccines for 5-11 year olds. CDPHE recommends parents and guardians make a plan to get their children vaccinated. Vaccines are the safest, most effective way to slow the spread of COVID-19 and help avoid the worst outcomes — severe illness, hospitalization, and death — among those who do become infected. The state maintains an updated list of providers administering Pfizer pediatric vaccines. Many clinics also offer flu vaccines, and it is safe to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and a flu vaccine on the same day.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) _ Weather forecasters say damaging winds are expected in parts of Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri this week, just days after devastating tornadoes that wreaked havoc in the Midwest.

The National Weather Service has issued a high wind watch starting Wednesday morning for most of Kansas and Nebraska and the northwest corner of Missouri. Most of central Iowa is under the same watch starting Wednesday afternoon into the night. The system’s swath starts in New Mexico and cuts across southeastern Colorado, the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles and ends in southeast corner of Minnesota, according to a weather service map.

Strong sustained winds between 25 mph and 40 mph (40.2 kph to 64.3 kph) are expected in the region, with gusts of more than 65 mph (104.6 kph) at times, the weather service reported.

Damaging winds are likely to bring down trees and power lines, making widespread power outages possible, the service warned. Driving in the winds could also be dangerous, especially for high-profile vehicles.

Cities in the path of the winds include North Platte, Lincoln and Omaha in Nebraska; Dodge City, Topeka and Kansas City in Kansas; Kansas City and its suburbs and St. Joseph in Missouri; and Des Moines, Waterloo, Fort Dodge and Mason City in Iowa.

The storm will pack enough moisture for a thorough soaking around Las Vegas, while a couple of showers are likely to dampen the roads around Phoenix. The same storm is predicted to produce a swath of strong winds from the deserts to the central and southern Plains at midweek. 

AccuWeather Global Weather Center – December 14, 2021 – A storm already responsible for travel-snarling snow in the mountains and drenching rain in the lower elevations much of the Pacific Coast states this past weekend will focus its onslaught on the Southwest and Southern California, in particular, into Tuesday night.

The storm currently bringing rain and snow to the West Coast, and perhaps another that follows next week, will likely be the most disruptive in terms of creating travel concerns and producing the greatest risk of mudslides. But the overall pattern is good news for drought concerns as storms line up like a parade over the northern Pacific Ocean, AccuWeather meteorologists say.

Through Monday morning, local time, the storm had already dropped 1-2 inches of rain on the San Francisco Bay Area and about an inch or so of rain on the Sacramento Valley. Snow was piling up at the rate of a few inches per hour over the high country of the Sierra Nevada.

When this particular storm is all said and done, about 2-4 inches of rain will have fallen on the San Francisco area with 2 to perhaps 4 inches in parts of the Sacramento Valley. In the central Sierra Nevada, a whopping 2-4 feet of snow will pile up with local amounts to 6-8 feet over the highest elevations by Tuesday night. The rate of snow may vary significantly and could range from light and intermittent one hour to as much as several inches per hour the next.

Soaking storm setting sights on Southern California (Full Story) >>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A swift fox awaits processing and transport to Montana for release. Photo courtesy Colorado Parks and Wildlife

CPW helps Native American tribes, Smithsonian to restore swift fox to prairie in Montana

Tribal Council leader: ‘It’s like bringing a relative back home’ 

ROCKY FORD, Colo. – Across a large swath of short-grass prairie in far southeast Colorado, a team of Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists led by Jonathan Reitz spent two weeks in August smearing skunk scent and hanging sardines inside steel cages each night.

Reitz and his team were trying to capture swift fox, a nocturnal creature abundant on Colorado’s short-grass prairies. Swift fox frequent prairie dog colonies and feast on small mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, plants and carrion.

But the swift fox weren’t cooperating.

“We struggled trapping them because summer moisture had produced so many grasshoppers that the swift fox were not hungry,” Reitz said. “They were not responding to our bait.”

Reitz was feeling pressure because this wasn’t just one of CPW’s swift fox survey projects the agency conducts every five years to check on the status of Colorado’s swift fox populations on the eastern plains. 

This was an effort to help reintroduce swift fox on the northeastern prairies of Montana where swift fox once were abundant but died off decades ago during a campaign to eradicate coyotes and wolves using poison.

Now, a six-year effort is underway to reintroduce the swift fox and release them on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and CPW is playing the key role by trapping 30 or so swift fox this year, checking them for disease and providing them to Fort Belknap to be released.

The project is in its second year and CPW is working closely with partners from Kansas, Wyoming, the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Fort Belknap Indian Community Fish and Wildlife Department and the World Wildlife Federation.

Reitz and his team eventually expanded trapping operations to the vast Comanche National Grassland. The CPW team ran a series of 150 live traps baited each evening with all manner of fox attractants including sardines and bacon, and checked them at sunrise each day. Eventually they achieved their goal.

“We wanted to get those fox to our processing area in Rocky Ford and into air conditioning as soon as possible,” Reitz said. “We didn’t want to expose them to undue stress. We had a CPW veterinarian, Dr. Pauline Nol, on site and she took very good care of the fox. She took fecal samples for disease and hormone testing and drew blood for a suite of tests just to make sure the fox were healthy before they were sent to Montana.”

Why go to so much trouble to reintroduce swift fox in another state?

“Actually this is pretty common practice between states and it’s an exciting project on many levels,” said Mark Vieira, CPW Carnivore and Furbearer Program Manager. 

The project has roots in the creation in 1994 of the Swift Fox Conservation Team (SFCT) to recover the species. The SFCT is comprised of state, provincial and federal agency partners committed to conservation of this iconic species. The agencies pledged to develop a coordinated and cooperative management approach, using state and federal funding, to rebuild swift fox populations.

“Colorado has a very strong swift fox population and we’re happy to contribute fox to the Fort Belknap Indian Community to assist with a range-wide expansion of swift fox,” Viera said. “We love to see them reoccupying historic swift fox habitat.”

Historically, swift fox lived across North America from Canada to Texas and from eastern Colorado to western Iowa. Their numbers plunged in the 1800s with pioneer expansion and habitat changes occurring  during settlement of the Great Plains and the West. They also became victims of the purge of coyotes and wolves.

Most swift fox populations were extirpated from Canada, Montana, the Dakotas and Nebraska. Luckily, strong populations were found to remain in the prairies of Wyoming, Colorado and Kansas, as well as pockets of swift fox in portions of Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico.

Dana Nelson, a doctoral student at Clemson University and a Smithsonian research fellow, is working on the project and praised CPW’s efforts to bring swift fox back to the Fort Belknap reservation..

“The whole goal of this is to bolster swift fox populations,” Nelson said. “Swift fox have not been present in the Fort Belknap area for over 50 years. 

“The amount of effort that goes into this massive scale reintroduction program is huge. Colorado Parks and Wildlife, in particular, has really stepped up and done so much work in helping us coordinate the trapping effort. We could not do this without all the important people involved.”

Mike Fox, a member of the Fort Belknap Tribal Council, put the reintroduction effort in a different perspective. 

“It’s like bringing a relative back home,” Fox said. “It’s not just turning an animal loose on the prairie and hoping it survives. There’s always that connection tribal people have with the animals.

“It’s a source of pride. It’s like bringing a relative back that’s been gone for many, many years.”

The entire effort makes Reitz proud.

“It’s really, really exciting to be part of a project trying to recover a species in an area where it doesn’t exist currently, and adding it back to the ecology of that system,” Reitz said. “It’s a really awesome experience to see an animal like that on the landscape where it should be.”

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To see a video of the CPW swift fox project, follow this link: https://youtu.be/9-BtxZ5Bvdg

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PHOTOS
Photos are courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife

Cutlines:
Dr. Pauline Nol, a CPW wildlife veterinarian, examines a swift fox after its capture as Jessica Alexander of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation restrains it.

A swift fox in a trap on the prairie.

A submerged boread toad at South Fork Lake Creek, August 2017

New collaboration aims to breed and reintroduce 20,000 of the state-listed endangered species back into the Colorado wilderness next summer.

DENVER – On Wednesday, Nov. 10, a team of conservation and amphibian experts from Denver Zoo traveled to the Native Aquatic Species Restoration Facility (NASRF) in Alamosa, Colo. to pick up precious cargo: 95 boreal toads that will serve as an additional breeding population for their species. The toads were brought back to a specially-designed facility at the Zoo where they were put into brumation—a natural state of inactivity during winter months—before attempting to breed them in the spring. Officials from the Zoo and Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) hope to raise and release as many as 20,000 tadpoles into the Colorado wilderness next summer, and provide a significant boost to the dwindling species that is listed as endangered in Colorado and New Mexico. 

“Boreal toads are in a lot of trouble, but their numbers are still relatively strong even though their population is in decline,” said Stefan Ekernas, Rocky Mountain/Great Plains Program Director at Denver Zoo. “Colorado Parks and Wildlife has done a tremendous amount of work on the conservation of boreal toads for almost 30 years, and we’re excited to join in the effort to help the species make a meaningful recovery while there’s still time.” 

Once common in montane habitats between 7,000-12,000 feet in the Southern Rocky Mountains, the boreal toad has experienced dramatic population declines over the past two decades. The decline appears to be related to habitat loss and primarily infection by the chytrid fungus, which can infect the majority of the world’s 7,000 amphibian species, and is linked to major population declines and extinctions globally.

“We have had success in the past producing boreal toad eggs and tadpoles at NASRF, but it is challenging, and with the increasing need for more animals, we need to step up breeding and reintroduction efforts,” said Harry Crockett, Native Species Aquatic Species Coordinator for CPW. “This is a great opportunity for boreal toad conservation and collaboration with a strong conservation partner in Denver Zoo. We will really benefit from their expertise, experience in the conservation and breeding of boreal toads and other endangered amphibian species.” 

Denver Zoo has been active is amphibian conservation for more than 15 years. In 2018, the Zoo became the first zoo in the Northern Hemisphere to successfully breed critically endangered Lake Titicaca frogs, and has since provided more than 250 healthy frogs to zoos and aquariums in the U.S. and Europe. In 2019, the Zoo used a hormone treatment to breed and produce more than 600 boreal toads, which were released in a remote area in southwestern Utah. And this year, the Zoo successful bred critically endangered Panamanian golden frogs as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s Species Survival Plan. 

The NASRF, which is operated by CPW, is dedicated to protecting and restoring threatened and endangered aquatics species native to Colorado. The state-of-the-art facility currently raises 12 species of threatened and endangered fish, including federally endangered bonytail chub and other state species of concern, as well as the boreal toad. Since its inception in 2000, the NASRF has protected 16 different fish species and has stocked more than 2.1 million fish in rivers, streams and lakes across the state. It’s one of only a few hatcheries of its kind in North America. 

Officials from the Zoo and CPW estimate that it will take many years to bring the species back to a level where it is secure in the Southern Rocky Mountains, and expect the collaboration to be a multi-year program. Additionally, as part of the wild release program, the Zoo will launch a community science project where volunteers monitor survival of released toadlets and evaluate potential release sites around the state. 

LINK TO MEDIA B-ROLL AND PHOTOS: BOREAL TOAD CONSERVATION

A submerged boread toad at South Fork Lake Creek, August 2017 New collaboration aims to breed and reintroduce 20,000 of the state-listed endangered species back into the Colorado wilderness next summer. DENVER – On Wednesday, Nov. 10, a team of conservation and amphibian experts from Denver Zoo traveled to the Native Aquatic Species Restoration Facility (NASRF) in Alamosa, Colo. to pick up precious cargo: 95 boreal toads that will serve as an additional breeding population for their species. The toads were brought back to a specially-designed facility at the Zoo where they were put into brumation—a natural state of inactivity during winter months—before attempting to breed them in the spring. Officials from the Zoo and Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) hope to raise and release as many as 20,000 tadpoles into the Colorado wilderness next summer, and provide a significant boost to the dwindling species that is listed as endangered in Colorado and New Mexico.  “Boreal toads are in a lot of trouble, but their numbers are still relatively strong even though their population is in decline,” said Stefan Ekernas, Rocky Mountain/Great Plains Program Director at Denver Zoo. “Colorado Parks and Wildlife has done a tremendous amount of work on the conservation of boreal toads for almost 30 years, and we’re excited to join in the effort to help the species make a meaningful recovery while there’s still time.”  Once common in montane habitats between 7,000-12,000 feet in the Southern Rocky Mountains, the boreal toad has experienced dramatic population declines over the past two decades. The decline appears to be related to habitat loss and primarily infection by the chytrid fungus, which can infect the majority of the world’s 7,000 amphibian species, and is linked to major population declines and extinctions globally. “We have had success in the past producing boreal toad eggs and tadpoles at NASRF, but it is challenging, and with the increasing need for more animals, we need to step up breeding and reintroduction efforts,” said Harry Crockett, Native Species Aquatic Species Coordinator for CPW. “This is a great opportunity for boreal toad conservation and collaboration with a strong conservation partner in Denver Zoo. We will really benefit from their expertise, experience in the conservation and breeding of boreal toads and other endangered amphibian species.”  Denver Zoo has been active is amphibian conservation for more than 15 years. In 2018, the Zoo became the first zoo in the Northern Hemisphere to successfully breed critically endangered Lake Titicaca frogs, and has since provided more than 250 healthy frogs to zoos and aquariums in the U.S. and Europe. In 2019, the Zoo used a hormone treatment to breed and produce more than 600 boreal toads, which were released in a remote area in southwestern Utah. And this year, the Zoo successful bred critically endangered Panamanian golden frogs as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s Species Survival Plan.  The NASRF, which is operated by CPW, is dedicated to protecting and restoring threatened and endangered aquatics species native to Colorado. The state-of-the-art facility currently raises 12 species of threatened and endangered fish, including federally endangered bonytail chub and other state species of concern, as well as the boreal toad. Since its inception in 2000, the NASRF has protected 16 different fish species and has stocked more than 2.1 million fish in rivers, streams and lakes across the state. It’s one of only a few hatcheries of its kind in North America.  Officials from the Zoo and CPW estimate that it will take many years to bring the species back to a level where it is secure in the Southern Rocky Mountains, and expect the collaboration to be a multi-year program. Additionally, as part of the wild release program, the Zoo will launch a community science project where volunteers monitor survival of released toadlets and evaluate potential release sites around the state.  LINK TO MEDIA B-ROLL AND PHOTOS: BOREAL TOAD CONSERVATION