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The I-70 Scout & Eastern Colorado News

Tag: Montrose

  • Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Supports Coloradans Protecting Wildlife

    Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Supports Coloradans Protecting Wildlife

    DENVER, Colo. —The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) has joined Coloradans Protecting Wildlife (CPW), a coalition formed to fight a ballot measure that will be decided in the November 2020 general election. The measure would force the introduction of wolves along Colorado’s Western Slope.

     “This initiative is a reckless and dangerous approach that circumvents Colorado’s wildlife management authorities at Colorado Parks and Wildlife who have affirmed multiple times over the years that we should listen to the science and not force wolves into Colorado,” says Blake Henning, Chief Conservation Officer at RMEF. “Outdoor enthusiasts, sportsmen, farmers and ranchers, and many residents will be negatively impacted if this proposal is successful. Not to mention the millions of taxpayer dollars it will cost to implement.” 

     The 2020 initiative would ignore long-standing scientific processes, research, and expert guidance by forcing the introduction of wolves into Colorado without any analysis of the potential negative impacts on Colorado’s environment, ecosystems, or its citizens. 

     “Anyone who appreciates Colorado’s quality of life and natural beauty should be concerned by this proposal,” warns Henning. “Colorado is nationally and internationally renowned for its successful wildlife management. Introducing a new apex predator like the wolf will dramatically impact the state’s ungulate populations. Fifty-four of the state’s 64 elk and deer units that are under objective are in western or southwestern Colorado.” 

     As responsible stewards of the land, various stakeholders have previously worked with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to develop a “free-ranging” wolf plan, including necessary management strategies to ensure gray wolves that enter Colorado from other states are protected yet do not endanger animals or people that they may come in contact with. This plan is working as evidenced by the recent confirmation of a wolf pack living in northwest Colorado that migrated here without human intervention.

     By supporting CPW, RMEF joins a growing, robust coalition of stakeholders educating voters about the pitfalls of introducing wolves to Colorado’s landscapes. Trade organizations opposed to the initiative include the Colorado Farm Bureau, Colorado Cattleman’s Association, Colorado Wool Growers Association, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, Outdoor Channel, Colorado Mule Deer Society, Hunter Nation, Big Game Forever, Colorado Traditional Archers Society, Colorado Bowhunters Association, Four Corners Chapter of SCI, Colorado Outfitters Association, Bull Basin Guides and Outfitters, Code of the West Outfitters, Hunt 360, Colorado Independent Cattle Growers, Southwestern Colorado Livestock Association, La Plata-Archuleta Cattleman’s Association, Gunnison, Eagle, Garfield, and La Plata Colorado Farm Bureau boards, as well as Alamosa, Archuleta, Cheyenne, Crowley, Douglas, Fremont, Garfield, Hinsdale, Jackson, Kit Carson, Las Animas, Lincoln, Mesa, Moffat, Montezuma, Montrose, Otero, Rio Blanco, Rio Grande, Routt, and Weld counties.

     Together, these groups are urging voters to vote no on forced wolf introduction and leave species management up to wildlife biologists and the relevant state and federal agencies.

     For additional information about Coloradans Protecting Wildlife, please visit: www.RethinkWolves.com.

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  • Restoring wildlife habitat in western Colorado starts with native seeds

    Restoring wildlife habitat in western Colorado starts with native seeds

    DOVE CREEK, Colo. – Good habitat is the key for maintaining wildlife populations. So Colorado Parks and Wildlife is working in western Colorado to restore abandoned farmland and other areas back to a natural condition.
     
    On a freezing November morning on the western edge of Colorado, Ryan Lane, a CPW wildlife technician, drove an open tractor back and forth across a 400-acre expanse of the Coalbed Canyon State Wildlife Area. The tractor pulled a specialized planter, known as a no-till drill that pushed seeds from 30 different native plants into the dry soil. Late fall is a good time for planting these types of seeds ‒ with snow and rain usually reliable at this time of year getting the seed down ahead of moisture is ideal.
     
    Since 2014, CPW has been working aggressively in several areas throughout western Colorado to plant native seeds on: old farmland, state wildlife areas, state trust lands and areas burned in fires. Since 2015, the agency has planted on about 7,500 acres for restoration and on another 10,000 acres of areas burned in forest fires, explained Trevor Balzer, CPW’s sagebrush and mountain-shrub habitat coordinator.
     
    One of those areas is the 2,800-acre Coalbed Canyon State Wildlife Area in southwest Colorado. In the areas level enough to plant, the parcel produced beans and wheat for decades. To accommodate agricultural crops, however, the land was stripped of sagebrush and other native plants that supported multiple species of wildlife, including the Gunnison Sage-grouse, mule deer, elk, multiple species of birds and small mammals.
     
    Before CPW’s ownership, the fields were abandoned and planted with a fast-growing non-native grass that does not provide much value to wildlife. So in 2016, CPW started the long restoration process. The area was treated to kill the non-native grass and the planting process started. Planting in areas like Coalbed Canyon, however, can be frustrating because of dry weather conditions.
     
    Seeds planted in the fall of 2015 and 2016 received adequate moisture, sprouted and became established. But extremely dry and hot weather followed the fall planting of 2017 and seeds did not do well in 2018. Consequently, those areas are being seeded again.
     
    Wet conditions last spring were favorable for getting seeds to take hold, Balzer said.
     
    CPW plants native seeds using the “no-till” method. The land is not plowed so the roots of the native existing grasses hold soil in place.  New seeds are planted among the remaining vegetation.

    Colorado Parks and Wildlife technician Ryan Lane holds a mixture of 30 different native seeds used to replant former farm land to benefit wildlife.


     
    A key to reclamation efforts is CPW’s native seed warehouse in Delta that was completed in 2012. CPW and other agencies collect seeds of native plants, mostly on the Uncompahgre Plateau west of Montrose, and ship them to commercial growers in the northwest U.S. Those businesses specialize in native plant propagation and then harvest thousands of pounds of seed in amounts that cannot be collected in the wild. The seed is shipped to CPW’s climate-controlled warehouse where it is stored and distributed as needed.
     
    “With large amounts of seed available we can take on large-scale seeding projects,” said Jim Garner, manager of the warehouse. “The warehouse allows us to provide locally adapted plant varieties to Western Slope land managers who are conducting habitat improvement projects.”
     
    A mixture of seed from the warehouse was dropped by airplane last spring over more than 5,000 acres of the Bull Draw fire area near Nucla. That fire burned during the summer of 2018. An inspection of the area in the fall showed that native plants have started to grow.
     
    Balzer explained that the availability of seeds of native forbs – broad-leafed flowering plants – and shrubs are especially important for reclamation efforts.
     
    “Those weren’t readily available on the market before we had the warehouse,” he said. “They’re critical because they provide diverse food sources for all wildlife in the area. When these plants flower they attract a wide variety of insects which help to spread the plants over large areas of the landscape and restore broader habitat function.”
     
    The planting on the 400-acre plot at Coalbed Canyon has been difficult because of wet and cold weather that hit in mid-November. That planting should be completed early in 2020 and plans are already in place to plant a 200-acre parcel next year.
     
    Across the Western Slope, Balzer wants to stay the course of reclaiming about 1,500 acres per year. Even though that’s a small amount of acreage in a vast landscape, biologists know that their work will impact areas far beyond the individual plots. 
     
    “Getting native plants established in these areas is not easy,” Balzer said. “The process is slow and native
    shrubs take many years to mature. But revisiting a successfully restored site is extremely rewarding.”

     

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  • Wild rainbow trout population growing in the Gunnison Gorge

    Wild rainbow trout population growing in the Gunnison Gorge

    MONTROSE, Colo. – Work to restore wild rainbow trout in the Gunnison Gorge is starting to pay off as the population of the species is slowly increasing, according to surveys conducted recently by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. CPW biologists are hopeful that the success on the Gunnison will eventually help bring wild rainbows back to all Colorado’s rivers and streams.

     Rainbow trout once dominated the renowned Gunnison River; but in 1994 CPW biologists found fish there infected with whirling disease and their population drifted toward zero. Brown trout, which are much more resistant to whirling disease, quickly took over and now are the dominant fish in the gorge and many other Colorado streams. Whirling disease infected streams and rivers throughout the state and imperiled rainbow trout populations.

     The most significant observation from the Gunnison survey completed in October showed an abundance of “young of the year” fish that hatched in mid-summer and that showed no symptoms of whirling disease.

    A tiny rainbow trout fry is giving CPW biologists hope that wild fish are reproducing naturally in the Gunnison River Gorge and that will eventually help to restore wild rainbows to rivers throughout the state.

     

    “We found the highest number of rainbow fry we’ve ever seen since the 1990s and they were spread over multiple sites in the canyon,” said Eric Gardunio, aquatic biologist for CPW in Montrose. “We’re seeing natural reproduction throughout the canyon and survival of wild fish in the life stage where they can be affected by whirling disease. It’s very encouraging.”

     For adult fish, the survey found 630 rainbow trout per mile in the survey sections. That’s significantly fewer than the 1,500-2,000 rainbows found per mile in the days before whirling disease; but improvement from the last few years is evident. In 2014, surveys found just 173 fish per mile; 489 fish per mile in 2016; and 522 fish per mile in 2017.

     By comparison, brown trout now number about 5,000 fish per mile.

     “It’s a very healthy river, but for rainbows we have a long way to go before we’ll be comfortable saying they are fully recovered,” Gardunio said.

     CPW continues to stock whirling-disease resistant rainbows in that section of the Gunnison and at other rivers throughout the state.

     The recovery plan for the fish started tentatively in 2003 when CPW obtained a whirling-disease resistant strain of rainbows from a hatchery in Germany. The fish, however, had been hatchery-raised  for decades and were “domesticated”, meaning they had no experience in the wild. CPW researchers crossed the spawn of these fish, known as Hofers, with several other strains of rainbow trout. The crosses showed significant resistance to whirling disease and exhibited a “flight response” when placed in reservoirs.

     In the spring of 2007, biologists started stocking the Hofer-cross fry in rivers and reservoirs statewide. Results were mixed throughout the state, but biologists found that the new strains did best in the East Portal section of the Gunnison River where CPW had, for many years, spawned wild trout to supply state hatcheries. That spot continues to be a productive area and rainbows are spawned there every year. They’ve even been given their own name – Gunnison River Rainbows.

     Finding the young wild fish downstream in the Gunnison Gorge provides another encouraging sign that the 20-year journey to recover rainbow trout has been worth the effort. The abundance of brown trout, predators that feast on small fish, are perhaps the biggest challenge in the Gunnison and other rivers.

     “The wild fry are the best thing for us to see down there,” Gardunio said. “As those fish grow into adults  we’ll have more and more fish and hopefully, a self-sustaining population. We hope to see a continuing gradual increase.”

     And if they thrive in the Gunnison, biologists are confident they’ll eventually take hold in big rivers throughout the state. 

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  • Colorado Parks and Wildlife Starting Winter Big-Game Classification / Capture Flights in Southwest Colorado

    Colorado Parks and Wildlife Starting Winter Big-Game Classification / Capture Flights in Southwest Colorado

    MONTROSE, Colo. – As part of its ongoing work to monitor the health of the state’s big-game herds, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has started its winter classification and capture flights in southwest Colorado.
     
    CPW biologists use the flights to observe and record trends in deer and elk populations. Employing survey methods used for decades, biologists are flown by helicopter over areas where animals historically congregate during the winter months. Using a specialized “counting” technique, biologists record their observations of female, male and young animals. This allows biologists to understand the ratio of male-to-female animals following the hunting seasons, and ratios of young-to-female animals going into winter.
     
    “We use our classification data, harvest data and collar data to plug into our computer models and determine trends in the health of herds and make population estimates,” said Brad Banulis, a terrestrial biologist for CPW in Montrose.
     
    The classification data, population models and herd-management plans provide big-game managers with the information needed for setting license numbers for the next fall’s hunting seasons.
     

     

    People on the ground who sometimes see the helicopters will notice a change in the type of aircraft being used this year. In past years, CPW contracted with a company that flew a yellow helicopter – small with a large glass bubble. This year a larger, white helicopter is being used.
     
    Besides the classification flights, CPW also utilizes helicopters for long-term studies that are examining survival of deer and elk. For example, on the Uncompahgre Plateau west of Montrose, CPW has used helicopters to catch and place telemetry collars on deer since 1997. In the Gunnison area, similar captures have been used for deer and elk-survival studies occasionally over the years.
     
    The biggest project for the agency involves capturing and monitoring elk in the southern tier of the state where calf-to-cow ratios have been declining for the last decade. The purpose of the project, which started last spring, is to determine why survival of young elk is declining in southern Colorado. For this study, elk are being captured in the area west of Trinidad, on the Uncompahgre Plateau and in the Glenwood Springs-Carbondale area. Captures near Craig are also being done to act as a “control” in the study; elk in northern Colorado are doing very well.  
     
    Captures for the long-term elk research started last spring when about 100 cow elk were captured. Pregnant cows were fitted with telemetry collars. In the spring, technicians on the ground captured and collared newly born elk. In the next few weeks more young elk, about six months old, will be captured and collared.
     
    The telemetry collars are GPS equipped, so biologists can watch their computers to see how elk are moving and if any animals die. In case of a mortality, biologists go to the site, examine the animals, and attempt to determine cause of death. The study is scheduled to continue for six years.
     
    “This is a very big and important study. We expect that it will provide valuable data, but it will be at least a year before we’ll have relevant information,” Banulis said.
     
    To learn more about big-game management in Colorado, go to: https://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/BigGame.aspx.

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