june 2015 celebrate national parks and monuments future ... · wild connections’ summer 2015...
TRANSCRIPT
Celebrate National Parks and MonumentsEnos Mills performance by storyteller John StansfieldThursday, June 11, 7-8:30 pmJames H. Larue Highlands Ranch Library9292 Ridgeline Blvd., Highlands RanchJoin Wild Connections in a program celebrating the Centennial of Rocky Mountain National Park with a one-man, first-person performance. Storyteller and award-winning author John Stansfield reenacts key moments in the life of Enos Mills and dramatizes his part in the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park. Following the program, the audience is invited to learn more about Mills in a question-and-answer session. Free admission; donations gratefully accepted.
Browns Canyon National Monument Dedication and CelebrationSaturday, July 18, SalidaThe US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management will host Browns Canyon friends and local, state and federal dignitaries at the dedication ceremony for the new National Monument. Check www.wildconnections.org/events.html for details which are still forthcoming.
Florissant Fossil Beds National MonumentJune and July, FlorissantThe Friends of Florissant Fossil Beds presents the annual seminar series on topics that include birds, mammals, wild flowers, geology, archeology,pioneers, and of course fossils. Continuing education credit available. See http://www.fossilbeds.org/seminars-2/ for information and to register.
Farnum Peak Project Reconnects Wildlife Habitat
by Misi Ballard
Wild Connections’ summer 2015restoration project is focused on closing
an illegal, user-created track across the 19,000 acre Farnum Peak Roadless Area just west of Badger Flats on the east side of South Park.
This illegal track cuts through the roadless area, severely impacting wildlife populations already stressed and displaced by the proliferation of OHV activity on Badger Flats. Farnum Peak Roadless Area is the only remaining intact corridor for migrating wildlife between Lost Creek Wilderness Area to the north and the meadowlands of South Park beyond the Puma Hills.
BLM Resource Management Plan Will Determine Future Uses of Thousands of AcresYour input is needed
by John Sztukowski
The Royal Gorge Field Office of BLM has initiated theEastern Colorado Resource Management Plan (RMP) –
a multi-year process that will ultimately determine how BLM land in this part of Colorado is designated and managed.
A series of Envisioning meetings held during May and early June were designed to allow the public to help define the larger vision for the RMP.
Publication in the Federal Register, on or about June 1, will kick off a 60 day “scoping” period, a public comment period in which the BLM hosts “scoping open houses” to inform the public about the plan and accept public comments on issues to be addressed and methods to be used in the RMP. These plans typically govern management for 20 - 30 years, leaving lasting impressions on the landscape.
A Resource Management Plan takes into account all of the resources in a BLM region and then manages it based on
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Wild Connections is celebrating 20 years of conservation work by sharing highlights of our history, profiles of the people who made it possible and actions you can take to continue this legacy.
In this issue...
BLM Resource Management PlanPage 1
Farnum Peak Project Page 1
Looking ahead, from the PresidentPage 2
Sparrowgrace, from the editorPage 3
Badger Flats Restoration UpdatePage 5
Restoration and ConnectivityPage 5
BLM Asks for Your InputPages 6-7
Mapping Got Me InolvedPage 8
How You Can HelpPage 9
Browns Canyon National MonumentPage 10
Backcountry hikesPage 11
Celebrate National ParksPage 12
June 2015
2168 Pheasant PlColorado Springs CO 80909
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
BLM’s rugged canyons often have substantial streams such as Monument Creek in West Table Mountain. Photo Wild Connections.
Raptors are sensitive to disturbance. Colorado Parks and Wildlife recommends a one-half mile buffer around
active Northern goshawk nests. Photo Robert Miller
Back-country hikes in BLM WildlandsSee it, touch it, feel it...This summer’s trips are to some of the incomparable BLM wild areas found to have significant wilderness characteristics in Wild Connections inventories. Hikes are co-sponsored by Wild Connections, Pikes Peak Sierra Club and Central Colorado Wilderness Coalition. Limit of 15 participants. More details at www.wildconnections.org/events.html
Beaver Creek Wilderness Study Area Sunday June 14, 8:30 am to 3:30 pmFor decades, our groups have been sponsoring hikes and service projects in the incomparable Beaver Creek Wilderness Study Area (WSA) on the Wild South Slope of Pikes Peak. Now we will explore a rarely-visited area adjacent to Beaver Creek WSA to learn more about this area. Moderately strenuous, on and off trail, seven miles, 1,000 feet elevation gain. For more information and to register, contact John Stansfield, 303-660-5849 or e-mail [email protected] by 5:00 pm, Saturday, June 13.
Hole in the Rocks, Booger Red HillSaturday June 27, 7:30 am to 4:30 pmThe Bureau of Land Management has a relatively unknown and unused series of trails in the Booger Red roadless area southwest of Cripple Creek. Hikers will explore its wild side and also to learn how citizens can get involved to protect wild areas in the BLM’s regional resource management plan. Moderate to strenuous, nine miles, 800 feet elevation gain. For more information or to sign up, contact Jim Lockhart at 719-385-0045 or [email protected] by 5:00 pm, Friday June 26 .Reinecker Ridge Sunday, June 28, 8:30 am to 3:30 pmReinecker Ridge, a unique high elevation BLM area located east of Fairplay,is Wild Connections only proposed Lands with Wilderness Characteristics located in South Park. There will be outstanding scenic views of the Mosquito Range to the west and bear, deer, pronghorn, bobcat, mountain lion, goshawk, bald and golden eagles have been seen here. Moderate, six miles, 600 feet elevation gain, Led by longtime local residents Jim and Annie Halpin. For more information and to register, Misi Ballard [email protected] or 303.884.7640 by 5:00 pm, Saturday June 27.
Jack Hall Mountain , Badger Creek Proposed Wilderness Saturday July 11, 9:00 am to 3:30 pm At a forested height of more than 11,000 feet, Jack Hall Mountain towers over Badger Creek’s mammoth valley, east of Salida. At times will see the contrast between Lands With Wilderness Characteristics and an area of forest logging. Moderate, on-and-off trail loop hike, five miles, 1,000 feet elevation gain. For more information and to register, contact John Stansfield, 303-660-5849 or e-mail [email protected] by 5:00 pm, Friday, July 10.
Cucharas CanyonSaturday September 12, 8:00 am to 3:00 pm Optional trailhead camp Friday nightThe Cucharas River Canyon, east of Walsenburg and I-25, is unique among Colorado BLM lands. It is a prairie canyon with rugged cliffs, diverse wildlife, and remnants of early ranching history. Moderate, eight miles, 500 feet elevation gain. Due to travel time from metro areas, trailhead car camping on Friday night is recommended. For more information and to register, contact John Stansfield, 303-660-5849 or e-mail [email protected] by 5:00 pm, Thursday, September 10.
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2168 Pheasant Pl., Colorado Springs CO 80909
www.wildconnections.org
Mission: Wild Connections, a science-based conservation
organization, works to identify, protect and restore lands of
the Upper Arkansas and South Platte watersheds to ensure the survival of native species
and ecological richness.
Board of Directors
Jim Lockhart,President
Colorado Springs, Legal writer
John StansfieldVice-president
Monument, Storyteller/writer
Alison GallenskySecretary-Treasurer
Westminster, GIS expert
Misi BallardGreenwood Village, Conservation activist
John ChapmanLittleton, Wildfire consultant
Tom MowleColorado Springs, USAF ret.
Claude NeumannDenver, Engineer
Deb OvernDenver, Attorney
Lee PattonDenver, Writer
Kristin Skoog,Colorado Springs,
Systems software engineer
Ex officio
John SztukowskiSalida, Staff
Wildlands Conservation Coordinator
Jean SmithColorado Springs,
Nonprofit administration
In the December 2014 issue of Landscapes, outgoing WildConnections President Deb Overn gave a retrospective of our
20-year history. As incoming President, I should look ahead. What will Wild Connections be doing over the next twenty years?
Some of our goals are mapped out for us. The Bureau of Land Management is presently beginning revision of its Resource Management Plan for the Royal Gorge Field Office region, which includes our Upper Arkansas/South Platte interest area and all of eastern Colorado. Pike and San Isabel National Forests expect to begin the process of updating their Forest Plans in 2017. We will continue to be involved in these multi-year efforts by the federal agencies to bring resource management planning into the twenty-first century. We will also continue our volunteer work projects to protect wild roadless areas and restore connectivity to the landscape.
What else? Look at the Wild Connections map and you will see that if one takes only federal lands into account, our area has some large holes where much of the land is in state or private ownership. A truly regional approach to land protection would bring these
lands and willing landowners into the process. We will also be involved with Western Wildways for a much more comprehensive, multi-regional series of contiguous corridors.
This is not an impossible task. Many parcels of state land are protected to some degree as State Wildlife Areas or Stewardship Trust Lands. Several land trusts, including the Nature Conservancy, the Land Trust for the Upper Arkansas, the Palmer Land Trust and the San Isabel Land Trust, are working with private landowners to preserve their lands through conservation easements and other land protection tools. Working with these agencies, nonprofits, and interested individuals could be the next best step to further the preservation of wild connections across the region.
Since so many of our area residents have come here to enjoy its natural beauty, or wish to preserve a traditional open-lands lifestyle, protecting our open lands should be a fairly easy sell.
Jim
Looking ahead ... from the President
Jim Lockhart, President
How can we begin to understand what wilderness is if we have never experienced a place that is unaltered and unagitated by our own species? How are we to believe in the perfect mind of the natural world if we have not seen it, touched it, felt it, or found our own sense of proportion in the presence of wildness?
Terry Tempest Williams Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert
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Sparrowgrace ... from the Editor
One November evening, I watched as tens of thousands of blackbirds circled the marshes at Bosque del
Apache in New Mexico. They flew as one, circling, swooping, reversing direction in an instant, their calls rising and falling in unison. Ron Steffens described a flight of common murres on the Oregon coast. “A quarter of a mile offshore, on a few acres of jumbled cliffs, thousands of birds raise a muted cacophony, a moaning aaaarrrr that crashes and wanes in a crescendo of avian surf. This morning, rising with the sun, a flock of a thousand is gyring around Face Rock, circling in a fluid changeable mass.”
He continues: Those who have studied the magic of sparrowgrace, the collective flow of a thousand shorebirds or a thousand murres, have noted two key elements that allow a flock to turn in circles while remaining united. Apparently, all flock movement is triggered by the birds turning on the outer edge. Yet this trigger results in collisions unless the birds in the flock’s interior are prepared to turn in advance. The interior birds somehow learn from the birds on the edge. So it may be with the complexity of human change. On one side of the flock a scientist turns us toward preservation; on the other side, a fisherman turns toward sustainability. And if we’re alert, if we’re watching the edges, we may all turn together.
Scientists tell us we are at a tipping point in the history of this planet caused not by an asteroid but by our own species’ expansion and requirements for water, food, energy. In this issue of Landscapes we explore again some of the common flow of ideas and actions that contribute to the complexity of human change required by our times. Look at the map on the facing page and consider what Jim Lockhart says; learn how you can make a difference by participating in BLM’s planning meetings or the Farnum Peak restoration project; explore a wilderness area with our Wild Connections team. Then consider what you personally might do to “watch the edges and turn together.”
If we are alert, watch and listen more carefully, communicate better and learn from each other, then sparrowgrace can be ours.
Jean
Steffens, Ron. A Wilder Ocean for Oregon? Wild Earth: 12-4, Winter 2002-2003.
their “multiple-use, sustainable yield” mission. Resources include timber harvesting, livestock grazing, mining, energy development such as oil and gas leasing, as well as what will be set aside for recreation and wilderness. It is important to note that “multiple-use” does not mean all uses in all places. Wild Connections has made the case that managing for wilderness is managing for multiple-use, as countless resources will also be protected, including wildlife and species corridors, imperiled and vulnerable plants and plant communities, natural landscapes, clean air and water, historical and cultural resources, opportunities for solitude, and scenic resources, particularly from the world class white-water rafting and gold-medal fishing waters of the Arkansas River. Managing for wilderness also protects outstanding opportunities for primitive recreation, such as fishing, hunting, rock climbing, sightseeing, and hiking.
As the BLM overhauls its planning procedures nationwide, the Eastern Colorado RMP will be one of the first plans to incorporate new planning practices from what the BLM has dubbed “Planning 2.0”. Planning 2.0 aims to take a more landscape level approach to management as well as increase the public input process. This will not be the pilot for a new type of RMP as the Planning 2.0 handbook doesn’t come out until at least a year; however RGFO’s field manager, Keith Berger, says to think of it as a “hybrid plan.” We can already see some of the steps in place as the BLM held “Community Recreation Assessment Meetings” for the public last fall and followed suit with similar style “Envisioning Meetings” along the Front Range and central Colorado.
The increased focus on public input is exciting, giving us, the people that use and cherish these lands, a chance to really shape how it will be managed. The scoping period is the most critical phase for your voice to be heard, before the actual plan is drafted.
So while this plan is just beginning, and will be in process over the next several years, now is the most critical time to speak on behalf of the land – specifically the large natural roadless areas – that we value and recreate on. The more that the BLM hears from citizens of the region in the scoping period, the more likely they are to enact the management strategies that we seek to preserve these special areas for the next generations.
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BLM Resource Management Plan continued from page 1
It looks like smoke against the evening sky, but it is thousands of blackbirds swooping to roost at Bosque del Apache NWR. Photo Jean C. Smith
BLM’s Fairplay Envisioning Meeting. Photo John Sztukowsky
Browns Canyon National MonumentThis bit of paradise is protected at last
by Jean Smith
Browns Canyon was proclaimed a National Monument by President Obama this past February. After decades
of mapping, negotiating, legislating and advocating, we now celebrate the protection of this iconic landscape.
The landThe diversity in the Monument is quite amazing. It lies on 1.6 billion-year-old Precambrian batholith that is cut by steep gulches and canyons, some with massive rock formations such as Stafford Gulch and The Reef.
This underlying geology and millennia of time give rise to a variety of ecosystems with a host of plants and animals, some rare and endangered, all integral parts of a complex mosaic of nature’s best.
The Arkansas River on the west side is one of the few riparian ecosystems along the Arkansas that is a relatively intact biotic community. It courses through the Monument bearing rafts full of river runners and providing world-class fishing in quieter stretches.
The lower elevations on the west side at 7,300 feet are filled with semi-arid pinyon-juniper and mountain mahogany woodlands which transition to ponderosa pine, bristlecone pine, and Douglas fir at higher elevations. There are immense stands of aspen along the east side at nearly 10,000 feet, aptly named Aspen Ridge.
The inhabitantsIn the right place at the right time you might see elk, mule deer, coyote, red fox, gray fox, black bear or the elusive pine marten. Mountain lion and bobcat leave pug marks underfoot; raptors and the common bird species of this elevation sing and fly among the trees and cliffs.
The human history is equally diverse. People have lived or traveled here for over 10,000 years. Archaeological sites include culturally modified trees, wickiups, tipi rings, chipped stone sites, and rock shelter sites. Ancestors of the Ute, Apache, Eastern Shoshone, and Comanche Indians hunted here and were followed by Spanish explorers, fur traders and miners. In the 1880’s the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad was built along the river attesting to the area’s value as a transportation corridor.
In addition to the geological, ecological, historical and cultural values, the new Monument will contribute to the local tourism economy with world class river rafting and outdoor recreation opportunities, including hunting, fishing, hiking, and camping. Travel is restricted to designated routes, and the rugged terrain guarantees a first-rate backcountry experience. All valid existing rights remain in effect, and the Monument will be jointly administered by the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. The agencies intend to have extensive public input into the future management plan.
There is much more to explore about Browns Canyon. The Presidential Proclamation (www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/02/19/presidential-proclamation-browns-canyon-national-monument) is a good starting point. And you can visit some part of the Monument at almost any time of the year, either on your own or on guided hikes led by Wild Connections (www.wildconnections.org/events.html)and Friends of Browns Canyon(www. brownscanyon.org/). BLM and USFS are planning a celebration this summer, date to be announced. We hope to see you there.
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When I write paradise, I mean not apple trees and only golden women, but also scorpions and tarantulas and flies, rattlesnakes and gila monsters, sandstone, volcanoes, and earthquakes, bacteria, bear, cactus, yucca, bladderweed, ocotillo and mesquite, flash floods and quicksand, and yes, disease and death and the rotting of flesh. Paradise is the here and now, the actual, tangible dogmatically real Earth, on which we stand.
Edward Abbey
The Reef. Photo John Stansfield
Four season backcountry recreation helps the local economy . Photo John Stansfield
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Farnum Peak Project continued from page 1
Ecological valuesIn addition to its high value for wildlife connectivity, Farnum Peak is a mosaic of diverse topography and vegetation. Nine to ten thousand foot ridges with intervening valleys are covered with ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, bristlecone/limber pine, aspen, lodgepole pine and montane grasses and shrubs. Higher peaks include Schoolmarm Mountain (10,953’), Martland Peak (11,289’) and Farnum Peak (11,377’). Tributaries of Tarryall Creek on the north side and the South Platte River on the south side add riparian diversity.
Mule deer are found year around, and elk winter here. Big horn sheep might be seen in the north and pronghorn in the south. Black bear roam across the whole area. There is suitable denning habitat for Canada lynx and many smaller mammals, the common birds and raptors of these elevations live here.
Project plansWild Connections toured the closure sites just weeks ago with South Park District Ranger, Josh Voorhis, and other local conservation representatives to determine the exact nature of work to be done and project requirements. Recent rains and snowfall has made travel to the closure points difficult and project details are still being developed.
Two consecutive work weekends are scheduled, August 1-2 and August 8-9, in order to accomplish the closure of both east and west ends of the route quickly and efficiently. Travel to the west work site, just off the Turner Gulch Road, is easy with 4WD and high clearance vehicles and we will carpool from FS 237/237A intersection. Access to the east work site may include a hike of up to 1 mile.
Work tasks include installing posts and cable to block the illegal track. The Forest Service will auger post holes and move large rocks, and volunteers will mix cement, set the posts, hand-broadcast and rake in native grass seed.
For volunteers able to commit to a full weekend, camping will be available. Sign up for one or both weekends, and enjoy a relaxing Saturday evening camped among pines, sharing a hearty meal, and icy-cold beer/sodas with Wild Connections board members, some Great Old Broads for Wilderness and the wonderful company of your fellow wild land stewards. Registration is required. Contact Misi at [email protected] to sign up.
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The area surrounding the unauthorized route is quality summer habitat for the area’s elk herd. The pass the route traverses is an important east/west migration corridor for this herd. Ian M. Petkash, District Wildlife Manager – Lake George, Colorado Parks and Wildlife
Farnum Peak Project is strategically located on a ridge that lies between the open parklands of South Park and the forested higher country of the Tarryall River and Lost Creek Wilderness. When the Colorado Roadless Rule inventory was updated, the Forest Service separated the land into two units: Farnum Peak and Schoolmarm Mountain. There will be no uncertainty about the integrity of the whole area when this restoration and route closure is completed.
Elk migrate across the pass where illegal use will be stopped. Photo David Hannigan, CPW
2168 Pheasant Place Colorado Springs, CO 80909 719-686-5905 [email protected] www.wildconnections.org
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You Can HelpWe invite you to support Wild Connections with a contribution, one of the best ways to invest in the future of central Colorado. As with most non-profits, Wild Connections is recovering from the economic down turn, and 2015 is definitely looking better with several foundation grants and a great end-of-year Colorado Gives Day. We are grateful for these expressions of confidence and support. But they do not cover the whole budget, and so we ask for your donation now.
Can you help us cover expenses for these programs?
Farnum Peak Restoration ProjectThe illegal track that cuts across the roadless area and wildlife migration paths needs to be closed and restored this summer! Our partners at the Forest Service and Coalition for Upper South Platte are helping with personnel and mechanical preparation and Wild Connections leaders are volunteering their time. Wild Connections is responsible for supplies and volunteer support. • $ 15 – one pound native seed ($300 needed)• $ 15 – two straw bales ($200 needed)• $ 125 – 10 feet of post, cable, cement ($4,500 needed)• $ 200 – Carsonite closure signs• $ 250 – Trailhead educational sign ($500 needed)• $1,000 – Mileage for Wild Connections project
coordinator, workday leaders and monitoring team.
BLM Resource Management Plan AdvocacyWild Connections is working with regional conservation organizations to advocate for strong protections in the future BLM management plan. Our Wildlands Conservation Coordinator John Sztukowski is assigned full time to this task. But there are many costs for an effective campaign.• $ 50 – Enlist activists to write letters, visit BLM and
local officials, go on hikes to BLM’s wild areas, andbuild a strong base of support. ($5,000 needed)
• $ 35 – Print/distribute brochures, wild areas reportsand handouts ($3,500 needed)
• $ 100 – Underwrite leaders travel and materials for aBLM Wildlands hike ($1,000 needed)
• $ 125 – Support social media and web outreach($2,500 needed)
Your contribution in any amount is most welcome, and we thank you in advance for your help
You may make a donation on-line at our secure web site at Colorado Gives. Go to www.coloradogives.org/WildConnections/overview If you have not given at Colorado Gives before, you will need to set up an account. Your gift is charged to your credit card, and there are options for recurring donations.
Or you can send a check using the form below.
Some of you have been helping for years!
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Badger Flats Habitat Restoration Project Updateby Misi Ballard
In spite of late snowfall in the mountains and meadowsof South Park, Wild Connections was out in the field this
spring inspecting last year’s restoration work and making plans with South Park Ranger District for continuing the work of closing illegal OHV routes in Badger Flats this summer.
As you may remember, the Badger Flats Habitat Restoration project is a multi-year effort to close illegal, user-created off-highway vehicle (OHV) routes that have severely fragmented important bighorn sheep, elk and mule deer wintering and calving grounds to the east of the Puma Hills.
Last summer we completed four weekends in the field, working in partnership with Colorado Mountain Club, the Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and the Mosquito Range Heritage Initiative, along with Pike National Forest trails crews and many enthusiastic volunteers. In total, 58 volunteers contributed over 490 service hours to close and restore user-created roads and trails that were impacting native vegetation and wildlife habitat.
Participants installed 550 feet of post and cable fencing as well as nine signs to close non-system routes in several locations in the Badger Flats area and to educate users on travel restrictions. Additionally, the groups raked in over 1,000 pounds of native seed in degraded areas to help hasten the restoration process. Volunteers directly restored over 90,000 sq. ft. of habitat by closing illegal access to over 10 miles of non-system routes that disturbed hundred acres of forest ecosystems.
Partnering again with South Park Ranger District, Colorado Mountain Club, the Great Old Broads, and other area conservation groups, Wild Connections will continue the Badger Flats restoration work with three work weekends on June 27-28, August 15-16, and September 12-13, 2015. Please be sure to mark these dates on your calendar and join in the camaraderie of kindred spirits working together to protect the public lands we all treasure. Individuals, families, friends of all ages are welcome! Registration is required at www.cmc.org/Conservation/Stewardship.aspx
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Restoration and Connectivity
South Park and the surrounding mountains, once wide-open spaces with no fences and only a few foot or horse trails,has been transformed over the years into a sea of fragmented land. Although it may still be relatively ecologically
rich, it has lost much of its historical connectivity, to the detriment of its wildlife.
In our time, it is ever more critical that we both protect remaining islands of roadless areas and provide connectivity between them. Restoration projects such as Trout and Eagle Creeks, Green Mountain and Farnum Peak increase connections by obliterating routes within roadless areas. Projects such as Badger Flats reduce road density and recreation impacts in other locations.
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Volunteers installing posts and cable in Badger Flats to restrict motorized travel to legal routes. Photo Jean Smith
To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Wild Connections, we our interviews with people involved with the organization in many ways through the years.
Mapping got me involved: Tod Bacigalupiby John Stansfield
Tod Bacigalupi, Pd.D., is a retired Sociology professorfrom Metropolitan State University in Denver and
longtime volunteer activist and former board member with Wild Connections. We asked Tod to reflect on his twenty-year involvement with Wild Connections and its mission.
WC—What drew you into volunteer conservation work?
TB—That was my wife, Lynn. We were shopping in Conifer. Sierra Club had a table in front of Safeway selling calendars. We wandered over to talk. Lynn had been a member since nineteen-who-knows-when. They invited us to their next meeting. Soon the issue of paving the Guanella Pass road came up. Lynn got fully involved in that in 1995. I got involved helping her.
WC—When and how did you become engaged with Wild Connections?
TB—At a Sierra Club meeting in 1995, we heard of some folks getting together to map the national forest roadless areas. I went to the meeting in Golden. Jean Smith was running that. I talked to Lynn about it. She said, “Oh, yeah, that’s a great way to spend our summers.”
We started mapping Jefferson roadless area near Kenosha Pass. Above Jefferson Lake, we walked up this trackless valley, saw herds of elk, huge trees. We found an incredible bristlecone pine. We put our arms around it and couldn’t touch each other’s hands. So, we mapped the roadless area in 1996-7. In 1998, we started doing Antero roadless area. It was huge and took us 2 1/2 years to map it all. We found incredibly beautiful, untrailed valleys where we never saw anyone else.
WC—What did you come to appreciate about these roadless areas?
TB—We loved mapping these pristine places for the purpose of eventually seeing them become wilderness. The fun after mapping was getting together with other mappers, drawing boundaries of roadless areas. With the maps, we started to see the core wild areas and how you could potentially connect them. We could then see how Wild Connections fit into a much larger picture proposed by Dave Foreman and Michael Soule of the Wildlands Project. The vision for connecting wildlands was hemispheric.
WC—Do you have a special recollection from your many years on the WC board?
TB—It was an incredible when we put the Wild Connections Conservation Plan out and presented it to the Forest Service; when WC was part of a big coalition working on the Colorado roadless rule; and when the WCCP became the basis for selection of many roadless areas in the Pike-San Isabel National Forest.
WC—What is your vision for the future of Wild Connections?
TB—I am attached to the idea that was introduced in the first meetings, that this is not a short-term commitment. This is the endeavor to create and protect wild areas and migratory routes. Building something this big will not be accomplished in our life-time, but may be in our children’s’ or grandchildren’s’. This is a hundred year plan we are working on. It was neat to be involved at the beginning.
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Tod under one of the big trees in Jefferson roadless area. Photo by Lynn Yarrol, his wife and team mate, who took photos and made detailed maps. Lynn died a few years ago, but her love of wild areas is still with us.
BLM ASKS FOR YOUR INPUTThe Eastern Colorado Resource Management Plan (RMP) will set the framework for managing development, conserve
our public lands, and will create one cohesive federal plan for an area which covers 38 Colorado counties from the Kansas border to the Continental Divide. All of the counties in Wild Connections focus geography are included.
BLM’s major 60 day “Scoping” period during June and July is the time for members of the public, local groups, government agencies and organizations to submit comments on how these public lands should be managed. The meetings listed in the sidebar are your opportunity to speak directly with BLM representatives and to learn how to write substantive comments for consideration in developing the revised RMP.
The next opportunity to comment will be at the draft RMP stage scheduled for winter 2016-17. At that point new issues or concerns cannot be raised and changes will be more difficult. So your participation is needed now to show public support for responsible land use planning. The future of our public lands and our quality of life will depend greatly upon the enthusiastic involvement of the citizens in this crucial land planning process.
If you are unable to attend one of these meetings you may submit your comments directly to BLM by mail Royal Gorge Field Office, Bureau of Land Management, 3028 East Main Street, Cañon City, CO 81212; by e-mail [email protected] or via their website (http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/rgfo.html). Additional information can be found on BLM’s Eastern Colorado Resource Management Plan home page at https://www.blm.gov/epl-front-office/eplanning/planAndProjectSite.do?methodName=dispatchToPatternPage¤tPageId=53990 Wild Connections also has detailed reports on our inventories of Lands With Wilderness Characteristics, at www.wildconnections.org/conservation/blmwildernessinventory.html
Public Scoping Meetings
Golden, June 15, 5:30-7:30 pmDenver Marriott West, 1717 Denver West Boulevard
Greeley, June 16, 5:30-7:30 pm Greeley Recreation Center, 651 10th Avenue
Salida, June 23, 5:30-7:30 pmSalida High School, 26 Jones Avenue
Fairplay, June 24, 5:30-7:30 pm Fairplay Community Center, 880 Bogue Street (fairgrounds)
Leadville, June 25, 5:30-7:30 pm National Mining Museum, I 17 East 10th Street
Canon City, June 29, 5:30-7:30 pmThe Abbey, Benedict Room, 2951 E. Hwy 50(E from Frontage Road)
Walsenburg, June 30, 5:30-7:30 pm Huerfano County Community Center, 1038 Russell
Talk to BLMMake specific comments on any of these areas that you visited or know about, as well as general recommendations for protection
Ask BLM to add the these areas to their LWC inventoryAreas on this map in bright green and with numbers were inventoried by Wild Connections. Some 250,000 acres collectively were found to have significant wilderness qualities.
Ask BLM to include these areas in their Lands With Wilderness Characteristics and to protect the natural and cultural values.
Ask BLM to designate these Areas of Critical Environmental Concern• Castle Gardens• Greater Badger CreekSouth, Sand Gulch,
• Echo Canyon / EastGulch
• Bear Mountain• Reinecker Ridge andSWAs
• Expand Grape Creek• Expand Beaver Creek.• Expand Cooper Mountain• Expand CucharasCanyon
• Expand Mosquito Pass
Ask BLM to establish Recreation Management Areas • Booger Red area• Extend recreation intoGarden Park near CooperMountain
• Arkansas valley betweenSalida and Leadville.
• Stanley Creek
Wild Connections supports these recommendations:
• Request that BLM prioritize preservation of existing biodiversity, wildlife criticalhabitat and connectivity, endangered species locations in harmony withintensive recreation and extractive uses.
• Include the areas that Wild Connections inventories found had wildernesscharacteristics in BLM’s official Lands With Wilderness Characteristics (LWCI).
• Manage all LWCs to preserve their wilderness characteristics.• Designate expanded and new Areas of Critical Environmental Concern andmanage them to protect the ecological, historical and cultural values for whichthey are designated.
• Support responsible recreation in the Recreation Management Areas andthroughout all BLM lands.
• Support responsible energy development, including recommendations made bythe South Park Master Leasing Plan working group.
• Reveal the broad economic consequences of the management plan byincluding an analysis of all ecosystem services whether direct or indirect.
Pueblo
Salida
FairplayLeadville
Walsenburg
Westcliffe
CañonCity
Buena Vista
Castle Rock
Cripple Creek
Colorado Springs
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UV83
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UV78
UV96
UV115
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UV9
UV67
UV67
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Monument
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Data Sources: BLM, CDOT, COMaP v9,USFS, Wild ConnectionsMap Prepared By: Alison GallenskyRocky Mountain Wild. 7/8/2014. 14-094 v 2Legend
County Line
Highway
Major Road
Wild Connections LWC Inventory
Wilderness
National Monument
Forest Service Upper Tier Roadless
BLM Wilderness Study Area
BLM Land not Part of Inventory
Land Ownership
USFS
State
Other Public
Private; Tribe 0 5 10 15 20 25 Miles
Wild ConnectionsRoyal Gorge Field OfficeLands with Wilderness
Characteristics Inventory
Inventory Areas: 1: Reinecker Ridge 2: Beaver Creek WSA East Contiguous Units 3: Beaver Creek WSA West Contiguous Units 4: Cooper Mountain 5: Booger Red/Bare Hills/ The Bank 6: Thompson/Gribble/
Twin Mountains 7: Cottonwood Creek 8: Thirtyone Mile Mountain 9: Waugh Mountain 10: Browns Canyon South 11: Chipeta Pahlone Foothills 12: Table Mountain Echo Canyon 13: Bear Mountain/West Table Mountain 14: Badger Creek/Jack Hall Mountain 15: Sand Gulch/Falls Gulch Mountain 16: Badger Creek South 17: Sangre de Cristo Foothills Contiguous Units18: Grand Canyon Hills 19: McIntyre Hills WSA Contiguous Units20: Grape Creek WSA Contiguous Units21: Backdoor Gulch 22: Cucharas Canyon 23: Badito Cone Units24: Stanley Creek/Green Mountain
Data Sources: BLM, CDOT, COMaP v 9,USFS, Wild ConnectionsMap Prepared By: Alison GallenskyRocky Mountain Wild 5/20/2015 15-063 v 5
Wild Connections MappingFor twenty years volunteers, interns and staff have mapped the boundaries of roadless areas on USFS and BLM lands across the mountain watersheds of the Arkansas and South Platte Rivers to provide solid documentation for the wildlands network.
When BLM began preparing for the revision of its Resource Management Plan by assessing wilderness qualities of the lands under its jurisdiction, Wild Connections initiated a similar inventory. Volunteers and interns carried out the field work using the latest mapping technology with GPS enabled IPads.
Wild Connections conducted inventories on about 284,800 acres and found wilderness characteristics on approximately 250,000 acres of these BLM lands. In stark contrast, BLM assessed 257,325 acres and identified only 77,765 acres as having wilderness characteristics. Detailed reports on the 24 areas shown on the map above are available to BLM and the public. See www.wildconnections.org/conservation/blmwildernessinventory.html
Table Mountain, one of the Lands With Wilderness Characteristics needing protection. Photo Wild Connections inventory.
Page 7Page 6
BLM ASKS FOR YOUR INPUTThe Eastern Colorado Resource Management Plan (RMP) will set the framework for managing development, conserve
our public lands, and will create one cohesive federal plan for an area which covers 38 Colorado counties from the Kansas border to the Continental Divide. All of the counties in Wild Connections focus geography are included. BLM’s major 60 day “Scoping” period during June and July is the time for members of the public, local groups, government agencies and organizations to submit comments on how these public lands should be managed. The meetings listed in the sidebar are your opportunity to speak directly with BLM representatives and to learn how to write substantive comments for consideration in developing the revised RMP.
The next opportunity to comment will be at the draft RMP stage scheduled for winter 2016-17. At that point new issues or concerns cannot be raised and changes will be more difficult. So your participation is needed now to show public support for responsible land use planning. The future of our public lands and our quality of life will depend greatly upon the enthusiastic involvement of the citizens in this crucial land planning process.
If you are unable to attend one of these meetings you may submit your comments directly to BLM by mail Royal Gorge Field Office, Bureau of Land Management, 3028 East Main Street, Cañon City, CO 81212; by e-mail [email protected] or via their website (http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/rgfo.html). Additional information can be found on BLM’s Eastern Colorado Resource Management Plan home page at https://www.blm.gov/epl-front-office/eplanning/planAndProjectSite.do?methodName=dispatchToPatternPage¤tPageId=53990 Wild Connections also has detailed reports on our inventories of Lands With Wilderness Characteristics, at www.wildconnections.org/conservation/blmwildernessinventory.html
Public Scoping Meetings
Golden, June 15, 5:30-7:30 pmDenver Marriott West, 1717 Denver West Boulevard Greeley, June 16, 5:30-7:30 pm Greeley Recreation Center, 651 10th Avenue Salida, June 23, 5:30-7:30 pmSalida High School, 26 Jones Avenue Fairplay, June 24, 5:30-7:30 pm Fairplay Community Center, 880 Bogue Street (fairgrounds) Leadville, June 25, 5:30-7:30 pm National Mining Museum, I 17 East 10th Street
Canon City, June 29, 5:30-7:30 pmThe Abbey, Benedict Room, 2951 E. Hwy 50(E from Frontage Road) Walsenburg, June 30, 5:30-7:30 pm Huerfano County Community Center, 1038 Russell
Talk to BLMMake specific comments on any of these areas that you visited or know about, as well as general recommendations for protection
Ask BLM to add the these areas to their LWC inventoryAreas on this map in bright green and with numbers were inventoried by Wild Connections. Some 250,000 acres collectively were found to have significant wilderness qualities.
Ask BLM to include these areas in their Lands With Wilderness Characteristics and to protect the natural and cultural values.
Ask BLM to designate these Areas of Critical Environmental Concern• Castle Gardens• Greater Badger Creek South, Sand Gulch,
• Echo Canyon / East Gulch
• Bear Mountain• Reinecker Ridge and SWAs
• Expand Grape Creek • Expand Beaver Creek. • Expand Cooper Mountain• Expand Cucharas Canyon
• Expand Mosquito Pass
Ask BLM to establish Recreation Management Areas • Booger Red area• Extend recreation into Garden Park near Cooper Mountain
• Arkansas valley between Salida and Leadville.
• Stanley Creek
Wild Connections supports these recommendations:
• Request that BLM prioritize preservation of existing biodiversity, wildlife critical habitat and connectivity, endangered species locations in harmony with intensive recreation and extractive uses.
• Include the areas that Wild Connections inventories found had wilderness characteristics in BLM’s official Lands With Wilderness Characteristics (LWCI).
• Manage all LWCs to preserve their wilderness characteristics.• Designate expanded and new Areas of Critical Environmental Concern and manage them to protect the ecological, historical and cultural values for which they are designated.
• Support responsible recreation in the Recreation Management Areas and throughout all BLM lands.
• Support responsible energy development, including recommendations made by the South Park Master Leasing Plan working group.
• Reveal the broad economic consequences of the management plan by including an analysis of all ecosystem services whether direct or indirect.
Pueblo
Salida
FairplayLeadville
Walsenburg
Westcliffe
CañonCity
Buena Vista
Castle Rock
Cripple Creek
Colorado Springs
§̈¦25
£¤24
£¤285 £¤50
£¤285
£¤50
£¤285
UV69
UV9
UV83
UV165
UV67
UV78
UV96
UV115
UV10
§̈¦25
UV67
UV9
UV67
UV67
BrownsCanyonNational
Monument
(12(4
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Data Sources: BLM, CDOT, COMaP v9,USFS, Wild ConnectionsMap Prepared By: Alison GallenskyRocky Mountain Wild. 7/8/2014. 14-094 v 2Legend
County Line
Highway
Major Road
Wild Connections LWC Inventory
Wilderness
National Monument
Forest Service Upper Tier Roadless
BLM Wilderness Study Area
BLM Land not Part of Inventory
Land Ownership
USFS
State
Other Public
Private; Tribe 0 5 10 15 20 25 Miles
Wild ConnectionsRoyal Gorge Field OfficeLands with Wilderness
Characteristics Inventory
Inventory Areas: 1: Reinecker Ridge 2: Beaver Creek WSA East Contiguous Units 3: Beaver Creek WSA West Contiguous Units 4: Cooper Mountain 5: Booger Red/Bare Hills/ The Bank 6: Thompson/Gribble/ Twin Mountains 7: Cottonwood Creek 8: Thirtyone Mile Mountain 9: Waugh Mountain 10: Browns Canyon South 11: Chipeta Pahlone Foothills 12: Table Mountain Echo Canyon 13: Bear Mountain/West Table Mountain 14: Badger Creek/Jack Hall Mountain 15: Sand Gulch/Falls Gulch Mountain 16: Badger Creek South 17: Sangre de Cristo Foothills Contiguous Units18: Grand Canyon Hills 19: McIntyre Hills WSA Contiguous Units20: Grape Creek WSA Contiguous Units21: Backdoor Gulch 22: Cucharas Canyon 23: Badito Cone Units24: Stanley Creek/Green Mountain
Data Sources: BLM, CDOT, COMaP v 9,USFS, Wild ConnectionsMap Prepared By: Alison GallenskyRocky Mountain Wild 5/20/2015 15-063 v 5
Wild Connections MappingFor twenty years volunteers, interns and staff have mapped the boundaries of roadless areas on USFS and BLM lands across the mountain watersheds of the Arkansas and South Platte Rivers to provide solid documentation for the wildlands network.
When BLM began preparing for the revision of its Resource Management Plan by assessing wilderness qualities of the lands under its jurisdiction, Wild Connections initiated a similar inventory. Volunteers and interns carried out the field work using the latest mapping technology with GPS enabled IPads.
Wild Connections conducted inventories on about 284,800 acres and found wilderness characteristics on approximately 250,000 acres of these BLM lands. In stark contrast, BLM assessed 257,325 acres and identified only 77,765 acres as having wilderness characteristics. Detailed reports on the 24 areas shown on the map above are available to BLM and the public. See www.wildconnections.org/conservation/blmwildernessinventory.html
Table Mountain, one of the Lands With Wilderness Characteristics needing protection. Photo Wild Connections inventory.
Page 7Page 6
Page 8 Page 5
Badger Flats Habitat Restoration Project Updateby Misi Ballard
In spite of late snowfall in the mountains and meadows of South Park, Wild Connections was out in the field this
spring inspecting last year’s restoration work and making plans with South Park Ranger District for continuing the work of closing illegal OHV routes in Badger Flats this summer.
As you may remember, the Badger Flats Habitat Restoration project is a multi-year effort to close illegal, user-created off-highway vehicle (OHV) routes that have severely fragmented important bighorn sheep, elk and mule deer wintering and calving grounds to the east of the Puma Hills.
Last summer we completed four weekends in the field, working in partnership with Colorado Mountain Club, the Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and the Mosquito Range Heritage Initiative, along with Pike National Forest trails crews and many enthusiastic volunteers. In total, 58 volunteers contributed over 490 service hours to close and restore user-created roads and trails that were impacting native vegetation and wildlife habitat.
Participants installed 550 feet of post and cable fencing as well as nine signs to close non-system routes in several locations in the Badger Flats area and to educate users on travel restrictions. Additionally, the groups raked in over 1,000 pounds of native seed in degraded areas to help hasten the restoration process. Volunteers directly restored over 90,000 sq. ft. of habitat by closing illegal access to over 10 miles of non-system routes that disturbed hundred acres of forest ecosystems.
Partnering again with South Park Ranger District, Colorado Mountain Club, the Great Old Broads, and other area conservation groups, Wild Connections will continue the Badger Flats restoration work with three work weekends on June 27-28, August 15-16, and September 12-13, 2015. Please be sure to mark these dates on your calendar and join in the camaraderie of kindred spirits working together to protect the public lands we all treasure. Individuals, families, friends of all ages are welcome! Registration is required at www.cmc.org/Conservation/Stewardship.aspx
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Restoration and Connectivity
South Park and the surrounding mountains, once wide-open spaces with no fences and only a few foot or horse trails, has been transformed over the years into a sea of fragmented land. Although it may still be relatively ecologically
rich, it has lost much of its historical connectivity, to the detriment of its wildlife.
In our time, it is ever more critical that we both protect remaining islands of roadless areas and provide connectivity between them. Restoration projects such as Trout and Eagle Creeks, Green Mountain and Farnum Peak increase connections by obliterating routes within roadless areas. Projects such as Badger Flats reduce road density and recreation impacts in other locations.
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Volunteers installing posts and cable in Badger Flats to restrict motorized travel to legal routes. Photo Jean Smith
To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Wild Connections, we our interviews with people involved with the organization in many ways through the years.
Mapping got me involved: Tod Bacigalupiby John Stansfield
Tod Bacigalupi, Pd.D., is a retired Sociology professor from Metropolitan State University in Denver and
longtime volunteer activist and former board member with Wild Connections. We asked Tod to reflect on his twenty-year involvement with Wild Connections and its mission.
WC—What drew you into volunteer conservation work?
TB—That was my wife, Lynn. We were shopping in Conifer. Sierra Club had a table in front of Safeway selling calendars. We wandered over to talk. Lynn had been a member since nineteen-who-knows-when. They invited us to their next meeting. Soon the issue of paving the Guanella Pass road came up. Lynn got fully involved in that in 1995. I got involved helping her.
WC—When and how did you become engaged with Wild Connections?
TB—At a Sierra Club meeting in 1995, we heard of some folks getting together to map the national forest roadless areas. I went to the meeting in Golden. Jean Smith was running that. I talked to Lynn about it. She said, “Oh, yeah, that’s a great way to spend our summers.”
We started mapping Jefferson roadless area near Kenosha Pass. Above Jefferson Lake, we walked up this trackless valley, saw herds of elk, huge trees. We found an incredible bristlecone pine. We put our arms around it and couldn’t touch each other’s hands. So, we mapped the roadless area in 1996-7. In 1998, we started doing Antero roadless area. It was huge and took us 2 1/2 years to map it all. We found incredibly beautiful, untrailed valleys where we never saw anyone else.
WC—What did you come to appreciate about these roadless areas?
TB—We loved mapping these pristine places for the purpose of eventually seeing them become wilderness. The fun after mapping was getting together with other mappers, drawing boundaries of roadless areas. With the maps, we started to see the core wild areas and how you could potentially connect them. We could then see how Wild Connections fit into a much larger picture proposed by Dave Foreman and Michael Soule of the Wildlands Project. The vision for connecting wildlands was hemispheric.
WC—Do you have a special recollection from your many years on the WC board?
TB—It was an incredible when we put the Wild Connections Conservation Plan out and presented it to the Forest Service; when WC was part of a big coalition working on the Colorado roadless rule; and when the WCCP became the basis for selection of many roadless areas in the Pike-San Isabel National Forest.
WC—What is your vision for the future of Wild Connections?
TB—I am attached to the idea that was introduced in the first meetings, that this is not a short-term commitment. This is the endeavor to create and protect wild areas and migratory routes. Building something this big will not be accomplished in our life-time, but may be in our children’s’ or grandchildren’s’. This is a hundred year plan we are working on. It was neat to be involved at the beginning.
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Tod under one of the big trees in Jefferson roadless area. Photo by Lynn Yarrol, his wife and team mate, who took photos and made detailed maps. Lynn died a few years ago, but her love of wild areas is still with us.
Page 4 Page 9
Farnum Peak Project continued from page 1
Ecological valuesIn addition to its high value for wildlife connectivity, Farnum Peak is a mosaic of diverse topography and vegetation. Nine to ten thousand foot ridges with intervening valleys are covered with ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, bristlecone/limber pine, aspen, lodgepole pine and montane grasses and shrubs. Higher peaks include Schoolmarm Mountain (10,953’), Martland Peak (11,289’) and Farnum Peak (11,377’). Tributaries of Tarryall Creek on the north side and the South Platte River on the south side add riparian diversity.
Mule deer are found year around, and elk winter here. Big horn sheep might be seen in the north and pronghorn in the south. Black bear roam across the whole area. There is suitable denning habitat for Canada lynx and many smaller mammals, the common birds and raptors of these elevations live here.
Project plansWild Connections toured the closure sites just weeks ago with South Park District Ranger, Josh Voorhis, and other local conservation representatives to determine the exact nature of work to be done and project requirements. Recent rains and snowfall has made travel to the closure points difficult and project details are still being developed.
Two consecutive work weekends are scheduled, August 1-2 and August 8-9, in order to accomplish the closure of both east and west ends of the route quickly and efficiently. Travel to the west work site, just off the Turner Gulch Road, is easy with 4WD and high clearance vehicles and we will carpool from FS 237/237A intersection. Access to the east work site may include a hike of up to 1 mile.
Work tasks include installing posts and cable to block the illegal track. The Forest Service will auger post holes and move large rocks, and volunteers will mix cement, set the posts, hand-broadcast and rake in native grass seed.
For volunteers able to commit to a full weekend, camping will be available. Sign up for one or both weekends, and enjoy a relaxing Saturday evening camped among pines, sharing a hearty meal, and icy-cold beer/sodas with Wild Connections board members, some Great Old Broads for Wilderness and the wonderful company of your fellow wild land stewards. Registration is required. Contact Misi at [email protected] to sign up.
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The area surrounding the unauthorized route is quality summer habitat for the area’s elk herd. The pass the route traverses is an important east/west migration corridor for this herd. Ian M. Petkash, District Wildlife Manager – Lake George, Colorado Parks and Wildlife
Farnum Peak Project is strategically located on a ridge that lies between the open parklands of South Park and the forested higher country of the Tarryall River and Lost Creek Wilderness. When the Colorado Roadless Rule inventory was updated, the Forest Service separated the land into two units: Farnum Peak and Schoolmarm Mountain. There will be no uncertainty about the integrity of the whole area when this restoration and route closure is completed.
Elk migrate across the pass where illegal use will be stopped. Photo David Hannigan, CPW
2168 Pheasant Place Colorado Springs, CO 80909 719-686-5905 [email protected] www.wildconnections.org
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You Can HelpWe invite you to support Wild Connections with a contribution, one of the best ways to invest in the future of central Colorado. As with most non-profits, Wild Connections is recovering from the economic down turn, and 2015 is definitely looking better with several foundation grants and a great end-of-year Colorado Gives Day. We are grateful for these expressions of confidence and support. But they do not cover the whole budget, and so we ask for your donation now.
Can you help us cover expenses for these programs?
Farnum Peak Restoration ProjectThe illegal track that cuts across the roadless area and wildlife migration paths needs to be closed and restored this summer! Our partners at the Forest Service and Coalition for Upper South Platte are helping with personnel and mechanical preparation and Wild Connections leaders are volunteering their time. Wild Connections is responsible for supplies and volunteer support. • $ 15 – one pound native seed ($300 needed)• $ 15 – two straw bales ($200 needed)• $ 125 – 10 feet of post, cable, cement ($4,500 needed)• $ 200 – Carsonite closure signs • $ 250 – Trailhead educational sign ($500 needed)• $1,000 – Mileage for Wild Connections project
coordinator, workday leaders and monitoring team.
BLM Resource Management Plan AdvocacyWild Connections is working with regional conservation organizations to advocate for strong protections in the future BLM management plan. Our Wildlands Conservation Coordinator John Sztukowski is assigned full time to this task. But there are many costs for an effective campaign.• $ 50 – Enlist activists to write letters, visit BLM and
local officials, go on hikes to BLM’s wild areas, and build a strong base of support. ($5,000 needed)
• $ 35 – Print/distribute brochures, wild areas reports and handouts ($3,500 needed)
• $ 100 – Underwrite leaders travel and materials for a BLM Wildlands hike ($1,000 needed)
• $ 125 – Support social media and web outreach ($2,500 needed)
Your contribution in any amount is most welcome, and we thank you in advance for your help
You may make a donation on-line at our secure web site at Colorado Gives. Go to www.coloradogives.org/WildConnections/overview If you have not given at Colorado Gives before, you will need to set up an account. Your gift is charged to your credit card, and there are options for recurring donations.
Or you can send a check using the form below.
Some of you have been helping for years!
Page 10Page 3
Sparrowgrace ... from the Editor
One November evening, I watched as tens of thousands of blackbirds circled the marshes at Bosque del
Apache in New Mexico. They flew as one, circling, swooping, reversing direction in an instant, their calls rising and falling in unison. Ron Steffens described a flight of common murres on the Oregon coast. “A quarter of a mile offshore, on a few acres of jumbled cliffs, thousands of birds raise a muted cacophony, a moaning aaaarrrr that crashes and wanes in a crescendo of avian surf. This morning, rising with the sun, a flock of a thousand is gyring around Face Rock, circling in a fluid changeable mass.”
He continues: Those who have studied the magic of sparrowgrace, the collective flow of a thousand shorebirds or a thousand murres, have noted two key elements that allow a flock to turn in circles while remaining united. Apparently, all flock movement is triggered by the birds turning on the outer edge. Yet this trigger results in collisions unless the birds in the flock’s interior are prepared to turn in advance. The interior birds somehow learn from the birds on the edge. So it may be with the complexity of human change. On one side of the flock a scientist turns us toward preservation; on the other side, a fisherman turns toward sustainability. And if we’re alert, if we’re watching the edges, we may all turn together.
Scientists tell us we are at a tipping point in the history of this planet caused not by an asteroid but by our own species’ expansion and requirements for water, food, energy. In this issue of Landscapes we explore again some of the common flow of ideas and actions that contribute to the complexity of human change required by our times. Look at the map on the facing page and consider what Jim Lockhart says; learn how you can make a difference by participating in BLM’s planning meetings or the Farnum Peak restoration project; explore a wilderness area with our Wild Connections team. Then consider what you personally might do to “watch the edges and turn together.”
If we are alert, watch and listen more carefully, communicate better and learn from each other, then sparrowgrace can be ours.
Jean
Steffens, Ron. A Wilder Ocean for Oregon? Wild Earth: 12-4, Winter 2002-2003.
their “multiple-use, sustainable yield” mission. Resources include timber harvesting, livestock grazing, mining, energy development such as oil and gas leasing, as well as what will be set aside for recreation and wilderness. It is important to note that “multiple-use” does not mean all uses in all places. Wild Connections has made the case that managing for wilderness is managing for multiple-use, as countless resources will also be protected, including wildlife and species corridors, imperiled and vulnerable plants and plant communities, natural landscapes, clean air and water, historical and cultural resources, opportunities for solitude, and scenic resources, particularly from the world class white-water rafting and gold-medal fishing waters of the Arkansas River. Managing for wilderness also protects outstanding opportunities for primitive recreation, such as fishing, hunting, rock climbing, sightseeing, and hiking.
As the BLM overhauls its planning procedures nationwide, the Eastern Colorado RMP will be one of the first plans to incorporate new planning practices from what the BLM has dubbed “Planning 2.0”. Planning 2.0 aims to take a more landscape level approach to management as well as increase the public input process. This will not be the pilot for a new type of RMP as the Planning 2.0 handbook doesn’t come out until at least a year; however RGFO’s field manager, Keith Berger, says to think of it as a “hybrid plan.” We can already see some of the steps in place as the BLM held “Community Recreation Assessment Meetings” for the public last fall and followed suit with similar style “Envisioning Meetings” along the Front Range and central Colorado.
The increased focus on public input is exciting, giving us, the people that use and cherish these lands, a chance to really shape how it will be managed. The scoping period is the most critical phase for your voice to be heard, before the actual plan is drafted.
So while this plan is just beginning, and will be in process over the next several years, now is the most critical time to speak on behalf of the land – specifically the large natural roadless areas – that we value and recreate on. The more that the BLM hears from citizens of the region in the scoping period, the more likely they are to enact the management strategies that we seek to preserve these special areas for the next generations.
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BLM Resource Management Plan continued from page 1
It looks like smoke against the evening sky, but it is thousands of blackbirds swooping to roost at Bosque del Apache NWR. Photo Jean C. Smith
BLM’s Fairplay Envisioning Meeting. Photo John Sztukowsky
Browns Canyon National MonumentThis bit of paradise is protected at last
by Jean Smith
Browns Canyon was proclaimed a National Monument by President Obama this past February. After decades
of mapping, negotiating, legislating and advocating, we now celebrate the protection of this iconic landscape.
The landThe diversity in the Monument is quite amazing. It lies on 1.6 billion-year-old Precambrian batholith that is cut by steep gulches and canyons, some with massive rock formations such as Stafford Gulch and The Reef.
This underlying geology and millennia of time give rise to a variety of ecosystems with a host of plants and animals, some rare and endangered, all integral parts of a complex mosaic of nature’s best.
The Arkansas River on the west side is one of the few riparian ecosystems along the Arkansas that is a relatively intact biotic community. It courses through the Monument bearing rafts full of river runners and providing world-class fishing in quieter stretches.
The lower elevations on the west side at 7,300 feet are filled with semi-arid pinyon-juniper and mountain mahogany woodlands which transition to ponderosa pine, bristlecone pine, and Douglas fir at higher elevations. There are immense stands of aspen along the east side at nearly 10,000 feet, aptly named Aspen Ridge.
The inhabitantsIn the right place at the right time you might see elk, mule deer, coyote, red fox, gray fox, black bear or the elusive pine marten. Mountain lion and bobcat leave pug marks underfoot; raptors and the common bird species of this elevation sing and fly among the trees and cliffs.
The human history is equally diverse. People have lived or traveled here for over 10,000 years. Archaeological sites include culturally modified trees, wickiups, tipi rings, chipped stone sites, and rock shelter sites. Ancestors of the Ute, Apache, Eastern Shoshone, and Comanche Indians hunted here and were followed by Spanish explorers, fur traders and miners. In the 1880’s the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad was built along the river attesting to the area’s value as a transportation corridor.
In addition to the geological, ecological, historical and cultural values, the new Monument will contribute to the local tourism economy with world class river rafting and outdoor recreation opportunities, including hunting, fishing, hiking, and camping. Travel is restricted to designated routes, and the rugged terrain guarantees a first-rate backcountry experience. All valid existing rights remain in effect, and the Monument will be jointly administered by the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. The agencies intend to have extensive public input into the future management plan.
There is much more to explore about Browns Canyon. The Presidential Proclamation (www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/02/19/presidential-proclamation-browns-canyon-national-monument) is a good starting point. And you can visit some part of the Monument at almost any time of the year, either on your own or on guided hikes led by Wild Connections (www.wildconnections.org/events.html)and Friends of Browns Canyon(www. brownscanyon.org/). BLM and USFS are planning a celebration this summer, date to be announced. We hope to see you there.
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When I write paradise, I mean not apple trees and only golden women, but also scorpions and tarantulas and flies, rattlesnakes and gila monsters, sandstone, volcanoes, and earthquakes, bacteria, bear, cactus, yucca, bladderweed, ocotillo and mesquite, flash floods and quicksand, and yes, disease and death and the rotting of flesh. Paradise is the here and now, the actual, tangible dogmatically real Earth, on which we stand.
Edward Abbey
The Reef. Photo John Stansfield
Four season backcountry recreation helps the local economy . Photo John Stansfield
Back-country hikes in BLM WildlandsSee it, touch it, feel it...This summer’s trips are to some of the incomparable BLM wild areas found to have significant wilderness characteristics in Wild Connections inventories. Hikes are co-sponsored by Wild Connections, Pikes Peak Sierra Club and Central Colorado Wilderness Coalition. Limit of 15 participants. More details at www.wildconnections.org/events.html
Beaver Creek Wilderness Study Area Sunday June 14, 8:30 am to 3:30 pmFor decades, our groups have been sponsoring hikes and service projects in the incomparable Beaver Creek Wilderness Study Area (WSA) on the Wild South Slope of Pikes Peak. Now we will explore a rarely-visited area adjacent to Beaver Creek WSA to learn more about this area. Moderately strenuous, on and off trail, seven miles, 1,000 feet elevation gain. For more information and to register, contact John Stansfield, 303-660-5849 or e-mail [email protected] by 5:00 pm, Saturday, June 13. Hole in the Rocks, Booger Red HillSaturday June 27, 7:30 am to 4:30 pmThe Bureau of Land Management has a relatively unknown and unused series of trails in the Booger Red roadless area southwest of Cripple Creek. Hikers will explore its wild side and also to learn how citizens can get involved to protect wild areas in the BLM’s regional resource management plan. Moderate to strenuous, nine miles, 800 feet elevation gain. For more information or to sign up, contact Jim Lockhart at 719-385-0045 or [email protected] by 5:00 pm, Friday June 26 .Reinecker Ridge Sunday, June 28, 8:30 am to 3:30 pmReinecker Ridge, a unique high elevation BLM area located east of Fairplay,is Wild Connections only proposed Lands with Wilderness Characteristics located in South Park. There will be outstanding scenic views of the Mosquito Range to the west and bear, deer, pronghorn, bobcat, mountain lion, goshawk, bald and golden eagles have been seen here. Moderate, six miles, 600 feet elevation gain, Led by longtime local residents Jim and Annie Halpin. For more information and to register, Misi Ballard [email protected] or 303.884.7640 by 5:00 pm, Saturday June 27.
Jack Hall Mountain , Badger Creek Proposed Wilderness Saturday July 11, 9:00 am to 3:30 pm At a forested height of more than 11,000 feet, Jack Hall Mountain towers over Badger Creek’s mammoth valley, east of Salida. At times will see the contrast between Lands With Wilderness Characteristics and an area of forest logging. Moderate, on-and-off trail loop hike, five miles, 1,000 feet elevation gain. For more information and to register, contact John Stansfield, 303-660-5849 or e-mail [email protected] by 5:00 pm, Friday, July 10. Cucharas CanyonSaturday September 12, 8:00 am to 3:00 pm Optional trailhead camp Friday nightThe Cucharas River Canyon, east of Walsenburg and I-25, is unique among Colorado BLM lands. It is a prairie canyon with rugged cliffs, diverse wildlife, and remnants of early ranching history. Moderate, eight miles, 500 feet elevation gain. Due to travel time from metro areas, trailhead car camping on Friday night is recommended. For more information and to register, contact John Stansfield, 303-660-5849 or e-mail [email protected] by 5:00 pm, Thursday, September 10.
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2168 Pheasant Pl., Colorado Springs CO 80909
www.wildconnections.org
Mission: Wild Connections, a science-based conservation
organization, works to identify, protect and restore lands of
the Upper Arkansas and South Platte watersheds to ensure the survival of native species
and ecological richness.
Board of Directors
Jim Lockhart,President
Colorado Springs, Legal writer
John StansfieldVice-president
Monument, Storyteller/writer
Alison GallenskySecretary-Treasurer
Westminster, GIS expert
Misi BallardGreenwood Village, Conservation activist
John ChapmanLittleton, Wildfire consultant
Tom MowleColorado Springs, USAF ret.
Claude NeumannDenver, Engineer
Deb OvernDenver, Attorney
Lee PattonDenver, Writer
Kristin Skoog,Colorado Springs,
Systems software engineer
Ex officio
John SztukowskiSalida, Staff
Wildlands Conservation Coordinator
Jean SmithColorado Springs,
Nonprofit administration
In the December 2014 issue of Landscapes, outgoing Wild Connections President Deb Overn gave a retrospective of our
20-year history. As incoming President, I should look ahead. What will Wild Connections be doing over the next twenty years? Some of our goals are mapped out for us. The Bureau of Land Management is presently beginning revision of its Resource Management Plan for the Royal Gorge Field Office region, which includes our Upper Arkansas/South Platte interest area and all of eastern Colorado. Pike and San Isabel National Forests expect to begin the process of updating their Forest Plans in 2017. We will continue to be involved in these multi-year efforts by the federal agencies to bring resource management planning into the twenty-first century. We will also continue our volunteer work projects to protect wild roadless areas and restore connectivity to the landscape. What else? Look at the Wild Connections map and you will see that if one takes only federal lands into account, our area has some large holes where much of the land is in state or private ownership. A truly regional approach to land protection would bring these
lands and willing landowners into the process. We will also be involved with Western Wildways for a much more comprehensive, multi-regional series of contiguous corridors.
This is not an impossible task. Many parcels of state land are protected to some degree as State Wildlife Areas or Stewardship Trust Lands. Several land trusts, including the Nature Conservancy, the Land Trust for the Upper Arkansas, the Palmer Land Trust and the San Isabel Land Trust, are working with private landowners to preserve their lands through conservation easements and other land protection tools. Working with these agencies, nonprofits, and interested individuals could be the next best step to further the preservation of wild connections across the region. Since so many of our area residents have come here to enjoy its natural beauty, or wish to preserve a traditional open-lands lifestyle, protecting our open lands should be a fairly easy sell.
Jim
Looking ahead ... from the President
Jim Lockhart, President
How can we begin to understand what wilderness is if we have never experienced a place that is unaltered and unagitated by our own species? How are we to believe in the perfect mind of the natural world if we have not seen it, touched it, felt it, or found our own sense of proportion in the presence of wildness?
Terry Tempest Williams Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert
Celebrate National Parks and MonumentsEnos Mills performance by storyteller John StansfieldThursday, June 11, 7-8:30 pmJames H. Larue Highlands Ranch Library9292 Ridgeline Blvd., Highlands RanchJoin Wild Connections in a program celebrating the Centennial of Rocky Mountain National Park with a one-man, first-person performance. Storyteller and award-winning author John Stansfield reenacts key moments in the life of Enos Mills and dramatizes his part in the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park. Following the program, the audience is invited to learn more about Mills in a question-and-answer session. Free admission; donations gratefully accepted.
Browns Canyon National Monument Dedication and CelebrationSaturday, July 18, SalidaThe US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management will host Browns Canyon friends and local, state and federal dignitaries at the dedication ceremony for the new National Monument. Check www.wildconnections.org/events.html for details which are still forthcoming.
Florissant Fossil Beds National MonumentJune and July, FlorissantThe Friends of Florissant Fossil Beds presents the annual seminar series on topics that include birds, mammals, wild flowers, geology, archeology,pioneers, and of course fossils. Continuing education credit available. See http://www.fossilbeds.org/seminars-2/ for information and to register.
Farnum Peak Project Reconnects Wildlife Habitat
by Misi Ballard
Wild Connections’ summer 2015restoration project is focused on closing
an illegal, user-created track across the 19,000 acre Farnum Peak Roadless Area just west of Badger Flats on the east side of South Park.
This illegal track cuts through the roadless area, severely impacting wildlife populations already stressed and displaced by the proliferation of OHV activity on Badger Flats. Farnum Peak Roadless Area is the only remaining intact corridor for migrating wildlife between Lost Creek Wilderness Area to the north and the meadowlands of South Park beyond the Puma Hills.
BLM Resource Management Plan Will Determine Future Uses of Thousands of AcresYour input is needed
by John Sztukowski
The Royal Gorge Field Office of BLM has initiated theEastern Colorado Resource Management Plan (RMP) –
a multi-year process that will ultimately determine how BLM land in this part of Colorado is designated and managed.
A series of Envisioning meetings held during May and early June were designed to allow the public to help define the larger vision for the RMP.
Publication in the Federal Register, on or about June 1, will kick off a 60 day “scoping” period, a public comment period in which the BLM hosts “scoping open houses” to inform the public about the plan and accept public comments on issues to be addressed and methods to be used in the RMP. These plans typically govern management for 20 - 30 years, leaving lasting impressions on the landscape.
A Resource Management Plan takes into account all of the resources in a BLM region and then manages it based on
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Wild Connections is celebrating 20 years of conservation work by sharing highlights of our history, profiles of the people who made it possible and actions you can take to continue this legacy.
In this issue...
BLM Resource Management PlanPage 1
Farnum Peak Project Page 1
Looking ahead, from the PresidentPage 2
Sparrowgrace, from the editorPage 3
Badger Flats Restoration UpdatePage 5
Restoration and ConnectivityPage 5
BLM Asks for Your InputPages 6-7
Mapping Got Me InolvedPage 8
How You Can HelpPage 9
Browns Canyon National MonumentPage 10
Backcountry hikesPage 11
Celebrate National ParksPage 12
June 2015
2168 Pheasant PlColorado Springs CO 80909
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
BLM’s rugged canyons often have substantial streams such as Monument Creek in West Table Mountain. Photo Wild Connections.
Raptors are sensitive to disturbance. Colorado Parks and Wildlife recommends a one-half mile buffer around
active Northern goshawk nests. Photo Robert Miller