Category Archives: West Slope

CEC Goes to Washington DC

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Colorado’s Senator Bennet was honored at the GO Week Congressional Reception along with many other legislators from across the country. At the reception he joined the Colorado Crew for a picture.

I recently had the privilege of traveling to Washington DC for Great Outdoors America Week. It was a great trip! We both furthered our goals for protecting public lands in Colorado and it was a fun time! Great Outdoors America week (GO Week) is organized by the Wilderness Society and brings all different kinds of outdoor related organizations, businesses, elected leaders etc from all over the country to our nation’s capitol to collaborate and meet with members of Congress. In addition to groups advocating for wilderness protections like CEC, there were outdoor education people, mountain biking advocates, veterans for the outdoors and many others. The big tent approach is very effective, imagine hundreds of GO Week participants flooding the halls of Congress, it was hard to miss the passion for the outdoors and public lands!

The Colorado crew was impressive. There were over thirty of us meeting with our delegation members about current wilderness legislation, such as San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act and the Eagle and Summit County Wilderness Preservation Act; and upcoming pieces of legislation (we hope!) like Senator Udall’s Browns Canyon and the Central Mountains Outdoor Heritage proposal and Senator Bennet’s Hermosa Creek Wilderness Proposal. We also updated our delegation about our progress in the Dolores Basin and efforts on Wild and Scenic Rivers efforts. The Colorado Crew included county commissioners, town council members, business leaders and outdoor industry representatives all promoting public land protection. See, Impressive! One of the Congressional staffers pulled me aside after a meeting and said ‘that was really refreshing!’ I guess not all of the meetings they have are so much fun!

Speaking of fun, GO Week pulls in people from all over the country that are passionate about wilderness and the outdoors. So there are plenty of folks to get to know and lots of old friends from past GO Weeks to catch up with. If you plan your day right you can take some time to take in DC’s rich history and culture.

Check out the Op-Ed submitted by our impressive Colorado crew: http://www.postindependent.com/ARTICLE/20120709/VALLEYNEWS/120709899/-1/RSS

Kurt Kunkle
Wilderness Campaigns Coordinator

RIO+20–what’s that?

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That’s what I thought when I first heard about Rio+20. Anyone remember the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio De Janiero, Brazil? I was 10 years old, so umm, I don’t. But 20 years later (i.e. Rio+20), my eyes and ears are wide open.

Rio de Janeiro. Host city for Rio Plus 20. CEC will be there!

As a follow-up to the 1992 Earth Summit, the Rio+20 U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development will host world leaders and thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, and various NGOs for the purpose of finding solutions to tough issues such as; how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more crowded planet? How can we create the future we want? This is truly a global conversation and a monumental event and I’m excited to say that CEC is ready to join in!

Along with my colleague, Kate Graham, I have jumped on an exciting opportunity to join a small team of young professionals from Grand Junction who will be traveling to Brazil next week for Rio+ 20!

While in Rio we will be actively conducting interviews for a short film documentary (working title Voices of Rio) focused on educating and activating a Colorado-based viewership.  On the one hand, we know that Colorado and CEC are leading the charge for sustainable development working to protect our air, water and wilderness. On the other, we know that we can be doing more!

We want to ensure we are playing our part by engaging in global conversations on important issues such as climate change, clean water, smart growth, environmental justice and MANY more relevant topics to Colorado and the world. In conducting interviews our goal is to identify and address the challenges we face in Colorado and the United States that stifles our active participation in the global movement for a sustainable future. In juxtaposing international and regional outcomes during the past 20 years, we aim to pinpoint the root cause(s) of inaction, and catalyze our viewership to chart a new path toward progress and sustainable change.

Throughout this VERY unique and exciting week, the world will be tweeting, posting, and blogging and so will we! Won’t you join us?

Follow us on:

Twitter
Facebook
CEC blog

or join the conversation @#RioPlus20 on Twitter.

The Continuing Story of the Forbidden Dance

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When we left the lek—the grouse were dancing joyfully and then a beautiful predator crashed the party. The dancers were hunkered down awaiting their fate. Party guests were tense watching to learn if a dancer would die……

Female Harrier flying over and checking out male Greater Sage Grouse on lek in NW Colorado. By Todd Patrick

The beautiful yet menacing hawk stretched her wings wide, tilting them to slow her flight, seeming to hover a foot from the ground. She flexed her sharp talons, brushing her lethal weapons lightly through the feathers of the largest male grouse teasing him with her power, strength and beauty.

Hawk & Grouse by Todd Patrick

The grouse seemed to shudder or was that just the breeze in his full coat of feathers?

Then, seeing nothing she wished to take, the hawk lifted her wings and soared fast and true through the big bright blue sky.

A sigh went up from the crowd. The grouse couples arose with new life and commenced to shake their tail feathers as if in triumph. Yet, the moment of peace was brief as in one corner of the dance “floor” a scuffle ensued.

Two males drunk on survival, squared off, eying each other like prize fighters. They circled one another looking for weakness. Ducking and weaving, jabbing, with a right hook here and faint there.

Male Grouse Face-Off at the Lek By Todd Patrick

The tension mounted as the insults began to fly back and forth between the two cocky birds. Such fights often ended in blood-shed. Would the grouse survive the hawk only to be lethally injured in a dance room brawl?

Male Grouse Circling before a Fight. By Todd Patrick

Find out in the final installment of….The Forbidden Dance….

“The Forbidden Dance” is an extended metaphor with blatantly anthropomorphic perspectives of some of the events experienced during the 2012 Grouse Viewing Trips as recounted by CEC’s Northwest Organizer, head grouse wrangler, and abuser of metaphors Sasha Nelson. Her professors are seriously considering confiscation of her advanced degree in animal behavior and her colleague biologists at Rocky Mountain Wild are threatening to never speak to her again. In her defense Sasha states: “I was so sleep deprived I think I was channeling my Nature Writing in the West professor who used to say – a message doesn’t have to be scientifically accurate to be understood.”

Learn more about Greater Sage Grouse and CEC’s work in Northwest Colorado by visiting us!

Better Than TV!

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There is nothing like experiencing first hand something you would watch on Discovery or the National Geographic Channel. Here I am, well before sunrise, driving westward in anticipation of watching the Greater Sage Grouse perform their mating dance. I arrive in Craig to meet up with the other Northwestern folks joining in on this training trip. Everyone looks pretty groggy as Sasha gives a preliminary chat about what our day will entail and what to expect once we are on the “lek”. All the necessary forms are filled out and last minute details finalized, everyone loads up into the vehicles, and we begin the journey continuing west until we near the Wyoming border.

There they were with their tail feathers high and fanned out, the tips of their wings scrapping the ground and their air-sacks expanding as they proudly danced and displayed their manliness. It did not take long before the ladies arrived to check out the gentlemen who were looking for that special someone. There were three ladies that came for the show and left, as far as we could tell, satisfied. They were off to feed and soon lay an egg. After a few hours the show was over and everyone that came for the viewing was as satisfied as the Greater Sage Grouse ladies. It was a sight to see and one I, and the rest of the group, will not soon forget.

What happened to the grouse dancers?

Too find out read the next installment of “The Forbidden Dance” later this week or a few seats are still available, join us  for a “dance” experience  you will remember always!

 

Party crasher at our dance!

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Male grouse compete for female attention at the "dance"

It was a breezy, but beautiful morning in Northwest Colorado. The grouse were dancing in full display. The sun had just come-up and the light was perfect for photographers taking happy snaps of the happy grouse couples on the dance “floor” when out of the clear blue sky a bold and beautiful party crasher swooped in. A russet colored female Harrier Hawk coming in low, fighting the wind, inches from the top of the crested wheat grass stubble.  The music stopped the dancers too and a hush fell over the crowd. In she swooped, brazen as, well as brazen as a hawk on the hunt.  The tension built as the invited grouse guests hunkered down. Would we see blood-shed on this bright and beautiful morning? Would the dancing end as the frightened guests scattered?

Want to know what happens next? Check back to read the next part of the forbidden dance OR come join us and see the “dance” for yourself. 

CEC, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, The Wilderness Society and our partners invite you to the “Dance”. We are pleased to offer limited seating trips to see the iconic Greater Sage Grouse mating dance.  To learn more about the tours or to purchase your ticket, click here. 

Looking back and looking ahead at CEC’s Northwest Hiking Adventures

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For the past six months I have been working for CEC as their Conservation Advocate Fellow on the West Slope in the Northwest office located in Craig. Our office looks after Routt, Moffat, and Rio Blanco Counties and their conservation areas. One of the more exciting aspects of my position is to get folks from our region out into the areas we work to protect. This helps raise awareness of our public lands, Wilderness Study Areas, and other areas of special interest. The first week on the job I did a ride along with the Luke Schafer, West Slope – North Campaign Coordinator. He showed me some absolutely amazingly beautiful country in Moffat and Rio Blanco Counties. It got me excited to explore these new areas that were foreign to me.

Cross Mountain–In Dinosaur National Monument (CEC)

Our outings were first coined as a “Hiking Series” and it consisted of four locations. The first location was to hike Howelsen Hill and Emerald Mountain up to the quarry. The second was the south rim of Cross Mountain in Dinosaur National Monument. For the third hike, we selected Carpenter Ranch, specifically the Yampa River Preserve. The last hiking location was Duffy Mountain. Of the four hikes offered, two happened: Howelsen Hill/Emerald Mountain and Carpenter Ranch. On both hikes the participants were fantastic and everyone had a great experience. The Carpenter Ranch hike was especially fun as we bushwhacked through the brush to explore an old home, found bear prints in the dried mud, and saw a bald eagle soaring above us on the hike out. It was because of the success of this outing that we decided to rename the series from “Hiking Series” to “Adventure Series.”

Beautiful hillsides of Diamond Breaks (Mark Pearson)

The three outings I planned in the newly re-named “Adventure Series” started with Cross Mountain in hopes of getting some interest in exploring the area and observing the canyon from above. Followed by an outing into a Wilderness Study Area of Brown’s Park National Wildlife Refuge called Diamond Breaks, up through Choke Cherry Draw. This hike ends at an old homestead and has an interesting story on how the area got its name. Lastly, I planned an outing to head into Bull Canyon on the far western border of Colorado visiting another area of beautiful canyon country. Unfortunately, Bull Canyon was cancelled due to weather conditions and the trips to Diamond Breaks and Cross Mountain didn’t fill, so we did not go.

Due to the cancellations, the “Hiking/Adventure Series” was not as successful as we had hoped for 2011, but the groundwork has already been set for 2012. With the areas already chosen, and the descriptions and posters written up, weather permitting, we can start earlier this spring and hopefully get more folks involved in getting out and getting excited about where we live. If you are interested in joining CEC’s West Slope – Northwest 2012 Adventure Series, check the Get Involved page of our website at ourcolorado.org to see where we will be exploring this spring.

A Season of West Slope Hiking

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Beautiful fall day in Hunter Canyon.

Beautiful fall day in Hunter Canyon.

The true chill of winter has finally hit Western Colorado after a full fall in CEC’s West Slope field office. Since August 27th we’ve hosted a series of adventures into our big backyard, exploring many of our region’s Wilderness Study and Wilderness Proposal sites. The outings drew an array of savvy hikers, from ages 17 to 70, who got a chance to see the nooks and crannies of the Grand Valley and beyond.

The explorations were an intimate opportunity to learn more about the process of conservation on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. The passage of the Federal Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA) in 1975 directed BLM to identify Wilderness Study Areas (WSA), which encouraged involved community members to supplement the BLM’s efforts by mapping additional special places and identifying Citizen Wilderness Proposals (CWP). From there, conservation organizations (such as CEC) have pushed for permanent protections for these lands by having them legislatively designated as Wilderness Areas or National Conservation Areas (NCA). Today there remains a network of Colorado Canyon Country Wilderness Proposal Areas (CCCWP) that are being tracked for the possibility of conservation designation. During the West Slope Fall Hiking Series we visited a number of them and finished with a trek through our favorite local NCA.

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Harvest Hoedown

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Waiting on Trial with a rollicking set. (Jolynne Woodcock)

The Grand Valley’s expansive desert geography offers refuge for a variety of endeavors. The resource-rich landscape is dotted with oil and gas leases in an ever growing and controversial exploration. In the same setting you’ll find dinosaur quarries, renowned mountain biking, excellent off-season hiking, and endless routes for off-road vehicle use. To the west the Colorado National Monument awes thousands of out-of-state visitors every year, and at the far east end of the valley sits the quaint town of Palisade. In Palisade you’ll find a bounty of agriculture, including proud peaches and vibrant vineyards. With this being the season of harvest, Colorado Environmental Coalition decided this would the perfect setting for our new and improved fall fundraiser, the Harvest Hoedown.

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A friend in need

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Getting ready to get airborne. (Anne Pogoriler)

There are only a few things I will get up before the crack of dawn for and they are as follows: fresh powder on the mountain, leaving for vacation, and a family member or friend in need. On November 1st I woke up at 5:45am in order view via air and ground what exactly is happening on BLM land on the Roan Plateau with ongoing oil shale research and development projects. Because I love nature so much I consider this an example of family member/friend in need.

I had never been on a small plane before so, I was a bit anxious about how I might handle it. Traveling from Grand Junction where we had stayed the night before, by 8 am we reach the Rifle Regional Air Field to meet Bruce Gordon, our air guide. Bruce is the President of EcoFlight, a tour company that offers flights to provide first hand overviews of our country to better understand and encourage protection of the remaining wildlands & roadless areas of America. Learning more about Bruce, my fears of my first flight on a small plane began to ebb a little.

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FOND’s Fall Fest and the keys to preserving the magic of an incredible public landscape!

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Base camp at the FOND Fall Fest '11. (Thad V'Soske)

It was a breathtaking drive a few weeks back from Whitewater to Gateway along the Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway en route to the FOND Fall Fest. Vibrant clusters of red, orange, and yellow scrub oak intermingled with lichens of the same shades – a natural graffiti tagged the granite walls of Unaweep Canyon proclaiming the arrival of fall!

I’ve traveled this route quite a few times in the last 3 years and without fail each time I weave through the contours of this mysterious canyon a multitude of questions bubble up and into my consciousness. How this canyon formed? Is that granite!? Who lives out here? Can I turn down that road? Is that a wild herd of Elk!? Can I hunt in these parts? Whoa cool waterfall! Is there public access?

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