Wildlife Promise » Rocky Mountains

Governor, think of the beer!

Michael Saul — Wed, 29 May 2013 19:23:23 +0000

What harm would fracking do to that precious commodity — beer? Flickr: Mezzoblue

Who isn’t familiar with Coors advertising displaying snowy mountain peaks and touting the purity of Rocky Mountain water (despite the fact that the massive Coors plant in Golden killed thousands fish in a 2000 spill)? Beer is rightly a point of pride for Coloradans. Avery,Great Divide, New Belgium, and a host of smaller Colorado breweries have been at the forefront of a craft beer renaissance, offering beer fanciers a remarkable diversity and quality of lagers, ales, and other brews. Our geologist-turned brewer- turned- governor, John Hickenlooper, deserves tremendous credit for helping spur the growth of craft brewing, and the revitalization of downtown Denver, through his founding of the Wynkoop Brewing Co. I’m partial to their ESB.

Pure Rocky Mountain Spring Water?

The governor, however, has not always been as strong an advocate for Colorado’s surface and ground waters as he has been for quality beer. Perhaps the most prominent example is his oft-debunked claim to drinking “frack fluid.” “Frack fluid” refers to the host of chemical cocktails injected at high pressure into hydrocarbon-bearing geological formations, along with sand and water, to release the oil and gas fueling our latest drilling boom. Yet the brew the governor sampled is an expensive, experimental plant-based variety not actually in commercial use in the state. Real frack fluid contains a soup of chemicals toxic to humans and wildlife. I think this episode displays an unfounded assurance that fracking, and oil and gas development, is risk-free, and that the oil and gas industry can and will self-regulate to ensure that our state’s waters don’t suffer contamination from the rush to extract natural gas.

Germany’s Fracking Brew-Ha-Ha

I couldn’t help but wonder, then, whether the governor might not be persuaded otherwise at last by a new controversy “brewing” in, of all places, Germany. According to an article in Der Spiegel, German breweries have complained that hydraulic fracturing threatens to contaminate drinking water and violate “the beer purity law, or Reinheitsgebot, of 1516.” I was disappointed when research revealed that Colorado has no beer purity law of 1516. The German rule mandates that “German beer still may only be made from malt, hops, yeast and water.” Presumably, carcinogenic frack fluid constituents like benzene and 1,2-Dichloroethane don’t meet that definition.

Trucks line up at a fracking site in western Colorado. Photo by Judith Kohler

Many of us in Colorado have been disappointed by the governor’s apparently unquestioning embrace of oil and gas drilling, a stance that has manifested itself in litigation challenging municipal efforts to regulate the practice and in the administration’s undoing of modest proposed legislative reforms to the state’s badly outdated fine structure for violation of health, safety, and environmental regulations. Do we really want to risk being known for frack fluid cocktails and benzene spills rather than for clear streams and innovative IPAs? Perhaps the German brewers’ outrage might remind our governor that if there’s one thing about which Coloradans care deeply – it’s beer.

The Wolverines Make a Comeback in Colorado

Sarah Pizzo — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:54:42 +0000

Photo courtesy of Sarah Pizzo

I was born and raised in the Colorado Rockies, where I roamed the wild, open space around my childhood home. I woke many dawns to the trumpet-like calls of rutting elk or the chattering of angry squirrels. I spent many nights under starry skies, crickets chirping and coyotes howling around me. There’s nothing I’m more passionate about than my Colorado wildlife.

Except, perhaps, my Michigan Wolverines! As a former University of Michigan athlete, I’m a dedicated Wolverine fanatic. I’ve been watching all season as the Michigan men’s basketball team returns to greatness. Not since “The Fab Five” of the early 90s has the team looked so good. The Wolverines ranked as high as #1 in the nation this year. And they just defeated two perennial powerhouse teams to make it to the NCAA Final Four. After two decades in the making, I think the Wolverines have an excellent shot at winning the Championship.

National Wildlife Photo Contest entry by Robert Postma.

Back on the home front, I’m excited about another wolverine comeback: the return of a wild wolverine to Colorado. Wolverines once flourished in Colorado, where the large quantity of high alpine habitat sustained the winter-loving animals. By 1919, predator control efforts had completely wiped out the state’s wolverine population. Then, in 2009, a lone male – “M-56” – made his way into the state and took up residence in the high peaks near Rocky Mountain National Park. Wildlife experts, encouraged by this homecoming, are now mulling the possibility of reintroducing a small population of wolverines in Colorado.

It’s been decades in the making…I think the wolverines are ready for their comeback.

Students and Conservation Groups Forging Partnerships for Wildlife

Guest Author — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 15:52:11 +0000

Guest blog post by Ashley Rust and John Gale.

Great opportunities abound to become involved in important, local on-the-ground wildlife habitat projects. Meaningful project options in most areas are right in front of us—from stream restoration to noxious weed removal to planting shrubs that wildlife need for forage. Student groups or chapters will help participants prepare to become tomorrow’s leaders who care about our remarkable wildlife.

National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has a more than 20-year history of working with colleges and universities through its Campus Ecology program to improve their overall green educational programming and onsite sustainability. Founded in 1989, its student outreach programs, campus consulting, climate action competition, and educational events and resourcesreach about 1,000 campuses each year.

Colorado Wildlife Federation (CWF), an affiliate of NWF, is creating something new: college student chapters. CWF is encouraging college students who want to do more for wildlife habitat to join or start a new CWF student chapter. We envision that these young people will become lifelong members or supporters as they become informed and empowered to participate in the key wildlife issues that CWF tackles. In addition to meeting monthly at a convenient place, the students will participate in hands-on quarterly habitat restoration projects that CWF organizes. The student chapters will designate a member to attend CWF board and Issues Committee meetings, and to shadow a board or staff member at the Capitol during the state legislative session. These opportunities provide excellent real-world examples of how the students can put their degree to work and build their own networks.

The first event for CWF’s new Metro Student CWF Chapter (Metropolitan State University of Denver) was held on October 5 at South Platte Park in Littleton, a Denver suburb where NWF holds its wonderful Hike & Seek event. Students worked with South Suburban Park staff to remove hundreds of invasive buckthorn bushes from the wetland areas in the park. Students felt energized as they helped enable native trees and bushes to thrive. In turn, this project enabled park staff to accomplish a large task they could not assume on their own. College students have a lot of energy!

Students and other volunteers with the Colorado Wildlife Federation remove buckthorn, an invasive species. NWF photo courtesy John Gale.

A month later this group of students and their professor joined forces with a local restoration group who planted hundreds of trees and plants around a former gravel pit that has become a flourishing wetland bird habitat. CWF will expand this model by forming chapters at Colorado School of Mines and at Colorado State University. Student chapters from these universities will work together on wildlife projects and volunteer events and come together under a common cause that will strengthen CWF and its wildlife conservation programs.

How to start a student chapter or group:

Identify a leader. Find an energetic individual at the educational institution such as a professor, teacher, a committed student, or parent who will help recruit and mentor students and facilitate meetings. If you are looking for a professor or teacher to fill this role, consider an instructor in an earth science course. The affiliate’s staff and board members serve as the catalyst by providing guidance, expertise, and a vehicle for projects that are meaningful for the students and age appropriate as they help protect and restore fish and wildlife habitat.
Draft goals for the chapter in collaboration with the leader. Will the group focus upon on-the-ground education and habitat restoration projects? Do you want to include an advocacy education component?
Recruit members. We suggest that you review the goals with the students who initially join the new chapter and make adjustments if needed. To work, the goals must be feasible and embraced by the student membership. It also is important to identify and schedule an initial project or event (consistent with the goals) that will energize the group. Additionally, your organization should consider offering a special student membership rate to the student chapter members.

If you are interested in forming a student chapter, CWF is pleased to offer guidance and expertise. Contact Ashley Rust at arust1@mscd.edu

For more ideas, to support our work, and to learn more about wildlife conservation initiatives in Colorado, visit Colorado Wildlife Federation and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. And to learn more about NWF’s Campus Ecology program, you can visit CampusEcology.org and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Ashley Rust is a Colorado Wildlife Federation Board Member & Professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver. John Gale is a Regional Representative for National Wildlife Federation.

Sportsmen Rally on Capitol Hill to Protect the West’s Hunting and Fishing Heritage

Mekell Mikell — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:35:59 +0000

: SFRED members on Capitol Hill

Everyday hunters and anglers are reaching out to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development (SFRED) are speaking to their representatives in Congress to encourage the creation of laws and policies that respect the balance between energy development and protecting water, wildlife and the sportsman’s way of life in the Rocky Mountain West. SFRED is a coalition of more than five hundred organizations, including the National Wildlife Federation.

The men and women of SFRED will continue their grassroots efforts to protect the hunting and fishing heritage of the American West. You can also speak up for wildlife and responsible energy development by visiting NWF’s Action Center.

Bipartisan Leadership From Mark Udall and John McCain

Larry Schweiger — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:59:55 +0000

I want to compliment Sens. Mark Udall and John McCain for coming together in Estes Park, Colorado yesterday and pledging to work together in a bipartisan way to combat climate change.

Attending the event and seeing the dead pines surrounding us in Rocky Mountain National Park which were killed by a pine beetle outbreak intensified by climate change, I was encouraged by the commitment of these leaders from both sides of the aisle to leave a healthy world for the next generation.

As Sen. McCain said later at a hearing of the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks and was quoted in Proof is in the Park: ”The startling fact is you no longer need to journey to faraway places to experience climate change. Climate change is real. It’s occurring right now, and it’s in the U.S.”

Sen. McCain has pioneered efforts in the Senate to address climate change and Sen. Udall has a long record of advocacy for clean energy. If Americans come together in the same way these leaders did yesterday, we can get energy and climate legislation this year that will provide us all with enhanced natural security, increased energy independence and economic opportunity.

Solar Plant in Colorado Will Generate New Jobs

Kevin Coyle — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:19:16 +0000

A new solar plant in Colorado is generating power and 200 new jobs.

Amy Lou Jenkins at Examiner.com reports:

“Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar visted the High-Tech Solar Panel Plant in Longmont, CO to call attention to a reinvigorated U.S. high-tech manufacturing sector. Salazar met with employees of an innovative solar panel company that has created more than 200 ‘green jobs’ in two years and expects to double employment by next year. ‘Abound Solar and hundreds of renewable energy companies sprouting up across the nation are keys to solving our energy and climate change challenges.’” See full article.

U.S. Government Maps Best Solar Regions

Kevin Coyle — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:10:30 +0000

The need for alternative energy could redefine the American landscape including how it is mapped and ultimately managed.

CNet News: GreenTech reports:

“The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, in conjunction with the Department of Energy, this week released six maps that could help determine the location of the next big push in solar energy.The BLM maps cover areas within the six U.S. states most suitable for solar energy generation and transmission as judged by the U.S. government: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

“Only lands with excellent solar resources, suitable slope, proximity to roads and transmission lines or designated corridors, and containing at least 2,000 acres of BLM-administered public lands were considered for solar energy study areas. Sensitive lands, wilderness and other high-conservation-value lands as well as lands with conflicting uses were excluded,” according to a BLM statement released with the maps.”

See full article.

Let’s Go Slow on Oil Shale

Lisa Eadens — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:58:14 +0000

Underneath a 1,300 square mile area along the T-shaped border of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming lies more estimated oil–in the form of oil shale–than all the oil in of Saudi Arabia.

It seems perfect that we have all the oil we need for the next hundred years right in our own backyard.

That backyard, however, is literally my backyard. I grew up in western Colorado virtually on top of where this treasure waits for us. It is my home, along with hundreds of thousands of other people. We live here for the slow pace of life, for the clean air, the pronghorn and mule deer outside our living room windows, the cold, clear rivers and the simple beauty of this land. For people who have not seen this area, it may seem an easy trade but we who live here ask that the nation proceeds slowly on oil shale.

In Canada we’ve seen tar sands development (similar to oil shale) rip up large swaths of wildlife habitat, leaving it a virtual moonscape. In the US, new technologies are being tested to extract oil from shale rock while it is still underground. However, too many questions still remain about the environmental impacts of oil shale development, the largest of which is how much water it will use.

Water is vital to your life, my life and the lives of every creature on this earth. Water is also one resource we just cannot produce more of. Right now, the amount of water needed to develop oil shale will drain the habitats of native fish, destroy agricultural communities and put us all at risk. Ways to reduce the amount of water needed to develop oil shale are on the way and we need to wait for them before gambling on this precious resource.

We all use oil and know its importance even as we explore new, alternative fuel sources. And, with such a large prize waiting beneath us, oil shale promises to remain a potential energy source well into the foreseeable future. But for now, we need to be patient and not put the homes and water of thousands of Americans and wildlife unnecessarily at risk.

There’s still work to do on oil shale and other public lands issues! Please spread the word about public lands with an eCard!

See what tar sands development looks like in Canada: National Geographic – The Canadian Oil Boom

In the West it’s Cookin and It Ain’t Good Lookin

Dominique Burgunder-Johnson — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:00:28 +0000

In Western states, land is literally being cooked to extract oil. Long avoided due to its intense water and energy demands, industries are starting to look at oil shale development to meet America’s domestic energy needs.

However, this growing interest in oil shale development is two steps back in the wrong direction.

The process of extracting, heating and processing the shale rock that produces oil intensifies the burden on the West’s already strained water resources, places well over 2 million acres of our wildlands at stake, and threatens vital habitat for wildlife such as mule deer, black bears and the bald eagle.

Although America’s need for energy is undeniable, we need to decide if our western lands should continue to serve a tired, old, dirty energy industry.

That’s why earlier this year, the U.S. Interior Secretary imposed a temporary halt on further leasing of public lands to companies looking to extract oil shale and he’s now asking for public input on whether the federal oil shale program should proceed.

The current regulations for oil shale development do not have anywhere near the appropriate environmental or financial standards needed to protect U.S. taxpayers, our climate, the precious water in the Rockies or the millions of acres of wildlife habitat that provide some of the best opportunities for outdoor recreation out west.

So, please join me today in urging the U.S. Interior Secretary to focus on promoting cleaner sources of domestic energy that will help to protect wildlife and our communities.

A Second Chance for Millions of Acres of Public Lands

Shreema Mehta — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:04:07 +0000

Last week, I visited Piney Point Park in Maryland. It was cold and a little rainy, but it was also truly memorable to see bald cypress trees whose roots grew above ground and tiny little Carolina chickadees.

Wilderness areas like these bring back memories for many people – and they are critical to protecting wildlife.

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives had an important opportunity to conserve and expand some of America’s most cherished landscapes and wild places when they voted on the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act.

The Omnibus Public Lands Management Act is designed to secure millions of acres of wilderness and thousands of miles of rivers. It would also protect wildlife habitats in many parts of the country, including gems such as the Rocky Mountain National Park and the Mt. Hood Wilderness.

And that’s not all…

For all you hikers, birders, or just plain nature-lovers out there: It also permanently establishes a 26-million acre National Landscape Conservation System and adds trails around the country, ensuring that future generations will be able to see and enjoy our country’s majestic wild places.

The unfortunate news is that even though the bill had strong bipartisan support, it ended up falling just two votes shy from passing last week.

But there’s good news!

In the coming days, the U.S. House will have another opportunity to pass the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act.

So, find out how your representative voted on the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act, and then encourage him/her to take this next opportunity to ensure this landmark legislation for our public lands and wildlife can finally become law!