Editor’s Note: The Cattle Creek Confluence Coalition — www.cattlecreekcc.com — is holding a public meeting on this topic on Thursday, Nov. 6, at 6:30pm in the Glenwood Springs Library community room. Picture, if you can, environmentalists collaborating with developers on one of the last stretches of undeveloped valley floor, on pasture land between Carbondale and […]
elk
Posted inEducation
Hunting Season 101
A few weeks ago, I went to call for my dog and discovered a rifle-toting, camouflage-clad hunter just beyond my porch. I started yelling, “Hey, hey—” stumbling to find words as he took to the woods along the community path. I stopped short, deciding I was barking up the wrong tree by yelling at a […]
Posted inOpinion
CVEPA Views: Winter of ‘83 stampede
The breaking of branches and the thunder of hooves struck trepidation in my heart. The fading light of December dusk made the scene even more surreal. My girlfriend and I were directly in the path of a stampede of about 50 elk! The snow was so deep and the autumn so cold that the elk […]
Posted inNews, Uncategorized
Local group addresses wildlife collisions
Often while commuting up and down the Roaring Fork Valley, motorists see what we’ve become accustomed to referring to as “roadkill” on the side of the highway. These animals are the victims of vehicle collisions. On a personal note, this reporter recently took the life, inadvertently, of a majestic bull elk in exactly this way. […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
Branching Out: What could be more important?
I assumed it was a sobriety check and downshifted. My truck was packed for camping and a bluegrass festival; I would drive through the night. Emergency lights split the darkness, spinning and flashing on a scene so horrific I gasped at the sight. A cow elk — her eyes wide, head thrown back — and […]
Posted inNews, Uncategorized
How to obtain a hunting license
Applying for a hunting license can be confusing at first. Between Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) regulations and plain old hunter strategy, I’m still learning the ins and outs, 20 years in. If you’re even reading this, you’re most likely a new hunter, so we’ll stick to the basics together (and save mastery aspects, such […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
CVEPA Views: To trap an elk in 1972…
The 500-pound cow elk was wild-eyed as she kept trying to escape the trap. She continued to jump up on the eight-foot-tall walls of her plywood pen until she finally broke down a section. The “wapiti” (the Shawnee and Cree word for elk) struggled to get her front legs over the wall. When she succeeded, […]
Posted inNews, Uncategorized
Shippee Open Space sustains Highland cattle and elk
There’s a precious parcel of land where the Avalanche elk herd can forage in peace, away from shoulder-season recreation on the Crown. It’s sandwiched between two chunks of private Mountain Primal Meat Company acreage. It’s enclosed in a multitude of adjacent conservation easements. It’s Pitkin County’s Shippee Open Space. “This particular ag-land lease was not […]