outdoors

Threatening weather didn't deter a team of six Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists as they fanned out last week across 850 acres of Gary and Georgia Walker's cattle ranch in Pueblo County to distribute plague vaccine hidden inside peanut butter pellets.

Several of the biologists walked miles of transects across active prairie dog colonies where black-footed ferrets have been reintroduced, hand-tossing a pellet every eight yards, while a couple rode ATVs equipped with mechanical pellet shooters.

Conditions Report - Statewide

Statewide Conditions 

Learn how to do capture amazing wildlife photos in Photographing Wildlife: When, Where, & Howwith the Rocky Mountain Conservancy - Field Institute September 14-16. This class will introduce photographers off all experience levels to acceptable methods for approaching wild subjects, and the photographic equipment and techniques to further understanding, development and enjoyment of making great wildlife images.   

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission will discuss allowing leashed dogs on select trails at Cheyenne Mountain State Park, prohibiting fishing at the ponds within the dog off-leash area at Chatfield State Park, restricting watercraft to vessels propelled by hand on the Chatfield State Park ponds (excluding the main reservoir), removing the boating seasonal closure at Jackson Lake State Park, and defining and allowing incidental commercial use at state parks without a cooperative or special use agreement.  

Public input is being sought by Colorado Parks and Wildlife about how it manages the Tobe pronghorn herd over the next 10 years.

CPW staff has spent months drafting a proposed management plan for pronghorn in the Tobe herd, which spans Game Management Units (GMUs) 130, 136, 137, 138, 143, 144 and 146 in Baca, Bent, Las Animas, Otero and Prowers Counties.

Conditions Report - Statewide

Rivers and Creeks

Due to extremely low flows in the Arkansas River and rising temperatures stressing fish, Colorado Parks and Wildlife today announced a voluntary fishing closure below the dam and extending east to Interstate 25.

The closure takes effect immediately and will last until Tuesday at midnight when more water is scheduled to be released. The closure is being implemented in two sections. 

An investigation by Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers into the poisoning of bald eagles in the San Luis Valley ended with the conviction of a Rio Grande County man.

John L. Divine, 77, pleaded guilty to 10 misdemeanors of illegal take of wildlife and using poisons to kill wildlife. He paid $8,283.50 in fines in April.

Divine told wildlife officers that he put out the poison because he claimed coyotes were killing his sheep.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife reports steady progress is being made on expensive repairs and upgrades to the Two Buttes Reservoir. The changes are designed to increase the capacity of the century-old earthen dam.

CPW engineers have nearly completed design of the $3.4 million project, which includes replacing two gates on the dam at a cost of $678,00 and installing a bulkhead for the gate repairs, improving the channel below the spillway for $1.37 million, installing a spillway tower for $875,000 and constructing a new gate control building for $467,000.