A bloody wolf attack before courtroom showdown over reintroduction

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A wolf attack before wolf showdown in federal court

Walden rancher Don Gittleson approaches the calf that was bitten in the hind leg earlier Wednesday morning, Dec. 13, 2023, on his property. (Shannon Lukens, Steamboat Radio / KRAI)

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A day before ranchers asked a federal judge to temporarily halt wolf reintroduction Thursday, Don Gittleson walked out to feed his cows. The Jackson County rancher found a calf bleeding from her hindquarters and neck.

Gittleson has already lost seven cows to wolves that migrated down from Wyoming in the last two years. Gittleson suspects the attack was by a wolf collared by Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials in February. It’s one of two collared wolves that have been connected to killing dogs, cattle and lambs in Jackson County.

“It’s got a lot of trauma to its hind leg, what some refer to as walking dead,”Gittleson told Sun reporter Tracy Ross early Thursday.

Gittleson’s ranch near Walden is ground zero for the wolf reintroduction controversy. Although that title was temporarily usurped by a Denver federal courtroom Thursday.

The Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and the Gunnison County Stockgrowers’ Association on Monday filed a lawsuit seeking to block Colorado Parks and Wildlife from releasing wolves into the Western Slope in the next two weeks. The ranchers argue that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to follow federal rules when it renewed a cooperative partnership agreement with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to manage endangered species and the federal government should have conducted an intensive environmental review of the wolf reintroduction plan.

A flurry of responses to the lawsuit landed in U.S. District Court this week, with animal advocacy groups joining CPW and the Fish and Wildlife Service in blasting the lawsuit and the ranchers’ request for a temporary restraining order to block releases of wolves planned for the coming weeks.

If the court agrees with the ranchers and requires a National Environmental Policy Act review of the species management agreement between CPW and the service, Colorado could lose federal funding for managing all its endangered species, like Canada lynx, wolves and wolverines, according to the federal agency’s filing.

“This would harm threatened and listed species and the service’s efforts to conserve them,” reads the Fish and Wildlife Service response to the ranchers’ lawsuit. “It would undermine the public interest in preserving and protecting threatened and listed species.”

Gittleson said a CPW wildlife official conducted an investigation and they are confident it was a wolf attack.

“They told me if I caught the wolf in the act of harming another animal, I could kill it,” Gittleson said. “I told them I didn’t want to be the one to do that. I wanted them to do that. In Colorado they don’t have a definition for what a problem wolf is.”

He’s asking Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Fish and Wildlife about how he could kill a wolf.

“Are there any restrictions? We’re talking about at night — that means the use of artificial light or something else, which would not normally be legal for hunting,” Gittleson said. “So I asked those questions because after the fact you don’t want them asking, ‘Why did you do that?’”

Gittleson suspects it’s wolf #2101, a male that was collared by Colorado wildlife biologists in February in northwestern Colorado, judging from tracks in the snow and the collar signal showing the animal near his ranch the morning after the attack.

He said once Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirms the wolf attack, he will ask the agency to come kill it. That has been allowed since Dec. 8, when the Fish and Wildlife Service granted Colorado an exemption under the Endangered Species Act to use lethal management of wolves that are threatening livestock.

But if the wolf comes back tonight for more of his cattle, Gittleson said he will not shoot.

“Because I want that to be their decision. It’s their wolf, their problem, they need to deal with it. So if they’re not willing to deal with this situation, that is going to be a big red flag for the rest of the state,” he said.

If Colorado Parks and Wildlife agrees with Gittleson, wildlife officials could be killing wolves at the exact same time they are releasing Oregon wolves into the state.

“So with these wolves, their timing is nothing but miraculous. It always has been,” Gittleson said.

Forest Service adds a new 14er to Colorado’s federal lands

The Pike-San Isabel National Forests has added 289 acres — and a new 14er summit — to its federal lands in a deal with landowner John Reiber and The Conservation Fund.(Handout)

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The Forest Service has a new 14er in Colorado.

The Conservation Fund has moved Mount Democrat over to the Pike National Forest, ending a thorny access issue that has haunted the popular Mosquito Range 14er for years.

“It’s so exciting. This takes care of a big issue for us,” said Jason Robertson, the acting supervisor for the Pike-San Isabel National Forests.

John Reiber sold the 289 acres atop Mount Democrat to The Conservation Fund in September. The owner of mining land spanning three 14ers in the Mosquitos above Alma had closed access in previous years, citing concerns that hikers injured in the old mining structures on the peaks could sue him.

For years Reiber was the most vocal of a growing group of landowners fearing lawsuits from hikers, climbers, cyclists, anglers and other recreational visitors allowed to access private land for free. For decades landowners were protected by the 1977 Colorado Recreational Use Statute. But lately more landowners like Reiber have been closing access, saying the statute needs to be amended after a 2019 federal appeals court decision that awarded an injured cyclist $7.3 million after he crashed on a washed out trail that the landowner knew was damaged.

Reiber in 2021 closed his land along the popular Decalibron Loop, which accesses three 14ers, and again this year in March. His attorneys told him he was “rolling the dice” by allowing 14er hikers on his land. This summer he reached a deal with the local community, trail builders and hiking groups that asks hikers to sign an online waiver using a QR code posted at the trailhead.

In September he sold 289 acres on Mount Democrat to The Conservation Fund, which planned to sell the land to the Forest Service once the agency lined up funding with the Land and Water Conservation Fund. That funding came through this month.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund has uses about $900 million a year from offshore oil and gas royalties to buy and protect land. The Forest Service spent $202.7 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund in fiscal 2023 for land acquisition involving 25 projects in 21 states.

The project list for 2023 included $3.4 million for the Pike and San Isabel National Forests, $1.2 million for the Rio Grande National Forest and $3.2 million for the San Juan National Forest. That was a big year for Colorado forests. In fiscal 2022 the state’s national forests did not receive any LWCF support for additional acres, In 2021, the LWCF delivered $8.5 million for the White River National Forest’s acquisition of Sweetwater Lake in a deal that also involved The Conservation Fund.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund Forest Service acquisition project list for 2024 includes $4 million for the San Juan National Forest, which is hoping to acquire 160 acres near Pagosa Springs.

A portion of the $3.4 million for the Pike and San Isabel National Forests went toward Mount Democrat. Robertson said the rest is going toward “multiple pieces of high-elevation land to improve access in our high country across the Pike National Forest.”

“We will have more information, like Mount Lincoln, coming soon. We have good things coming our way,” he said.

Reiber retains ownership of acres leading to the top of Mount Lincoln, another 14ers on the Decalibron Loop, which draws between 20,000 and 25,000 hikers a year. Those hikers support businesses in Park County towns like Alma and Fairplay. Reiber said without legislation that increases protections for landowners in the Colorado Recreational Use Statute, he will close access to Mount Lincoln next summer.

That legislation is coming. Four lawmakers — Rep. Brianna Titone, an Arvada Democrat, Rep. Shannon Bird, a Westminster Democrat, Sen. Dylan Roberts, an Avon Democrat and Mark Baisley, a Republican from Woodland Park — have signed on to support the legislation that will amend the Colorado Recreational Use Statute, known as CRUS.

“I am very confident we can get a fix through that is meaningful,” said Anneliese Steel, a lobbyist with the Fix CRUS Coalition of 39 businesses and local governments supporting adjustment to the Colorado Recreational Use Statute.

Crested Butte Olympian Aaron Blunck bringing a new mindset to the halfpipe

Crested Butte skier Aaron Blunck on Thursday at Copper Mountain takes a break before competing in Toyota US Grand Prix freeski halfpipe finals Friday. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

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Colorado freeskiers will be flying high at the Toyota U.S.Grand Prix at Copper Mountain on Friday. Of the 20 men and women athletes competing in Friday’s World Cup halfpipe finals in the Copper pipe, seven hail from Colorado.

Three Olympic veterans of the U.S. Freeski Team — 29-year-old Alex Ferreira of Aspen, 24-year-old Birk Irving of Winter Park and 27-year-old Aaron Blunck from Crested Butte — qualified with strong runs in the halfpipe at Wednesday’s qualifiers. Matt Labaugh, a 19-year-old graduate of Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy, also made the cut. Two-time Olympic gold medalist David Wise of Nevada — a halfpipe geezer at age 33 — qualified first, continuing his decade of freeskiing dominance.

Three Colorado women also will be competing in Friday’s finals, led by Carbondale phenom Hanna Faulhaber, 19, who was crowned world halfpipe champion last season. Winter Park 21-year-old Svea Irving, whose brother Birk is on the U.S. Freeski Team, will compete alongside teammate Riley Jacobs, a 20-year-old from Oak Creek. (Silverthorne’s Olympic gold medal snowboarder Red Gerard on Wednesday advanced to Friday’s Big Air finals.)

The Copper stop is the second contest of five World Cup ski halfpipe competitions this season and three Colorado skiers have some momentum. Two-time Olympic medalist Ferreira won the first halfpipe contest of the season in China last weekend and landed in Copper atop the World Cup rankings. Faulhaber finished second in China last weekend and Jacobs finished fourth.

Wednesday’s qualifiers were fun for Blunck. That’s kind of a new thing for him. He’s been competing since he was 15 and is notoriously intense and focused in the pipe.

“I’ve kinda been doing a lot of soul searching in a way,” he said in an interview with The Sun after qualifying. “When I was younger, I had something to prove. I wanted to win. Now I feel like I’ve accomplished all the things 10-year-old Aaron wanted. Now, I’m just out here to ski and have a good time and that’s kind of relaxing. I want to be the dude who embodies the mountains, you know.”

He’s bounced back from a brutal crash while training in Switzerland in 2020. He’s living in Washington with his wife Morgan and their bulldogs. He skis all the time. Last weekend he decided not to fly to China to compete because he wanted to go ski powder.

He loves to connect with the younger kids in the pipe. He’s been hearing the same thing a lot recently. A lot of the teenagers are telling him they looked up to him growing up. It kinds of catches him off-guard. It doesn’t feel like it was that long ago that he was chasing pipe pioneers like Tanner Hall and Simon Dumont.

“It’s humbling,” he said. “It makes me feel so accomplished. Like, all the accolades and the incredible things skiing has given me, it’s so great but when a young kid talks to me about a run I did or a trick that inspired him and made him want to learn more, that is so cool. It makes me know, more than anything else, that I have left an impact on the younger generation and that means more to me than an X Games gold or Olympic medal.”

Blunck calls his new mindset “freeing.” He’s not stressing about results. He likes to think about how he can bring his skills from two decades in parks and pipes into the backcountry and big mountains.

“I’m realizing I have this deep passion for exploring the backcountry and finding new terrain and new zones to ski,” he said. “Now I can sit at a comp and say, ‘Hey, if I don’t do well, it’s all right because tomorrow I’m going to wake up tomorrow and go skiing.’ Because that’s what I do. I’m a guy who loves to go skiing.”

CORE Act, Dolores River, Blue Sky Wilderness legislation heads to U.S. Senate

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Federal legislation to increase protection for about 500,000 acres in Colorado took a big step forward early Thursday with a roll-call, zero-discussion vote in the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet has spent 10 years pushing his CORE Act, which increases federal protections for 420,000 acres across Colorado by creating new wilderness areas and improving recreation and conservation management goals in other areas.

While the legislation has not found traction in Congress, President Joe Biden, using the Antiquities Act, moved CORE Act goals forward with the creation of the Camp Hale – Continental Divide National Monument last year. And now the Forest Service is close to approving another CORE Act goal — also pushed by Biden, not Congress — by suspending mining and oil and gas drilling on 225,000 acres in the Thompson Divide.

But Bennet and his friend U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper — both Democrats — are not giving up on the Congressional path for CORE. The two marked a significant milestone with the CORE Act on Thursday morning with an anticlimactic 11-8 vote in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to move the CORE Act to the Senate floor.

The committee also moved other Colorado land-protecting bills to the U.S. Senate. The committee approved the two lawmakers’ bill to create the Dolores River National Conservation Area and Special Management Area, increasing protections for 68,000 acres around the river while removing sections of the river from Wild and Scenic River designation.

The committee also forwarded Hickenlooper’s bill to change the name of the 75,000-acre Mount Evans Wilderness to Mount Blue Sky Wilderness, to match the name change of the Mount Blue Sky 14er in September.

“We have all the quintessential elements of Colorado landscape included in bills before the committee today from our highest mountains to our captivating riverways to even our bright blue skies,” Hickenlooper told the committee.

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Machine-masticated mosaic above Avon reduces wildfire risks and thrills skiers

It sure looks like a playground. But the Eagle River Fire Protection District carved the vegetation on the hillside above Avon to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. (Jason Blevins, The Colorado Sun)

Across the valley from the escalator-ed Beaver Creek resort, skiers are carving a hillside along Metcalf Road.

“Everyone thinks they are ski runs,” says Hugh Fairfield-Smith with the Eagle River Fire Protection District.

The maze of snow paths on the steep hillock across from homes in the Wildridge community above Avon certainly look like ski runs. The tracks carved in the snow add to the ski hill vibe.

But the Eagle River Valley’s collaborative Eagle Valley Wildland project carved the patches into the landscape to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic fire. The project used funding from the Town of Avon and the Colorado State Forest Service to clear the area. The Eagle Valley Wildland project includes all the fire protection districts along the Eagle River below Vail and collects funds from 26 municipalities and homeowner groups in the valley.

“It was designed to break up fuel continuity on the landscape,” said Fairfield-Smith, the fire management officer for the Eagle River Fire Protection District, which coordinates the wildland project. “Due to the steep terrain and vegetation layout, it became the way it did. Across the valley, people are skiing lines we have created in fire breaks in Beaver Creek and Bachelor Gulch.”

Fairfield-Smith said there is more work planned with “years of feathering and alteration to the vegetation” to reduce the drastic lines between the mulched terrain and the brush. One of the benefits of the cleared lines is that the terrain can absorb plane-dropped fire retardants that would not be held by bushes. That creates fire breaks that give firefighters a tactical advantage, Fairfield-Smith said.

The machine-masticated mosaic above Avon appears popular with local skiers and snowboarders. Not unlike the much larger project done on Monarch Pass, where a massive tree-thinning project opened up a mountainside of easily accessible, north-facing ski lines. Or where the Cameron Peak wildfire sculpted moonscape ski lines between charred timber.

Burn zones typically don’t harbor healthy snowpacks that store water, which is a bummer in our age of warming. But they ski well. And, apparently, so do zones where fire scientists have reduced fuels.

“It’s an unintended consequence, but it’s not a bad consequence,” Fairfield-Smith said.

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