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Temporary Closure of the Book, Lumpy Ridge
Marc801 Cwrote: I'm not an expert but I have some experience. My ex-girlfriend of many years was/is a PhD in wildlife biology. She's world famous these days. I've always been interested in wildlife and helped her out on several projects, attended lectures at CSU and just learned stuff by osmosis. Being a climber I was sent up the tree to bring down baby golden eagles to be banded, and put them back. I froze my ass off studying Whooping Cranes. Had dinner/drinks with the Peregrine team from Cow Creek during the foster program. Where I live I constantly observe eagles, falcons and owls hunting and interacting. Ever see two Goldens tag-team a coyote to successfully steal a rabbit? Or a Peregrine try to steal a mouse from a Harrier? How do you think the Harrier defends itself? I watched four immature Peregrines gang-up on a pigeon and "herd" it back and forth, up and down, like it was a soccer ball until it was exhausted... then they let it go. I get surprised all the time and I realize that many of our stereotypes about raptors aren't true. And I had a good long conversation with the climbing rangers at Devils Tower. At the time the old pair of Peregrines, who had nested in the same place for decades, had left and a young pair had nested in a spot on the other side of the tower. The rangers were climbing routes on both sides to determine the boundary of the closure. If they climbed a route and the birds didn't harry them, that route was opened and they climbed the next route closer until they did. So they determined, definitively, where the boundary should be. To my knowledge, the birds are successful every year, with climbers all over the place. I also know, from being on the "inside" that (like many areas of science) there were/are some rather sketchy conclusions made about animals and their behaviors, and that these conclusions stand until someone challenges them. And just by the way, there was a Peregrine nest on Guillotine on Sundance BITD. They had closed that route and one route on either side. I was two routes away and about 3 pitches up, belaying my second, just enjoying the view. As is common, two pigeons were flying by maybe 30 feet away when there was a tearing sound and one of the pigeons "exploded" right in front of me. A Peregrine had struck it, latched on and I watched it spiral down to the ground like a helicopter. A fabulous experience. Nowadays, they just close the entire formation. Edit: When I called JeffCo about the Cathedral Spires closure, they said clearly that it was lack of manpower to go out and locate the nest, NOT because the birds couldn't tolerate climbers nearby. |
John Byrneswrote: This is great. Thanks for sharing! I'd like to be involved in a directed volunteer effort, affiliated with a chartered climbing organization, to work with the rangers on this (RMNP and JeffCo). I've got other things to deal with right now, but maybe by Spring 2021 or the year after I could put in the time. Not to stop anyone else from stepping up and being a leader here. |
John Byrneswrote: Well, don't give JeffCo any more money for staff to do that, or they will just use the staff to post more closures. |
Jonathan Swrote: JCOS does volunteer training for raptor monitoring every spring. I have not been involved the past couple of years, but helped out for several years prior to that. Back then they had good coverage for the Spires, but perhaps that has changed? Regardless, they monitor a huge number of sites (JCOS covers a tremendous area), not just those related to climbing areas. They welcome volunteers from the climbing community. Here is a link to the Natural Resources Monitoring information: https://www.jeffco.us/DocumentCenter/View/9972/2020-Natural-Resources-Brochure I also volunteered with Golden Eagle monitoring in Boulder Canyon, and I can say the volunteer experience is a bit different between JCOS and Forest Service. JCOS seems to be a lot more formal (time card and mileage tracking so they can report volunteer hours in aggregate) and they do seem to expect a bit more in terms of time commitment (they would like you to hang out and watch the nest for a long period and collect a lot of different types of data, rather than just confirm bird activity which was more what Forest Service wanted). Things might have changed, this is all based on my experiences and haven't been involved since 2018. I highly encourage attending the training as you will learn a lot about raptors, the management approach, federal regulations, and the biologists sometimes bring live birds of each species - super cool to see a Golden Eagle up close. |
Tim Stichwrote: Why so negative Tim? |
ErikaNWwrote: I blame Mike Lane for my anti-gov views. No, seriously, this sort of excuse from government for not doing the work just shows the problem. |
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Wildlife biologists generally value wildlife 100, climbing and other recreation 0. Despite their expertise they tend to be very biased. As noted at Devils Tower and elsewhere there are examples of balanced management approaches. |
Tim Stichwrote: Next will be, "Out of an abundance of caution...". Just like the green throat cut back trout up in Bear Creek Canyon... |
Julian Smithwrote: God, that fiasco. They had zero evidence that human travel in that drainage was impacting the fish, who were placed there by humans in the 1800s incidentally. That's right, folks. Early settlers brought trout fry up into Bear Creek so that they would have something to eat in the future. Later, biologist dolts misidentified the trout as an endangered species and shut the trails down. Then, quietly, they discovered their blunder and did nothing to reopen the trails, which were mostly connector trails crossing the creek. Much later, a stupid initiative called the Western Native Trout Initiative spent money on trail builders, who now were trail destroyers, to come fence up trail 666 that parallels Bear Creek. They cut down trees on the sides of the trail and then put them directly in the center. They also built rock dams to make mountain biking impossible. Then a fence was constructed across the trail. |
