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Sierra
Club  Rocky
Mountain Chapter
IPG
Home ConservationMeeting
Minutes You
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Indian Peaks Group Conservation CommitteeMinutesMay 3rd 20061. INTRODUCTIONS.Those present were: Kirk Cunningham, Bev Baker, Deirdre Butler, Billie Gutgsell, Todd Sanford, and Mary Skumanich. 2. NATIONAL FOREST MANAGEMENT OF SHOOTING, DISPERSED CAMPING, AND CAMPFIRES.The
Boulder Ranger District of the Forest Service is seeking public scoping
comments for its Environmental Assessment about changes to present regulations
governing shooting, dispersed camping, and campfires on Forest lands,
because all these activities have become more problematic as time has
gone on and the number of Forest users has increased dramatically. There
are specific issues that the BRD staff would like the public to address,
and I would like to get some opinions about them, which, together with
the Club’s existing policies, can help me to put together some
comments before the due date of May 19th. The BRD staff is sponsoring
several public meetings to discuss the regulations: The focus of the meetings will be the shooting issue, and subjects to be considered are changes in regulation, safety, natural resource impacts, recreation management, and user conflicts. The Committee discussed this and, at first glance, was tending towards support of the option of a ban on shooting sites on the Boulder Ranger District, unless some sort of public-private partnership could be arranged to establish a constructed, fee-based shooting range. Todd and Kirk will attempt to go to one or another of the public meetings to learn more. Kirk also received a communication from a homeowners group in the Coal Creek drainage concerned about nearby shooting sites (Safer Forest). Note that the ban does not apply to hunting-related shooting during established seasons, but rather to target or recreational shooting. 3. REPORT ON FOREST SALES PUBLIC MEETING IN NEDERLAND- Todd Sanford.I attended the forest sell off meeting in Ned. It was very positive
in the sense that it was very negative towards the plan. The church was
standing room only, so I take that as a good turn out. Salazar and Udall both had reps that spoke and they were vocally against
the plan. They were not sure why a budget proposal item was put up for
public comment through the Forest Service due to the plan's future being
in the hands of Congress and not the Forest Service. Their advice was
to write comments directly to the Congressmen and women, since they are
the ones that will decide its fate. They suggested writing very specific
and technical comments about individual 4. GRAZING ON SOUTH BOULDER CREEK, BOULDER OPEN SPACE - Kirk Cunningham.A former member of the IPG, now resident in Colorado Springs, believes strongly that the IPG should protest the fact that for more than a month or so each year, cattle are allowed to graze the creek channel and surrounding lands along South Boulder Creek between US 36 and SH 93. The city Open Space and Mountain Parks Dept. has a grazing sub-plan for the south Boulder open space area, with a detailed rationale for the grazing that is allowed there. We should review that and decide whether our former member’s opinions are warranted. See the Appendix for a summary of issues. We did not have much time for discussion of this item at the meeting, so Kirk will contact the Open Space staff and ask them some clarifying questions about the need for livestock to access (and impact) the stream channel and affect water quality. 5. WILDLIFE ISSUES - Deirdre Butler and Billie Gutgsell* Whether the IPG should take a position and send a letter to the national Club organization regarding an essay contest that the Club is conducting to induce its members or others who hunt or fish for recreation to submit an essay on “Why I Hunt,” presumably with an emphasis on how hunting is compatible with their environmental beliefs. The controversial part of this contest is that the grand prize is a stay at a lodge in Alaska (presumably with hunting opportunities nearby), worth more than $12,000. The Committee discussed this issue. Most said that, while it was OK to work with hunting and fishing groups, we should not try to change the character of our organization to do that, and that the contest was out of character for the Sierra Club (80% of whose members do NOT hunt or fish). Deirdre will prepare a draft resolution for the IPG Ex-Com meeting, May 15th. * Update on the recent mountain lion controversy, and what, if anything, the city and CDOW should do about it. Billie reported that, at the last meeting of the CDOW’s Bear Aware campaign, agency staff said that there would be no changes in treatment of mountain lions near urban areas (e.g. by killing them without direct cause), except perhaps a greater emphasis on public education. The CDOW has started a detailed study of the near-urban mountain lion population to try to answer the question “Are mountain lines becoming habituated to people and therefore a greater threat to them?”. Regarding the latest incident on Flagstaff Mountain, in which the lion was killed, and the autopsy showed that the lion was healthy, Billie pointed out that captive-lion studies in Fort Collins have confirmed that lions do not acquire chronic wasting disease from their prey, thus there is no danger of “mad lions”. Kirk asked if people might usefully carry pepper spray while hiking in the open space to ward off lion attacks, but Billie said that it might not be useful because the lions, unlike bear, tend to attack suddenly from behind. * Update on any other wildlife/urban environment conflicts going on,
and an update from Deirdre especially on the most recent moves in the
city’s Urban Wildlife Management Plan. Deirdre and Billie both
attended the most recent stakeholders meeting regarding the UWMP, at
which prairie dog management was the sole issue focus. About 60 people
were present, about half for prairie dog protection and the rest for
reductions in animal numbers. The city identified 23 prairie dog colonies
of significance within the city limits of Boulder, with three categories
of management: Deidre and Billie believe that this management scheme has too great an emphasis on killing, and involves little or no effort to exclude prairie dogs from adjacent city recreation lands or private lands by fencing. The map can be found at www.bouldercolorado.gov/files/Wildlife/pdog_map.pdf on the city’s website. They believe that fencing can have a cost-effective long-term usefulness for fencing off prairie dogs from areas where they are not wanted, and that the Club should advocate that position. Fencing has been opposed by some on the basis of esthetics and cost. People concerned about this issue should send comments to JohnsonB@bouldercolorado.gov. * Elk Management Plan for Rocky Mountain National Park and what position or alternative we should support. Deirdre said that there were few good, natural options regarding this problem, since wolves, if introduced in small numbers, would have to be too controlled to be “wild”, and birth control for elk is difficult and perhaps would have unintended biological effects. The Park Service Preferred Alternative, night-time sharp-shooting by Park staff, was considered problematic because it might not be selective enough with respect to sex and age, and might not change the behavior of the elk, a goal which is as important as reducing their numbers. Deirdre thought that the best of a bad lot was the alternative involving day-time shooting with all or portions of the Park closed to visitors. She will be preparing comments for both the Chapter and the IPG. * Raptors and power lines. Deirdre said that she had sought Sierra Club grant money to run a campaign on this issue, but the funds had been allocated and more would not be available until 2007. Meanwhile, she has discovered that an estimated 28% of power poles in federal parks and refuges are not wildlife-safe, and apparently the agencies have no intention to correct this situation. This might be a good focus for future activity in this area. Could Habitat Stamp money be used to correct this situation? 6. PICTURES FOR AN IPG DISPLAY ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE CONSERVATION COMMITTEE. We need this in time for the May 13th IPG tabling at the Farmer’s Market. Interesting 5" x 7" photos with captions are what’s needed. Todd said that pictures taken on last June’s work project to close trails might be useful for this purpose, in part because he would like to organize more projects of this type. Deirdre said that she would find some wildlife-related pictures. APPENDIXSUMMARY OF ISSUES ABOUT GRAZING IN THE SOUTH BOULDER CREEK FLOODPLAIN AGAINST THE PRESENT GRAZING REGIME (Bill Beaudin)It seems to me that the key points are: Also as I've dealt with this issue over the last 10 years, I've come to think that there must either be: another agenda (e.g. an agreement with the rancher), or this group like many governmental agencies would rather talk/study things to death, rather then do something to fix the identified problem! My recommendation if I may, is to take a walk along the creek and if the cattle are still ruining the banks, to escalate the issue to the head of Open Space and perhaps the Mayor, or other folks there, who may be "do ers", and let them know that the Club is "very" concerned, and is going to be engaged until it's remedied. If it remains in the shape that I saw it in '95, I'd say it's worth
the effort, to escalate. What do you think? Bill PRO GRAZING FROM THE CITY STAFFFrom: PelsterA@ci.boulder.co.us This is the response to your submitted question. The response was developed
by the team of staff members involved with the management of the area
in question. Feel free to contact Andy Pelster, Lynn Riedel, Don D'Amico,
or Mark Gershman ((303) 441 3440) if you have more questions. Section 4.4.1 reads as follows:
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