Indian Peaks Group Conservation Committee

Draft Minutes

May 4, 2005

1. INTRODUCTIONS.

Those present were Todd Sanford, Kirk Cunningham, Charles Hamlin, Billie Gutgsell, Judy Enderle, Linda Mahoney, Deirdre Butler, and Justin Reilly. Charles Hamlin is a recent retiree and looking for useful things to do with his time. He likes outings, but also expressed an interest in National Forest issues. Charles' email is CAHamlin@comcast.net. Linda Mahoney is a wildlife activist, and her email is

2. WILDLIFE ISSUES.

A. CITY OF BOULDER URBAN WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT
PLAN. Billie, Deirdre, and Susan Hunnicutt attended the first meeting of the stakeholders' group on the Plan. A number of groups were represented, among them: city staff, IBM, University of Colorado, environmental groups (including the IPG), and landowners from the Foothills Community Park area. The meeting was not very well organized, but it appears that the city would like to deal with "problem" species in order, with prairie dogs first, then bears, mountain lions, and others. The Foothills Community people had very heated opinions about the expansion of the local prairie dog population and how this might be prevented. So far, the web site set up by the city is not very conducive to bi-directional communication, and this has been annoying. On May 17th, City Council will have a hearing on what process should be used for the Urban Wildlife Management Plan as it goes forward. Billie would like to go and suggest to them that they use a structure similar to that used in the CDOW's successful Wolf Management Working Group, which had several interest groups involved from all ends of the spectrum and plenty of opportunities to communicate. The city staff people most involved with the Plan are Alice Guthrie, Bev Johnson, and Molly Winter.
B. THREATS TO THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT. Judy
Enderle said that we need to get a lot of public input on two bills in Congress that would greatly cripple this Act. One bill reduces the present Act's emphasis on species habitat preservation in favor of less natural alternatives. The other bill replaces the present Act's emphasis on sound science for making decisions by a stakeholders' process. The Center for Biological Diversity website has some details
C. BEAR AWARE PROGRAM. Billie said that the CDOW's Bear Aware Program is starting up to deal with waking, and hungry, black bears. She is doing some leafleting in areas of the city where bears have often been a problem in the past, and will have some brochures for Farmers Market tabling and the Boulder Creek Festival tabling.
D. BOBCAT MANAGEMENT ISSUES. Recently, a hunter's
group has proposed that the CDOW allowed a lengthened season (2 « weeks longer) and increased take (40 animals) for bobcats. This has been opposed by most environmental groups in the CDOW's Environmental Roundtable, but was acceptable to the Chapter's Wildlife Chair Tim Snowden. IPG wildlife activists were opposed to Tim's stance. The essential issues were:
1) whether there is enough hard data about bobcat numbers to support the proposed change, and
2) whether the increased take would have an important impact on the bobcat population.

Tim's reasoning is that hard population data is only available for the most popular big game animals, but that the experience of hunters and trappers is that bobcat numbers are substantial and affected much more by other causes of mortality than by hunting. In addition, he is trying to follow the national Sierra Club's present emphasis on working with "non-traditional allies" like hunting groups to advance the Club's agenda of protecting habitat as the first consideration. IPG activists were worried that the increasing market value of bobcat pelts would cause unreported over- hunting, that bobcat hunting might kill mountain lions inadvertently, and that the Club should always advocate the use of scientific data for hunting season regulations, especially for predators. Theses differences were not resolved by the time of the meeting, but Kirk urged all Club wildlife activists to try to reach some sort of agreement on the matter.
E. BOULDER COUNTY OPEN SPACE RESEARCH BROWN
BAG LUNCHES. Boulder County supports some biological research on open space lands itself, and hosts the research work of other scientists. During Wednesdays in May, the researchers report their work to the Commissioners and the public, 12:00 - 1:00 pm at the County's third floor gearing room on the Mall. Judy Enderle attended the first meeting, which featured some research by Ph.D. candidate Amy Markeson on the interaction of sylvatic plague and prairie dogs. She found a complex relationship between colonies with and without plague and the types of habitat occupied. by the colony. Such data will be useful in prairie dog management on city and county open space because, in the near absence of other predators, plague epidemics and land development are the remaining threats to prairie dog numbers.
F. COLORADO WOLF MANAGEMENT PLAN. According to
Billie, the plan developed by the Wolf Management Working Group will go before the Colorado Wildlife Commissions soon for their approval.

3. NATIONAL FOREST ISSUES.

Todd Sanford reported on the first public meeting about the Forest Service's proposed St. Vrain Fuel Reduction Project. This project would "treat", mostly by thinning, 18 patches of forest in and around Allenspark and the North St. Vrain river corridor between the Peak-to-Peak Highway and Buttonrock Reservoir. The meeting drew a number of local residents, whose biggest concern seemed to be the creation of OHV "habitat" in the treated areas, because of the building of temporary roads, the subsequent failure to close/rehabilitate the roads, and the lack of money to enforce any road closures. It was apparent to Todd that the Forest Service had fairly poor data on the nature of existing roads and ways on the ground, and he thought that ground- truthing road networks and helping with road closures would be two ways in which Sierra Club volunteer effort could be used. Charles Hamlin thought that sort of volunteer work might also appeal to him. Todd promised to write up an account of the public meeting.

4. OPEN SPACE.

According to Justin, the Visitor Management Plan has now been finalized and momentum is switching to putting it into effect. Meanwhile, there have been public processes established to decide on the management of local city open space in the eastern part of the county. Becky Dickson's sister, who lives in that area, has volunteered to represent the Club in the developing stakeholders processes.

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