Reclaiming Wildways Wild Connections is excited and proud to announce that our first on-the-ground stewardship project, Reclaiming Wildways, will kick off in 2009. With the completion of the Wild Connections Conservation Plan, we are well positioned to expand our work to include restoration.We’re getting back to the field again!While the work we are planning is very important it is also going to be a whole lot of fun.We hope to see many of you out there with us.
Why restoration? Animals need to move safely across the landscape to satisfy their needs for forage and breeding. Restrictions to migration corridors negatively impact all levels of biodiversity, leaving habitation fragmentation and loss one of the leading threats to biodiversity and the decline of species worldwide. But, off highway vehicle (OHV) use has increased dramatically in recent years, resulting in unplanned roads that cross streams, cause erosion and loss of habitat and fragment roadless areas.The Forest Service Chief has identified unmanaged recreation as one of the top challenges to forest management. In 2009 we will build on the relationships we have formed with the Forest Service and other conservation organizations to address unmanaged recreation with on-the-ground stewardship.We are now putting carefully shod feet on the ground to restore troubled and essential lands.
As part of our Reclaiming Wildways project we will be partnering with Boulder-based Wildlands Restoration Volunteers.They have agreed to serve as our Technical Advisor and teach us their proven methods of ground scarification and revegetation, as well as their knack for making forest stewardship projects into community building, fun volunteer experiences.They will also provide training for our crew leaders.Colorado Mountain Club and Coalition for the Upper South Platte will be helping us as well.
The Forest Service staffs of both the South Platte and Pikes Peak Ranger Districts are enthusiastic about these projects, and have helped us choose sites that are high on their priority list – sites where resource damage is seriously impacting forest health.
Our volunteer crews will be closing illegal user created routes along Rampart Range, sowing native grass seed, installing erosion control matting, and restoring stream banks eroded by motorized recreation that trespass off designated roads. The sites that we’ve selected for this coming season include habitats essential for two federally threatened species: the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse and the Pawnee montane skipper. So, while serving our broader goal of restoring roadless areas on behalf of the unique species that call them home and on behalf of the future generations who will enjoy them, we have a fun and exciting opportunity to increase the survival chances of some threatened species special to Colorado.
In between sowing seeds and closing roads we will share great meals, have plenty of fun and wrap up the season with a celebration including live music.As a volunteer you can expect to make new friends, do important work and have so much fun doing it, you’ll want to bring your friends along.
Click a thumbnails and navigation arrows to explore off-road vehicle damage, Pawnee montane skipper and Preble's meadow jumping mouse
Wild Connections 2309 N. Logan Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80907 info@wildconnections.org 719-686-5905
