Our View

April, 16 2014

Colorado Wildlife Federation advocates and educates for sound wildlife conservation and management policy in Colorado.

As we continue to celebrate CWF's 61st year, the Board is proud of CWF's long tradition since 1953 as Colorado's oldest and most effective wildlife conservation organization.

We will continue to build upon our effectiveness for conserving Colorado's all-important habitat. Do you want balanced wildlife conservation on federal public lands in Colorado? Do you want reasonable access to public lands? So does the Colorado Wildlife Federation.

Our members believe in stewardship of Colorado's remarkable wildlife and its defining role in our heritage and quality of life. You, as an individual or a business, will be instrumental in helping CWF to achieve common goals. The more devoted and larger CWF's membership and support base, the greater our strength and ability to carry forward our mission. Please support CWF by renewing your membership, joining us, or simply making a contribution of any amount any time, or by volunteering. Thank you!

As to energy development on federal public lands, it must be planned and managed in a way that does not threaten key habitats for fish and wildlife. CWF strikes a common-sense balance by supporting responsible energy development while demanding that the needs of wildlife and habitat are adequately addressed before leasing and development begin, not as an afterthought.

CWF Board Member helping a friend clean up the terrible post flooding mess at his home in Lyons, CO.

Do you know what to do if you find an injured animal?

CWF receives many calls from people who have found injured baby wildlife. We seem to serve as a clearinghouse, a first stop, for people inquiring about injured wildlife and babies that appear to be abandoned (but often are not), as well as all types of wildlife issues in Colorado. We embrace the opportunity to provide this service to the public. If you have found an injured animal, please visit the following websites for information on what to do:

Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (most wildlife)
Birds of Prey Foundation (raptors)

CWF's Student Chapter at Metropolitan State University Removed Russian Olive Trees, a noxious weed

Metro State students remove Russian Olive trees at South Platte Park - Carson Nature Center, October 11. The work was hosted by South Suburban Parks and Recreation District staff.

South Park (January 2014)
CWF and NWF have worked tirelessly for the last two years with the local community and Park County to press for careful planning by the BLM to fully factor in wildlife, aquifers and water quality, and outdoor recreation before leasing federal public lands for oil and gas development. South Park offers a unique combination of gold medal trout fishing waters, wildlife and many outdoor recreation opportunities within a 90-minute drive from a major metro area. South Park also provides a significant portion of the metro area's drinking water. We applauded the decision by BLM on Nov. 16, 2012 to defer planned leasing of six parcels from its Feb. 2013 oil and gas lease auction. Five of the parcels are within a mile of the very popular Spinney Mountain Reservoir. Now all must work to reach a viable long term plan. To that end we urged BLM to undertake master leasing planning for South Park before it begins its overall resource management planning process for the entire area managed by the Royal Gorge Field Office which includes areas that are very dissimilar from South Park such as Weld County. BLM has agreed earlier this year to conduct master leasing planning when it undertakes the work to generate a new resource mangement plan. This will be very important for the community, for people who travel to South Park for recreation and for a significant percentage of metro area drinking water that originates there. We are told the resource management planning process public scoping will begin in summer of 2014. We have urged BLM to begin conversations now with Park County officials and the public.

Photo depicts pronghorn running during the rut near Elkhorn Road (east of Highway 285) on October 7.

CWF posts new developments under News and Our Stand on this home page. Also, by clicking "view all" you can read postings back to 2007 that highlight the wildlife policy issues CWF has been working on and how we have made a difference.

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