More funding for “Fun”
The Colorado Division of Wildlife has approved more than $899,000 in funding for the “Fishing Is Fun” program. Most notable is the $230,688 grant to improve habitat and access on 2 miles of the Middle Fork of the South Platte in Park County. A Yampa River improvement project at the Chuck Lewis State Wildlife Area near Steamboat Springs earned a $155,000 allotment. Shoreline and habitat improvements at a Pueblo urban lake netted a $100,000 grant. Other funding went to the towns of Mead, Wray, Empire, Johnstown, Minturn and Durango, along with Boulder and Larimer counties and Eldorado Canyon State Park.
No bird flu
Preliminary testing on more than 3,000 samples from resident Canada geese captured in Colorado failed to detect any of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza. Tests were conducted at the Colorado State University Diagnostic Laboratory in Fort Collins and support findings elsewhere that this highly pathogenic virus has not yet spread to North America. The tests did find evidence of a low-pathogenic strain of avian flu in a few of the samples. There are more than 100 strains that do not cause illness to birds, humans or poultry.
