The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced Tuesday it has closed federal public lands in the Gunnison Basin to human activity where a series of snowstorms and temperatures as low as minus-40 degrees have stressed wildlife.
Mel Lloyd, BLM spokeswoman, said such closures don’t happen often.
“Rarely, if ever, has it happened in Colorado in the last 30 years,” Lloyd said. “BLM managers don’t like to implement these types of closures, but because of the weather and the herd numbers, it is important.”
She added that BLM officials haven’t seen “snow levels like this since the early ’80s, and they are approaching the levels of the early ’70s.”
The BLM manages 600,000 acres of land in the Gunnison Basin.
Several weeks ago, the Colorado Division of Wildlife announced that it would start emergency feeding of the 600 pronghorn antelope and the 21,000 mule deer that live in the basin.
Last week, the BLM closed the lands to motorized vehicles.
But Tuesday, the BLM said that other types of human activity near the herds called for Tuesday’s immediate ban on all human activity through May 15.
“Agency staff and volunteers have seen higher than expected levels of nonmotorized use in critical wintering areas,” said the BLM. “The result is that big game herds are being stressed and pushed away from the feeding areas.”
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
