Two public meetings are scheduled to hear plans and comments for a management plan for the lower Blue River.
The first will be from 7-10 p.m. on Tuesday at the Silverthorne Library. The second is scheduled for Wednesday from 5-8 p.m. at the Kremmling Chamber of Commerce.
Federal agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and Bureau of Reclamation have joined with the Colorado Division of Wildlife, Summit County, Grand County and private landowners to form a stakeholder group to examine use parameters for the roughly 15 miles of river between Green Mountain Dam and the confluence with the Colorado River west of Kremmling.
A key component of the plan will be the pending BLM proposed land exchange with a large ranch. An environmental impact statement regarding the swap is expected in 2007, but the federal land agency’s preliminary report does not list public recreation as a primary goal.
Conversely, the Forest Service considers quality public recreation a top priority for the approximately 3 miles of shoreline it controls just below the dam.
Of those 15 miles, 70 percent is private, 17 percent is controlled by the BLM and 13 percent by the Forest Service.
Big game update.
Conditions continue to worsen for Colorado’s beleaguered deer and elk herds, particularly in the northwest.
The Colorado Wildlife Commission on Thursday gave Tom Remington, director of the DOW, authority to begin feeding or baiting animals in the Northwest Region on a case basis, a reflection of deepening snow conditions across much of the winter range.
Since the edict, up to 2 feet of snow has fallen in certain locations.
Regional manager Ron Velarde said the plight of deer in Middle Park and the upper Eagle River Valley had become critical. He detailed the possibility of feeding 1,600 to 2,200 deer along the Eagle.
“Middle Park is a lot like Gunnison, a bowl with no place for the animals to go,” Velarde said of the situation in the Gunnison Basin, where a feeding program has been in place for nearly a month.
Remington expressed concern that an effective feeding program could be maintained over any broad area in the northwest, since deer populations are relatively dispersed.
A secondary issue involves whether to feed hay to several large congregations of elk and to activate baiting programs aimed at luring elk from ranch lots where elk compete with cattle for rapidly dwindling private hay supplies.
Commissioners meet public.
Colorado wildlife commissioners Roy McAnally of Craig and Tom Burke of Grand Junction have scheduled a series of public meetings to discuss various wildlife and recreation issues.
The first, on Tuesday, will be from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Glenwood Springs Community Center, 100 Wolfsohn Road. At the same time Feb. 20, the commissioners will be at the Granby Library, 55 Zero St.
