FOUNTAIN — Her morning drink temporarily interrupted, the mule deer climbed briskly up a draw peppered with juniper, then melted into shadows cast by tall cliffs where golden eagles make their nests.
The animal’s presence at this precise location deep in the sprawling backcountry of the Fort Carson military installation was no happenstance.
On a day when a blistering sun pushed the thermometer near triple figures, the deer had found the only place within miles that held water.
Deep forest green and molded from fiberglass, this vital water source had not existed a short time ago. Called guzzlers, these water-collection devices over the years have been deployed widely across the arid west. But 11 new units at Fort Carson would not have been there at all but for the efforts of two conservation groups and a friendly competition between Colorado and Wyoming involving the One Shot Antelope Hunt.
Members of the Past Shooters Club — previous participants — are charged with raising money for wildlife-friendly projects. Thus the Water for Wildlife Foundation was born.
“In this country, you can’t do anything for wildlife without water,” said Rick Enstrom of Lakewood, the Colorado representative for the foundation, which over the years has planted guzzlers in several western states.
A blend of patriotism and geography aimed this most recent project toward Fort Carson. Charley Grayson, a Colorado Springs banker, is president of the past shooters group. Knowing that the obsolete guzzlers at the nearby base were in a state of decay made Grayson’s choice a natural.
“We have soldiers being deployed in and out of the base all the time. This helps provide them a place to hunt when the opportunity presents itself,” Grayson said.
As a haven for wildlife, Fort Carson is so large it is designated by the Colorado Division of Wildlife as a separate game management zone, Unit 591. It contains deer, elk, bear, mountain lion, turkey, scaled quail and a variety of nongame species.
What is not generally known is that a good portion of the more remote portions are open to hunting, both to military personnel and to the public, under an arrangement that can, at times, become confusing. What it does not have amid this tangle of juniper, piñon, cholla and saltbush is an adequate supply of water.
“The situation becomes more acute when training activities push animals out of the riparian zones into dry areas,” said Roger Peyton, base biologist. “That’s where the guzzlers were installed.”
To complete the partnership, Grayson contacted an old friend, Brett Axton, vice president of the Colorado Chapter of Safari Club International, another hunting group with deep-set conservation roots.
SCI collected more money, then scheduled a work date. Moving at warp speed, the crew installed all 11 guzzlers in a single day at a total cost of about $12,000.
“I was definitely impressed with what they got done,” Peyton said. “It was way ahead of what I expected.”
The new guzzler design involves a round, concave, fiberglass cover that collects rainwater into a 250-gallon tank. A flexible trough makes the water available to animals. A site examination tells a success story: deer, turkey, quail and a melange of other tracks to confound a trapper.
These modern units have a life expectancy of 20 years. Who can say what world conflicts will have come and gone? But with the help of the guzzlers, Fort Carson wildlife should remain.
