ROCKY FLATS — A herd of migratory elk racing across the prairie near a former nuclear- weapon trigger factory Friday morning must have access to adjacent high mountains if they are to thrive in this emerging urban wildlife refuge.
And federal biologists on Friday unveiled plans for a complex property swap to lock in a permanent land bridge for the animals moving on and off of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge.
The swap would let federal authorities trade land along Indiana Avenue on the east side of the 9-square-mile refuge for a 1-square mile parcel of relatively pristine prairie on the west, known as Section 16, at the junction of Colorado 93 and 72.
Colorado’s State Land Board owns the parcel, and the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority and cities of Golden and Boulder would have to collaborate to create the desired corridor linking the refuge to more extensive wildlands.
If all goes well, the refuge would open to the public in three to five years — much slower than originally intended. Rocky Flats is supposed to be a key piece of a proposed federally backed system of interlinked metro-area green spaces.
“What’s amazing about this elk herd is that they have seven bulls,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Steve Berendzen, manager of the refuge, observing the elk from his truck along Woman Creek. “You are out in a wild area, experiencing wildlife at its best. We want to make this experience available to the public.”
But Golden and the highway authority are vying to develop a transportation route along Indiana Street.
Golden proposes a bikeway alongside the existing road. The highway authority proposes a major tollway, part of a regional belt, linking the Northwest Parkway and C-470.
Both have applied, and are competing, to buy the 300-foot-wide strip on the east side of the refuge and help create the west-side land corridor.
Kate Newman, Jefferson County’s assistant administrator and liaison to the highway authority, said, “our application is the only one that meets criteria set out in federal law.”
She said the authority will contribute $17 million toward expansion of the refuge and would acquire mineral rights under the refuge to prevent future mining claims on the land.
Golden Mayor Jacob Smith countered that Golden’s bid meets all requirements and said a bikeway, compared with a toll road, would be far superior for wildlife.
Boulder has agreed to withdraw prior opposition to the highway authority’s bid for the east-side parcel in an effort to speed refuge expansion.
Federal officials’ release of their 265-page “draft environmental impact assessment” Friday triggered a 31-day period for public review.
The Fish and Wildlife Service formally took control of Rocky Flats in 2007, after the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the EPA decided that the cleanup of waste left from Cold War manufacturing of plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads was done. Today, about one-third of the property is fenced off because of residual contamination.
A federal plan for the compound presents it as similar to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal refuge, newly opened at Denver’s northeast edge, which replaced a former Army chemical weapons and Shell pesticide factory.
Fish and Wildlife service officials on Friday said Rocky Flats has remained off limits to the public because they lack about $200,000 a year for creating gravel-covered paths, installing signs and deploying biologists to staff the refuge.
One of seven refuges in Colorado, this one is considered a key piece of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s proposed creation of a regional system of inter-linked greenways that eventually would connect to Rocky Mountain National Park.
A land corridor — wildlife still would have to cross Colorado 93 and hop fences — connecting Rocky Flats with mountain habitat will determine whether the emerging refuge becomes an isolated enclave of mule deer and rodents versus a richer prairie preserve that draws elk and predators such as black bears and cougars.
Elk drawn to the refuge in September “need to be able to migrate back and forth” to the mountains, said Berendzen, who also manages Rocky Mountain Arsenal.
“If you don’t have that connectivity,” he said, “your elk may eventually move out completely and not come back in.”
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com
