January 30, 2009

Contact: Hugh Vickery, (202) 208-6416

Secretary Salazar Promotes Economic Benefits of Conservation Investments in Visit to Rocky Mountain Arsenal

COMMERCE CITY, CO – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar toured Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge today to inspect construction and maintenance projects that possibly could be funded under President Obama’s recovery and reinvestment plan to create jobs and economic growth while benefitting the refuge and its wildlife.

Such projects might include the construction of a new “green” visitor center to serve the growing number of visitors to the Arsenal, development of an expansive bus tour route for visitors; and enhancements to the Arsenal’s existing bison management infrastructure.

“The President’s recovery and reinvestment plan will help pump life into our economy by creating jobs for working Americans but it will also pump life into our national wildlife refuges, national parks and other public lands by allowing us to undertake much-needed maintenance and improvement projects for visitors and wildlife alike,” Salazar said.

The Arsenal, a former Superfund site located just east of downtown Denver, was built to manufacture chemical weapons to be used in World War II as a war deterrent. It is now one of the premier urban wildlife refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Since his time serving as Colorado’s Attorney General, Secretary Salazar has been a leader in efforts to protect open space along the “Northeast Greenway” in the Denver Metro area.  The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge is a core component of the Greenway.

Salazar’s visit to the Arsenal was his first return to his home state of Colorado since becoming Secretary of the Interior. U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, officials from Northeast Greenway Corridor local governments, and other community partners joined Salazar on the tour.

Service officials briefed the Secretary about “shovel ready” construction projects at the Arsenal and at other Service facilities in Colorado aimed at advancing the agency’s conservation mission while stimulating the nation’s economy. 

“The transformation of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal from Superfund site to wildlife refuge, and its integration into broader open space efforts along the Northeast Greenway, is a proud product of years of collaborative work among stakeholders,” Salazar said. “I am pleased the Fish and Wildlife Service is ready to undertake conservation projects at the Arsenal and beyond that would help reenergize our nation’s economy.”

Fish and Wildlife Service officials also briefed Salazar about other conservation-related stimulus possibilities, including improvements to units of the National Fish Hatchery System and habitat restoration projects in Colorado and the other states in the agency’s Mountain-Prairie Region. Possible projects in Colorado include an auto tour route at Monte Vista NWR in the San Luis Valley; energy retrofits at Arapaho NWR, in Jackson County and Leadville NFH; an effluent system at Hotchkiss NFH; fish passage projects in the Upper Colorado River System on the Western Slope; and new infrastructure at the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center, north of Ft. Collins.

The projects at the Arsenal and throughout Colorado, if approved by Congress, would infuse millions of dollars into the economy.

“The Service stands ready, here in Colorado and across the nation, to support the Secretary’s efforts to put Americans back to work for conservation,” said the Service’s Mountain-Prairie Regional Director Stephen Guertin.

The 27-square-mile refuge is one of the largest Superfund sites in the country.  After World War II ended, some of the facilities were leased to private industry for the production of industrial and agricultural chemicals.  The Arsenal later became a site for chemical agent demilitarization programs.  Since 1985, the site’s sole mission has been environmental remediation.  In 1987, the Arsenal was listed on EPA’s Superfund National Priorities List.

Currently, the Arsenal is nearing the completion of an extensive and safe environmental cleanup of the site’s soil, structures and groundwater.  Cleanup plans were developed and approved by the U.S. Army, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state of Colorado, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Shell Oil Company.  Once the cleanup is complete, the remainder of the Arsenal’s vast open spaces will officially transition to one of the largest urban national wildlife refuges in the nation.

At present, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service administers 12,000 acres of the site as a unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System, the nation’s premier network of lands and waters managed for the conservation of wildlife and their habitats.  The Arsenal is part of the larger Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge Complex, which includes Rocky Flats NWR, west of metropolitan Denver, and Two Ponds NWR, in north-central metro Denver. 

The site now provides sanctuary for more than 330 species of wildlife, including bison, burrowing owls, bald eagles and other raptors, as well as migratory waterfowl and resident species such as mule and white-tailed deer, coyotes, and badgers.  The cleanup is approximately three-quarters complete and is expected to conclude in 2011.

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Dreams come true — bison released in the Book Cliffs!

Sixteen bison released on Jan. 14–15 more are scheduled for release today

Related story: DWR captures bison near Lake Powell

artical at : http://wildlife.utah.gov/news/09-01/bison_release.php

“It was a dream,” Dwight Bunnell said of the time about 30 years ago when biologists started talking about putting bison back on the Book Cliffs in eastern Utah.
“When we started, many felt there would never be a chance to return bison to public lands here,” he said. “But this is proof dreams can come true.”

A retired Wildlife Section chief for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Bunnell was among about 60 people on hand to see the historic reintroduction of 16 bison onto public lands in the Book Cliffs.
Everyone in attendance at the Jan. 14 release seemed to agree.
“This is exciting!” said Bill Christensen, Utah director for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. “This is historic. Bison have returned to the Book Cliffs!”
1941 was the last year a new bison herd was started on public land in Utah. “This is why the RMEF got involved in the Book Cliffs Conservation Initiative,” Christensen said. “[This is] why we helped purchase two of the three ranches that were for sale from willing sellers [on the Book Cliffs] 18 years ago.”
Christensen said the place looks a bit different with all the recent energy development, but the Book Cliffs is still a great place for wildlife.
“I’m really proud to be a part of it,” Christensen said. “The Book Cliffs is the second largest project [in terms of acres for wildlife] that the foundation was involved with.
“This introduction is another major achievement for the partnership.”
New herd starts with 45 bison
In all, 45 bison will be introduced onto public lands in the Book Cliffs. Another herd, managed by the Ute Tribe, roams to the west on the Hill Creek Extension of the Book Cliffs.
The DWR reintroduced 14 of the 45 animals donated by the Ute Tribe into the rugged, remote, roadless area of the Book Cliffs in August 2008.

Two bison explore their new home on the Book Cliffs. These bison are among the animals biologists fitted with radio collars. Photo by Ron Stewart.
 

The final 31 bison were captured from another free-ranging herd managed by the DWR on the Henry Mountains in southeastern Utah. The 16 released on Jan. 14, and the 15 scheduled for release on Jan. 15, are being reintroduced on Steer Ridge and Moon Ridge respectively.
Both of these areas are in the part of the Book Cliffs that has roads in it.
“We felt this would be the best area [for the latest release] for several reasons,” said Dave Olsen, a biologist with the DWR. – (It)’s open, it’s remote and it has good forage. Several habitat projects have helped prepare this area for the release. And a natural burn has helped us even more.
“Also, Bert DeLambert, the landowner on this side [of the Book Cliffs], was an integral part of the Book Cliffs Conservation Initiative, and cooperative grazing and habitat developments [associated with it]. He doesn’t run many animals in this area, and he has an interest in bison. He felt this would be good site to release the bison and start the new herd. It’s also as close as we could get to the roadless area in the Book Cliffs in the middle of winter.”
A busy week!
The Jan. 14 and 15 releases started with a helicopter capture on Jan. 10 and 11 on the high plateaus of the Henry Mountains.
After the bison were captured, they were placed in large bags and flown to a staging area where blood and other samples were taken to be tested for disease. The bison were then loaded into trailers for transport to a quarantine station on Antelope Island State Park where they stayed for several days. After passing their disease testing, the bison were loaded up one more time for an eight-hour drive to be released on “the edge of nowhere!”
“All of the bison were given ear tags at the capture site. And before they left Antelope Island, we fitted some of the bison with radio collars,” said Dax Mangus, DWR biologist on the Book Cliffs.
“The tags and radios, which can be read from the ground or from the air, will help us monitor the herd and track its movements. We’ll also watch to see how well the habitat holds up, and we’ll test [the bison] periodically for disease.
“I’ve been asked when the area will be open for bison hunting,” Mangus said. “Yes, eventually hunting of the herd will be allowed, but that’s still years away. Most of the animals we released were yearlings and calves, so it will be a couple years before the calves reach maturity.”
Mangus said the management plan for the Book Cliffs calls for 450 bison on the public land.
“That is so incredible,” Bunnell said as he watched two bulls work their way up a snow-covered slope and then silhouette themselves on a ridge against the blue sky. “They belong here!”

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