CPW Highlights
Update to CPW's Purchasing System
CPW is making a change to our purchasing system, which will serve as a one-stop shop for all CPW products, including hunting and fishing licenses, campsite reservations, OHV and snowmobile permits, and parks passes. The transition to the new purchasing system will begin January 1, 2018. During this time, we will have a period of several days when all CPW purchases will be unavailable. The changeover to the new system will cause a temporary shut down of purchasing services at all CPW offices, parks, licensing agents, online and phone sales. Hunters may reach out to a regional or area office if you run into licensing issues. Customers are urged to plan ahead and buy ahead for courses, licenses, reservations or gifts that can be purchased or reserved in advance.
More information can be found here: http://cpw.state.co.us/cpwshop
Thank You to CMSP's Gate Volunteers
by Jeanette Lara, Cheyenne Mountain State Park Administrative Assistant
When the park is faced with the never ending budget crunch that we all know so well, our gate is often the first to lose its staffing since it has no posted "regular" hours of operation to maintain. However, our staff is fully aware of just how important that gate is to keep visitors happy with that first interaction of a friendly face providing info, guidance, and that oh-so-important park pass! Here at CMSP we have been blessed with two very wonderful guys who have been a tremendous help in covering our entrance gate. In 2017 these dedicated guys have logged 685 combined volunteer hours, translating into over $6,000 in saved wages.
Mark Chowning began volunteering in April 2016 and has put in a total of 745.5 lifetime hours. He covers EVERY Saturday at the gate for 9 hours or more. He covers early morning 6 am races and major holiday events such as the July 4th fireworks... because he WANTS to! He often starts these shifts with a hike for his trail monitoring duties and I could swear he knows each one of our Muleys by name.
Gerald Rendel began volunteering in April 2015 and has a total of 511.5 lifetime hours. He starts EVERY Friday morning greeting our incoming weekend campers. He and his wife went to Mount Rushmore to celebrate his birthday and that was probably the first Friday off that he has requested over the past few years. Having the reliability of these two covering our gate has been a huge relief to me. I can't thank them enough for the time, dedication, and camaraderie they have given to the park.
Volunteer Mark Chowning
Volunteer Gerald Rendel
Fun at the CMSP Volunteer Banquet
Abbie Walls, Courtney Yousseff, and Marti Hartman
Friends of CMSP Board
Mandi and J'aime Dahn
Hunter Outreach
by Bryan Posthumus, NE Region Hunting & Angling Outreach Coordinator
The Novice Hunter Program began 5 years ago as a pilot program to evaluate recruitment and retention of new hunters. NHP was designed to target brand new hunters, youth and adult, and prepare them to hunt small game through an introduction to pheasant hunting. Students were provided with about 3.5 hours of seminar covering pheasant biology, habitat, hunting tactics, safety, where to hunt, regulations and ethics. It also offered a wingshooting clinic where students often shot a shotgun at a moving target for the first time, as well as a field clinic covering hunting safety in a group, in the field, and simulated hunt scenarios. The program did not stop there. Each student was provided access to several NHP Walk-In Access field in Yuma, Logan, Sedgwick, and Phillips counties, as well as an opportunity to participate in a mentored hunt.
This program was not possible without the dedicated volunteers that joined staff to pull this project off. We are finishing the final year of the pilot program this current hunting season and have learned a great deal. On behalf of the NE Region, I want to express my gratitude to the NHP volunteers that have given up multiple weekends, driven thousands of miles, paid for their own hotel rooms, and ran their dogs in front of new hunters to make this program work. Thank you. The students thank you as well. I hear so many praises for this program and the people dedicated to pull it off. That's 771 students in 5 years! Well done!
I would also like to thank all of the NE Region Hunter Outreach volunteers for their dedication to getting so many youth out hunting. Your efforts have provided mentored hunt opportunities to over 55 new hunters through deer, pronghorn, turkey, dove, pheasant, and waterfowl hunts in the last year! Way to go!
Lamar Gillnetting Project
by Jim Ramsay, Aquatic Biologist
Unlike land animals, aquatic wildlife cannot be viewed or counted by managers simply by observation. It is impossible to determine the success/failure of our management without population data. Since we can’t observe the aquatic wildlife in its natural habitat, we must do the next best thing by collecting samples. There are many ways to collect a sample, but all have limitations. Unfortunately, there is not an individual method that will catch a representation of every species that inhabits a lake. Managers must use a variety of methods to get a “snapshot” of the population. One of the better sampling methods is the experimental gillnet. These nets have a range of mesh sizes designed to capture fish from juvenile to adult sizes. These nets are very effective at catching most species of fish. Usually, these nets are set in the evening and pulled in the following morning. The nets are a form of passive gear, meaning the fish must encounter the net on its own to be trapped. Species that do not move around much are less likely to be caught in gillnets. Also, the shape of the fish plays a role in the effectiveness of gillnets. Species that are more rounded and less slender tend to “bounce off” and not get trapped by the nets. When the nets are pulled in, there can be a large number of fish entangled in the mesh. When several nets are used during a sample, a large crew of staff and volunteers is desirable, in order to process the fish quickly. Unfortunately, gillnetting is often a lethal method of sampling. The fish sacrificed during the sample is a tiny fraction of the actual population, and the data collected provides valuable insight to the fishery as a whole. Managers factor sampling losses into their stocking plans and adjust accordingly.
Volunteers play a vital role in ensuring the samples are collected and processed correctly. Without the help of dedicated individuals who understand the importance of this work, aquatic sampling could not be done effectively. A heart-felt thank you goes out to all who have assisted over the years!
DWM Marsh and Volunteer James Samples
Volunteer Clara Spitzer teaches kids about gillnetting
Photo by Clara Spitzer, volunteer
Mueller State Park Updates
New Volunteers
Meet Peppy and John! John is the one in the volunteer hat. Trying something new at Mueller – Volunteer on horseback! Peppy and John will be the friendly faces on the trails, giving info to hikers, handing out maps and reporting on trail conditions to park staff. We hope to make lots of new contacts this way. Happy Trails!
Camp Host Plus!
Meet Ken Martens! Ken and his wife Nancy were Camp Hosts this summer and staying through the winter. With things slowing down this time of year, Ken designed and built this Trailhead Registry box. Ken is building boxes in house for all our trailheads! That will save the park about $3000 from buying manufactured boxes. Thanks Ken!
The Friends of Mueller State Park is actively supporting the park by applying for grants, promoting the park and fundraising! This December, the Friends participated in the local Holiday Home Tour which included decorating our rental cabins for the tour visitors! The weekend was a big success with over 500 people touring Mueller’s cabins! Many folks had never been in the cabins or even visited the park before! In addition to this great effort of bringing new visitors in the park, the Friends are also the beneficiaries of the event which will financially help support our education programs and park facilities! Thank you Friends!
NE Angler Outreach
by Tony Dymek, Assistant NE Region Hunter and Angler Outreach Coordinator
In an effort to keep Colorado anglers engaged in the sport, the NE Region has been hosting “A Taste of Backcountry Angling” for the last 4 years. The goal is to teach novice to intermediate anglers new skills to use in the backcountry such as navigation, fire starting and bear-safe camping. In addition, participants are given a demonstration of backcountry gear and fly and lure selection to help them in their new adventure. All of this is done in a 3 hour hands-on clinic at the Hunter Education Building at 6060 Broadway.
After completion of the seminar, the participants are encouraged to sign up for a full day of fishing in a backcountry lake at Urad State Wildlife Area where some of their skills are put to the test. Here they explore the beauty of the backcountry and quickly learn that they can leave the crowds behind.
We are not able to do all of this without the help of volunteers. We would like to recognize and thank Paul Anderson, Rod Davis James Dill, Aiden Dymek, and Cyndy Scholz for their help with the hands-on clinic as well as at the lake!
Raptor Monitoring Volunteer Program 2017 Annual Meeting
by Jeff Thompson, Resource Stewardship Program Coordinator
CPW’s Raptor Monitoring Volunteer Program held its 10th volunteer appreciation event on Nov. 18 of 2017. It was a great event with over 100 volunteers in attendance! During the 2017 nesting season, volunteers monitored 103 active raptor nests that produced 171 offspring. The most common nesting species in our State Parks was the Red-tailed Hawk, followed by Great Horned Owl and Osprey. Volunteers also monitored the nesting of less common species such as eagles and falcons.
At the meeting, volunteers from across the state honed their knowledge about birds of prey and got to know each other while competing in teams during a game of Raptor Trivia. Recognition award certificates and raptor identification guidebooks went to five volunteers who went above and beyond in the past year and ten additional volunteers were recognized with “Seven Years of Service Award” plaques commemorating their dedication to the program.
Karen Metz, a stellar Castlewood Canyon State Park volunteer, gave an advanced identification presentation on how to distinguish juvenile raptors from adults. This special training will aid volunteers in determining the fledging success of nests they monitor. The day culminated with a presentation of five live raptors by the Raptor Education Foundation. During the live raptor presentation, identifying characteristics of the birds were highlighted and tips were shared on identifying birds based on behavior.
It was a fun and informational day that recognized and rewarded the volunteers for all their hard work at our parks across the state. This work would not be possible without the support of the Park managers at each park that hosts a raptor monitoring program. These managers should be recognized for their use of raptor monitoring data in the management of their parks. Special thanks to the Fletcher Jacobs and Kelsey Mazur of the CPW Volunteer Program and to the many folks from our Resource Stewardship team for helping to make the meeting a success!
Ridgway Education Programs
by Carrie Krickbaum, Volunteer & Staff at Ridgway State Park
Once again, it’s been a busy year for education. We’ve had amazing support from park staff, volunteers, and Friends of Ridgway State Park. The season’s education programs drew about 1,800 kids. This included Huck Finn fishing, Hunger Games archery, touch table displays and talks at the swim beach, festivals, and school groups coming for programs such as PIE. Fall bird banding brought in an additional 800 students and adults including the public day.
Last spring, we began the season by hosting Ridgway 4th grade and Kindergarten. The 4th graders wanted to learn about habitats and niches, and Kindergartners got to have fun learning about butterfly life cycles and other insects. (The weather was nasty, but those kinders even took a hike around the ponds at Pa-Cho-Chu-Puk and endured the cold wind during lunch! )
For the official Spring PIE program we used the theme, “Life Along the Uncompahgre River” again with stations that included: pond life, Monarch butterflies, bird songs and nest building, and nature journaling. We rotated students around areas including the ponds, the Oak Leaf trail, and the group event facility. Nine school groups attended and we had volunteer help from Heidi Nadiak, Patty Ray, Kathy Rasconi, Gerrie Miller, and Nancy Scott. Sheryl Radovich also helped as a temporary employee, with her skills always appreciated at working with kids (and handling crawdads)!
Carrie Krickbaum leading a birdwatching activity group of student during the fall bird banding event.
Volunteer Connie Coulter talks about forest plants during the "Field Science for Kids" program.
Ridgway 4th grade, our SOLE school, also held an astronomy night. They picked up trash the following day and created seed bombs while learning about pollinators. Thanks kids!
I conducted two programs at the Ridgway Library around their theme “Build a Better World”. Kids learned about bluebird habitat and requirements for a successful bluebird house. Teams then built their own bluebird houses and decided where to place it. For younger kids, I did an activity to teach them about pollinators and we played a pollination game in the park.
The first Nature Detectives program of the season welcomed a large group of 26 kids. We talked about different types of bird nests and then they built their own with sticks, pine needles, dog hair, mud and other “stuff”. The Nature Detective programs throughout the summer were about beavers, Native American crafts and games, bird flight, bats, and butterflies.
We also started butterfly monitoring at the park with the guidance of Sara Garrett, Lepidopterist from the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster, CO. I conducted training, with the help of Amanda Clements, for interested volunteers. This is a web-based data recording system through the Colorado Butterfly Monitoring Network.
Another way the park has found to educate the public is through displays and touch tables down at the swim beach area. This is a busy spot in the summer and it’s been very successful as far as numbers of visitors and comments. Our biggest day was on June 10 where I recorded 54 kids and 49 adults that stopped to look, touch and ask questions. Some of the items I display are various skulls, furs, track replicas, insects, study skins, and inquiry based questions.
August 21st the park had a plethora of visitors coming to view the eclipse. Over 200 visitors came to the park and set up their chairs, blankets etc. to relax and enjoy the great weather. Many people brought their own eclipse viewers or used/shared the glasses we handed out after a brief presentation in the Visitor’s Center.
Finally, fall bird banding was an exciting two weeks! We had mostly warm and sunny weather so we started as early as we could get buses here. Fourteen school groups/classes came and we had a great group of volunteers helping as well. Our volunteers included, Sheryl Radovich, Mary Menz, Bruce Ackerman (BCAS president), Patty Ray, Amanda Clements, Heidi Nadiak, Nancy Kelso, Marcella Fremgren, and Nancy Scott. Linnea Rowse was our bird bander this year. A total of 177 birds were banded in 10 days which is the second highest number yet since banding began in 2008. This included 30 different species and our largest number of Wilson’s Warbles yet at 53. We also netted a high number of Orange-crowned Warblers at 24. Linnea also banded a, very rare to this area, Golden-winged Warbler. Another first-timer was one Marsh Wren.
Specials Needs fishing day was held on September 20 with 164 students and 61 adults participating. John Quay saved the day by schlepping pizza from Montrose for us. Student helpers were used as servers and rewarded themselves with a pizza picnic in the grass! We had such a big turnout that this fishing event will be held on two consecutive days next year!
Winter is almost here, if it comes, and we are planning some educational programs such as winter ecology and using wildlife cameras to monitor and share wildlife photos with area classrooms.
Thanks again to all the members and support from Friends of Ridgway State Park, park staff, and volunteers!!
Volunteer Paul Cardille helps teach children to fish during Huck Finn day.
Bird bander Linnea teaches students about bird banding.
River Watch Training
by Jacob Dyste, Colorado River Watch
This fall, over 60 volunteers gathered for a week of Colorado River Watch training in the shadow of Rocky Mountain National Park. People came from across Colorado to learn about the major components of a healthy river and how to monitor them in their local areas. These volunteers got to experience all the aspects of becoming a River Watch volunteer from collecting water samples in Glacier Creek to testing pH, dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, and more. Besides gaining hands-on science experience, volunteers were excited to learn how River Watch’s publically available data can be used to inform the policy decisions that affect their favorite streams and rivers. This year’s volunteers came from all walks of life and included students, teachers, and representatives of local watershed groups. The positive energy of the volunteers was infectious and even an early fall snow storm could not dampen the passion for Colorado’s rivers.
Rookie Sportsmen Program
by Tracy Predmore, Southeast Region Education Coordinator
Thank you to the volunteers that have helped Area 14 with this year's Rookie Sportsman Program events and hunts! Your time and knowledge is immensely appreciated and helps us make this program a success! Special thanks this year to Brett Predmore, Mark Elkins, Randy Matthews, Don Chrisman, William Zipperer and Pheasants Forever.
To the left, Brett Predmore is mentoring RSP participant Linda Marshall on a pronghorn hunt.
Staunton State Park Updates
by Zach Taylor, Staunton Park Manager
Several volunteers gathered together in the far western reaches of Staunton to collect tall, thin, straight lodgepole trees for use on several buck-rail projects at the park entrance, campground and around our new parking lots. In total they collected over a mile of trees that will bring the park back to its historic ranching look and feel!
The second project was to complete a fencing project at the full time employee housing. New Ranger Dale Specht is in the process of moving and a completed fence was needed to ensure his pup didnt run away!
The team spent 4 days putting in posts, hanging pickets and retro fitting an old metal gate into a new wooden swing gate.
20 volunteers came out on Fresh Air Friday and assisted with the over 510 vehicles that visited Staunton during the free entrance day. Volunteers assisted visitors at the entrance with maps and directions, parking cars, trail head hosting and meeting visitors along the trails to provide extra direction or information on the park.
On December 2nd Staunton volunteers participated for the 3rd year in a row at the Conifer Christmas Parade. The theme this year was Christmas Past and Present. Staunton float included an old cabin with homesteaders watching wildlife and new visitors to the park enjoying their campsite while cooking a meal on a cookstove! Around 15 volunteers participated this year and we took 2nd place in the large animal category!
Staunton Chipping Project
by Elaine Rideout, CPW Volunteer
This November, Staunton State Park's Sawyer Team completed a chipping project. Staunton owns a diesel commercial grade chipper. We get 8-12 volunteers each day who drag and haul slash to the chipper by sending out a request for help on work days. Chipping removed hazards for our visitors, allowed ranger access to areas for spray weeding, removed ground fuel for fire prevention reduction, cleaned up an area for the track chair turn around, removed branches in the Davis pond area to provide better fishing access and removed limbs from the new parking lot area and also some old slash in the new campground area.
Chippers are a hardy group that don’t mind getting dirty, like to get exercise by hauling branches, love to work in the park, like a noisy environment that prevents idle chit-chat, and enjoy seeing results of a hard days work.
Trinidad State Park - Fresh Air Friday
Visitors at Trinidad State Park for Fresh Air Friday
Volunteer Rafael Jiminez
Yampa River's Hike or Treat
by Mark Lehman, Senior Ranger at Yampa River and Elkhead Reservoir State Parks
The Hike or Treat was a great success! We ended up pulling things together, and had around 28 volunteers (some were former staff). We had close to 300 visitors that went through close to 70 lbs of candy, and 12 dozen cookies, so turnout was beyond our expectations. Fortunately, we planned for the unexpected and did not run out of supplies. Thank you to our volunteers and to everyone who helped make this program a success!
Habitat Partnership Program (HPP) Conference
This year’s HPP (Habitat Partnership Program) Bi-Annual Meeting was held in Grand Junction, December 5 thru 7 to once again honor the 155 volunteers that make up 19 HPP committees statewide. The theme this year was “Looking Toward the Future”. “The conference is our way of showing our appreciation for your time and efforts that make HPP a local success” said Pat Tucker, Coordinator for the program. “It’s also our way to provide useful information and educational opportunities and it’s a chance for the volunteers to network and talk with fellow HPP committee members from around the state.” “More importantly, it’s our way to say ‘Thank you'." Recently named Executive Director of the Grand Junction Economic Partnership, Robin Brown was the keynote speaker for the banquet. For more information about HPP, please visit us at http://cpw.state.co.us/hpp.
Barr Lake Highlights
We started out with our volunteer dinner on December 2nd. We had 65 volunteers and staff attend.
Eagle Scout Volunteers completed a fencing project by the Barr Lake Nature Center.