The staff of a Forest Service district in Colorado were joined this summer by two furry employees.
Wyatt and Junior, a pair of pack llamas, spent the season on the Leadville Ranger District in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
“They're very well-trained. They're really great,” said Kate DeMorest, the outdoor recreation planner for the Pike-San Isabel National Forests and Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands.
The Leadville District within the forest is home to the state’s highest peaks, as well as four wilderness areas where motorized vehicles aren’t allowed.
“We can't just drive in tools or supplies to fix, say, like a bridge or trail or anything like that, so everything we need to do needs to be done by hand,” DeMorest said. “We can utilize the llamas to help us carry our food and the supplies that we need to do our work.”
The llamas can trek 70-80 pounds of gear each, helping out the two seasonal employees who maintain and monitor more than 200,000 acres of forest.
DeMorest said she got the idea to bring llamas to Leadville after working on the White River National Forest in Colorado. A ranger district there used to keep horses but stopped because they got too expensive.
“A lot of districts see those [stock] programs going away, but the work that those animals perform for us isn't going away,” DeMorest said.
Renting llamas for the season was cheaper — about $1,200 for each animal — and they required less training and upkeep to manage compared to horses. Llamas also have softer feet than horses and leave relatively little impact on the land.
When she moved to Leadville Ranger District, DeMorest brought with her an enthusiasm for the pack llamas. This was the second summer they joined the crew.
Later this month, Wyatt and Junior return to their home base: a private ranch in Utah. The forest hopes to bring them back next year.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
