Researchers are seeing red flags in the health of Colorado’s elk herds, and new research aims to understand the role that recreation plays in declining wildlife numbers. Reporter Elizabeth Stewart-Severy broke down the details of that research with Aspen Public Radio’s Zoe Rom.
A United Nations report in May warned that a million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, worldwide. The biggest cause of that threat, it said, is the way humans have destroyed or modified the lands and oceans where these species live. Aspen Public Radio is collaborating with Aspen Journalism to produce a series of stories centered on local biodiversity and efforts to identify the Roaring Fork Valley’s best remaining wild lands for our wild creatures.
The Tom Blake Trail, Anaerobic Nightmare Trail and Government Trail 1980, all in the Snowmass area, are closed until June 21 to protect elk-calving habitat.
Cow elk are hungry after the long winter and need a quiet place to nurse their young.
This fall, as thousands of hunters head into the Roaring Fork Valley’s backcountry, they may find more mountain lions, but fewer elk. Environment reporter Elizabeth Stewart-Severy has the details of this year’s hunting landscape.
