The year was 1872, and Edward McCook was serving as governor of the Colorado Territory when he spoke those prescient words. By 1900, the buffalo were gone. Fewer than 1,000 elk remained in the state, hanging on in isolated strongholds. But people awakened to the wanton destruction, and laws were passed and enforced. Colorado’s elk herds grew and prospered. It was one of our country’s earliest success stories in wildlife management.

	Thousands of elk pour out from the high country onto ancient paths worn into the sagebrush. © Don Tudor

To meet this boom, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is focused on protecting and enhancing habitat on a landscape scale for elk and other wildlife. For those who wonder why the Elk Foundation would devote resources to a state where elk are thriving, it is precisely because there’s so much to lose. Colorado’s elk country is rugged, wildly varied and vast. Nearly all of it faces serious challenges. But to make the greatest difference, the Elk Foundation needed to begin by targeting an area small enough in scope that we could set real, measurable goals, and then go about fulfilling them. The White River-Flat Tops region in the northwest corner of the state leaped immediately to the top of the list.

Home to the largest migratory elk herd on earth at nearly 40,000 animals and drop-dead beautiful scenery, this country is immensely popular with hunters from across the nation. It is also in real peril. Applications for building permits in the area are up more than 100 percent from just five years ago. Much of the new building activity lies on critical winter range for elk, mule deer and pronghorn. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Those who have hunted the Flat Tops country likely have a few memories from the ranching town of Meeker that turns into an elk hunter’s Mecca each fall. Rio Blanco County’s planning department expects the local population in the Meeker area to grow from 3,000 to 100,000 in the next 20 years.

Much of this growth will be fueled by energy development on an unprecedented scale in the White River-Flat Tops region and the Piceance Basin just to the south. During the next 20 years, Moffat and Rio Blanco counties are projected to house more than 3,500 new oil and gas wells on private and state lands. On federal lands, the Bureau of Land Management’s Little Snake Field Office forecasts 3,000 new wells will be drilled in the area in the next two decades. The White River field office projects 13,000 new wells for Rio Blanco County over that same time period, primarily in the Piceance Basin.

Between the boom in subdivision and building and the new roads and traffic needed to drill and service thousands of new wells, prime big game winter range will face enormous strain unless key areas are protected and enhanced as quickly as possible.

The Making of a Hunter-Conservationist
I’m a fourth-generation Coloradoan. I grew up camping and fishing in the Pike National Forest just west of Colorado Springs. I also grew up watching more and more working cattle ranches get whittled into 35-acre ranchettes or subdivisions with 1-acre lots. I winced as new rooftops dotted the landscape, changing the face of the land I loved. I came to understand that while many of us dream of owning a small piece of land with a cabin, ideally near public lands, the cost to wildlife in fragmented habitat is high.

Every free moment we had, we spent outdoors with my dad. My passion for wildlife grew stronger and stronger, and I dreamed of becoming a biologist. When it came time for college, I thought my course was set. I pursued a degree in wildlife biology from Colorado State University and met a man who greatly changed my view of what it meant to “work for wildlife.” Professor Dale Hein first taught me about hunting’s role in wildlife management and what a great tool it continues to be. He showed me that I owed tremendous thanks to hunters for the presence of the wildlife I spent hours tracking with a camera. I soon concluded I wanted to be a part of it. I remember telling Dr. Hein about my first deer hunt, which was with a bow. Dr. Hein shook his head saying, “You picked a challenge for starting out.” I guess I learn best when challenged.

I certainly had one of my most memorable experiences with wildlife the first fall I slipped into the woods with my bow. I can still remember the smells, the sounds and the pounding of my heart as I crept toward a young buck. I was absolutely intent on my stalk when what sounded like a herd of elephants came crashing through the forest. I thought a group of clumsy hunters must be headed my way—it was that loud. Within moments, I was surrounded. The musky smell of elk stirred my senses.

Soon, the lead cow stood only feet from me, so close I could have reached out and touched her with one of my arrows. She couldn’t make out what she was looking at, but she knew intuitively that something wasn’t quite right. Every few moments, she stopped feeding, looked in my direction, grunted and blew snot. I held my breath and didn’t move. Time seemed to hang suspended before the herd ambled on. How exhilarating!

Not long after, I learned my dad had hunted as a boy but didn’t feel it was a tradition to pass along to his young daughter. I vowed to do it differently. My daughter Brooke is now 1 year old and has already been on her first elk first hunt with her dad and me.

The second big change to my idea of a career as a biologist came in 1995. I was tracking bighorn sheep in the Kenosha Mountains and met state game warden Russ Mason. As he walked away, I turned to my friend and said, “That’s it. That’s the job I want. His response, “You’ll never get one of those jobs.” Four years later I was a game warden and not long after that I stepped foot into the White River-Flat Tops country for the first time.

It was first rifle season, and I was on horseback checking hunters in a breathtakingly beautiful area known as California Park. The first morning out, snow fell lightly and low fog blanketed the aspen-covered hillsides. Not more than 40 yards out, shapes began to appear. Mews and chirps echoed through the stillness, announcing a herd of a few hundred calves, cows and spike elk. They wound effortlessly through the woods. Suddenly, a loud rustling near my horse’s hooves nearly sent me off his back. As I gasped, I saw the dark fan of a blue grouse’s tail feathers retreating.

Drive an hour or two in any direction from where I had that encounter, and you’re in a completely different landscape: sagebrush country. It’s not uncommon to see hundreds—sometimes thousands—of elk moving across the sage in the winter months. After years of working among them, Ron Velarde, regional director for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, knows this herd intimately. He says that by late fall these elk are traveling north and west. In the most severe winters, the herd may journey 80 to 120 miles into the sagebrush of Utah. “The Flat Tops herd is one of our country’s last truly migratory herds,” Velarde says. “But without protection of the herd’s winter range, we may lose this national treasure.”

That’s why I work for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation now. I want to do my best to keep Colorado from, as Governor McCook put it 135 years ago, being robbed of her many attractions.

The Challenge
There is little public awareness of the scale of development that will take place in northwest Colorado over the next decade. The American Farmland Trust reports that with more than half of farm and ranch operators 55 years or older, millions of prime or unique agricultural acres will change hands in the next generation.

These lands—which provide habitat for much of America’s wildlife—will be especially vulnerable to pressures to convert to non-rural uses.

This focus area in Colorado encompasses 4 million acres, split almost equally between public and private lands in parts of Grand, Routt, Moffat and Rio Blanco counties. More than 60 percent of the White River-Flat Tops region is big game winter range, with 500,000 acres identified as critical for elk, mule deer and pronghorn to survive deep snow and cold. Winter range is the limiting factor to elk in Colorado and the best winter range lies at lower elevations—the land most likely to be privately owned. Not surprisingly, winter range is the habitat type most threatened by development.

In northwest Colorado, elk winter range is the sagebrush ecosystem. Sagebrush also supports a great variety of other wildlife, including one federal endangered species—the black-footed ferret—and two state-designated “species of special concern”: Columbian sharp-tailed grouse and greater sage grouse. Other wildlife found in the initiative area that would benefit from habitat protection and enhancement include black bears, mountain lions, golden eagles and sage sparrows.

The Goals
Our primary concern in northwestern Colorado is protecting winter range and preserving migration corridors for elk. We set three main goals to directly address the threats:

1. Enhance habitat through controlled burns, reseeding,  water developments, noxious weed control and sagebrush restoration;
2. Permanently protect key elk winter range and migration corridors through conservation easements, acquisitions and land exchanges;
3. Educate the public about the importance of habitat protection and the benefits of habitat management.

The Accomplishments
Support from Elk Foundation members has already helped protect 10,234 acres in the White River-Flat Tops country with conservation easements, and has opened more than 7,300 acres through land exchanges for the public to hunt and roam. We have enhanced another 28,000 acres in the area through prescribed burning, controlling weeds, removing barbed-wire fence, restoring bitterbrush and riparian habitats, reseeding, water developments and removing oak brush. By focusing our efforts in the Flat Tops region, we can ensure this great herd keeps thrilling thousands of hunters each fall and making its annual pilgrimage to the sage each winter.

Four new conservation easements and one acquisition to convey to the U.S. Forest Service are already well underway. Conservation easements are one of the Elk Foundation’s primary tools for permanently protecting lands and are a win-win for the landowner, wildlife and the public. With a conservation easement, the landowner voluntarily limits his or her development rights. The landowner continues to own, maintain and control access on their land, but the land will now remain forever in an open state, providing habitat for elk and other wildlife. It is an incredible gift. With the majority of critical winter range on private lands, protecting those ranches is crucial to the long-term future of elk and mule deer—many of which spend much of the year on public land.

The first easement, located northeast of Rifle, covers 800 acres of winter range and is surrounded by BLM land on four sides (with the exception of a county road that divides the property) and is adjacent to Rifle Gap State Park. The habitat is in top condition and elk sign is literally everywhere. The landowner cares deeply for the land and the wildlife and has already spent thousands of dollars on habitat enhancement projects. The second easement is a partnership between the Elk Foundation, the Mule Deer Foundation and the Division of Wildlife. The division will hold the conservation easement on 1,115 acres located outside of Kremmling. The area lies between two state wildlife areas, provides critical winter range, a crucial migration corridor and is vital to sagebrush-dependent species.  

Work to improve habitat quality is going full-steam ahead as well. The Elk Foundation is working to eradicate weeds across 12,000 acres in the Flat Tops Wilderness. This summer, a 3,000-acre prescribed burn helped open up decadent timber and rejuvenate grasses and forbs on the White River National Forest. A second controlled burn, the Indian Run Fuel Project, covered 4,360 acres on three properties and was a joint project with the Division of Wildlife and the U.S. Forest Service. A third controlled burn revitalized 766 acres near Meeker. Fourteen thousand elk will directly benefit from these projects—projects made possible by Elk Foundation members, volunteers and partners.

The Future
Continued success hinges on a broad fundraising campaign. Having money in the bank allows the Elk Foundation to act when great projects come to our door. Specifically, we will use the funds for habitat enhancements as well as for purchasing prime wildlife habitat we will then resell to state and federal agencies, opening it to public access and allowing the returning funds to be used for future enhancement or protection projects. Conserving the incredible resources found in the White River-Flat Tops country will help leave a lasting legacy in Colorado. In a short 23 years, the Elk Foundation has conserved and enhanced nearly 5 million acres, thanks to strong partnerships. Our work in the area depends greatly upon our partners. Partners bring expertise to the table, along with relationships with local ranchers and community members. They also bring matching dollars, which allow us to turn $1 million into $5 million of on-the-ground habitat work for wildlife.

Over the next few months, we’ll be drawing up a conservation plan for the White River-Flat Tops region, identifying key lands in need of protection, habitat restoration and enhancement. In crafting this plan, we’ll be working directly with energy companies to find cooperative and creative ways to lighten the impacts of energy development in the area. We’re also working on an educational outreach plan to show how focusing our work in this region will benefit wildlife, hunters and everyone who enjoys wildlife, the outdoors and open spaces.

Years from now, I hope all of us will be able to stand proud and look out over permanently protected habitat capable of carrying the Flat Tops herd into the future. Hearing greater sage grouse booming on their lekking grounds in the spring and elk bugling in the fall sends chills up my spine. These are the experiences that define who I am and what I work for. My dream is that these experiences will be there for my grandchildren and yours. Passing on elk country, leaving the land in better shape than when we found it, and knowing elk will forever roam these hills is what the Elk Foundation is all about. It’s who we are. Help make the dream real if you can.