ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATURE ASSOCIATION Summer 2011 $2.00 QUARTERLY QUIET VOICES fighting fires. If I recall correctly, Jim’s by C.W. Buchholtz father had committed suicide earlier On a quiet day, the sound of voices that year. In the face of that tragedy, I can carry for a mile or more in the can remember Jim’s singing. mountains. Silence, stillness, and This week, another buddy from my tranquility are treasures we seek as we fire days sent a letter with a clipping explore the wilderness. But sounds from a Montana newspaper. The made by other humans—coming from clipping was Jim Kanzler’s obituary. It trains, planes, or motorcycles—can told of his attendance at Montana State, strike a distant forest the way an his becoming a climbing guide in the annoying ring of a discourteous cell Grand Tetons, and of his achievements phone disrupts a concert. as a mountaineer. But it also hinted at Perhaps I was just having a bad his lifelong troubles in coping with his day after a tough week of work. I had father’s loss, to say nothing of his hiked quite a distance to find a younger brother’s early demise in a peaceful place for contemplation. I’d 1969 avalanche. Here was the sad tramped for a couple of hours up a trail truth: At age 63, Jim, too, took his and scrambled another half mile up a own life. ridge to be away from people. Earlier “Lord,” came the song in my in the week I had also received news of memory, “we don’t need another the death of an old friend. Hoping for mountain. There are mountains and the solace of open spaces, I felt I hillsides enough to climb.” (Now I needed to think things over. recall other fire crew members chiming Now as I sat on a rocky outcrop, in.) “There are oceans and rivers going through my mind was a song enough to cross. Enough to last until from the Sixties. “What the world the end of time.” Then the refrain, needs now, is love, sweet love. It’s the “What the world needs….” only thing that there’s just too little Those soulful voices, to be sure, of….” And singing it, over and over, were all in my head. Their sound did was Jim Kanzler. For a short time he not echo through the forest. My had been a crewman on my fire squad. memories of Jackie Deshannon’s hit The year was 1967 and that summer tune being mimicked by Kanzler and a we worked for six straight weeks (Quiet Voices, continued on page 2 ) 2 Rocky Mountain Nature Association Quarterly Photo: Walt Kaesler Photo: Walt (Quiet Voices, cont.) squad of Montana firefighters simply being quiet is a sign that everyone here Anyone reading this report might rolled through my brain. But that is hard at work.” conclude that I need help, perhaps a memory made me smile as I mourned Of course there may be a downside therapist. “This guy’s going nuts,” they Jim’s passing. to being too quiet. This past week I might suggest. “He’s out there sitting What snapped me back from my attended a meeting in Washington, DC near a cliff, contemplating a friend’s mournful moment, however, was the with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. He death. Old songs are running through sound of actual voices. Perhaps a half explained that sometimes it’s really his head. His meanderings recall mile from where I sat came the chatter important for people who love public Secretary Salazar’s pep rally for of two talkative hikers strolling down a lands to speak out about them. It’s a conservation. He whines about a couple trail, simply having fun. At first a laudatory thing, he argued, to raise of hikers making noise in the surprise, almost annoying, their laughter money and fix trails and to buy land for backcountry. This guy is off his rocker.” drifted my way. parks and forests and wildlife refuges. This observation could be correct. I went back to thinking about But it is equally as important to let our But once in a while each of us needs to voices, the hikers I had just heard, the members of Congress know how much find a place for peace and quiet. You voice of memory, Jim’s voice repeating these places mean to us as citizens. We will find few such spaces like that in that song. In the wilderness, there’s the need to raise our voices. Washington, DC. Indeed, I use a noise of nature and the noise we bring Exercising our voices in favor of national park as my rocking chair. with us. conservation is not a familiar refrain in These mountains are my therapist. The My mind drifted back to work. The our mountains. We take protection of poet wrote, “We don’t need another voice of the Rocky Mountain Nature our public lands for granted. Even in mountain.” But I don’t agree. I’m Association tends toward the quiet side, Washington, DC, the politics of certain that my friend Jim Kanzler, even muffled sometimes, like hikers on conservation rarely rates high on the regardless of his troubles, would have a faraway trail. As I’ve explained to legislative agenda. It pales in raised his voice with me to say that we people who’ve never heard of our comparison to budgets and wars and the need mountains and wild spaces today organization, “We are quiet other stresses of government. But now, as much as ever. Tomorrow and in the conservationists. We don’t generate a as Congress contemplates its budget years to come we will need them even lot of publicity. We’re not flashy. We woes, advised Salazar, parks and forests more. are rarely in the newspapers or on TV. and refuges may not get the attention We’re behind the scenes, but we are they deserve. Now is the time for quiet Curt Buchholtz is the Executive Director of doing great projects. Fixing trails. conservationists to raise their volume. the Rocky Mountain Nature Association. Saving historical structures. Connecting My morning in the mountains people with nature. I like to think that resulted in all these random thoughts. Rocky Mountain Nature Association Quarterly 3 ANNOUNCING THE ANNUAL ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATURE ASSOCIATION Ask Nancy [RMNA Quarterly Editor Nancy Wilson will attempt to Membership Picnic unearth answers to any questions asked by RMNA members and park visitors. If you are curious about July 30, 2011 something in or about the park, write: Nancy Wilson, 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM RMNA, PO Box 3100, Estes Park, CO 80517. Or email her at [email protected] ] at the Stanley Park Pavilion With lynx now reported in the park, how can we distinguish Members $10.00; Guests $15.00 them from bobcats and is it possible to discern their tracks Kids 6-12 $5: Kids 5 and under free! from a bobcat’s? Two fail-safe ways to distinguish bobcat and Canada lynx...neither particularly easy if the observation is the 11:00 - 12:00 Meet, greet and shop usual 2 or 3 second look: 1. Bobcats’ tail-tips are black only on top, 12:00 - 12:45 Picnic lunch light beneath. The lynx tail-tip is totally black (think “dipped in an inkwell”); 2. Bobcats have 6 mammaries, lynx have 4 (but be 12:45 - 2:00 Special Programs careful when counting!). Although the lynx’s ear tufts are often noted, bobcats have them, too. Lynx feet appear oversized in Joining us this year for musical relation to their body. Their tracks, greater than 3 1/2 inches, up to entertainment is Cowboy Brad Fitch. 4 1/2 or even 5 inches in diameter, are more likely to be confused Brad will perform original songs as with an adult female mountain lion rather than a bobcat, which are typically less than 3 inches. The studies of radio-collared lynx well as many western and folk favorites, reintroduced to southwestern Colorado found them to use mostly including songs from seminal Rocky the upper montane and subalpine areas. But since we seem to be Mountain songwriter John Denver. experiencing an upward spike in bobcat numbers, “either-or” Jubilations catering of Estes Park will provide a delicious sightings in the lower elevations of the park would more likely be barbeque lunch featuring burgers, hot dogs, and barbequed bobcat. We are interested in receiving reports of lynx sightings chicken breast. (All plates, utensils, and food will be within the park, and the state Division of Wildlife has an on-line compostable in order to make our event as green as data collection form for lynx (and wolf, wolverine, river otter) thought to be seen anywhere in the state. Check out wildlife.state. possible.) Browse through the on-site RMNA bookstore co.us/WildlifeSpecies/—RMNP Biologist Gary C. Miller where members receive a special 20% discount. Join us for this wonderful event! Why doesn’t the park use controlled burns on the west side of RMNP to reduce potential large scale fires that threaten the area from all the dead and standing trees that remain? We do ~ RSVP by July 20 if you plan to attend ~ have plans to implement fuels treatments on the west side, but the If you need to cancel, please let us know. issue is environmental compliance. Our current Environmental Assessment (EA) does not allow for much in the way of prescribed burning on the west side of the park right now.