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PRSRT STD POSTAL CUSTOMER U.S. POSTAGE PAID DIVIDE CO PERMIT NO. 487 ute country news FREE Bringing People And Business Together To Expand Growing And Caring Communities April 2013 P.O. Box 753, Divide, CO 80814 • 719-686-7393 Vol. 5, No. 4 Welcome to Ute Country April is a promise that May is bound to keep. Ñ Hal Borland INSIDE On Deck .................................................................................2 Gold for the Colorado capital dome was donated by CC&V ...7 AmeriCorps crew helps prevent, mitigate wildfi re threats .......2 Critter Corner .........................................................................7 2013 Midland Days Symposium ............................................2 2013-14 fi shing, hunting Mueller State Park’s spring programs and guided hikes .......13 In case of haunting..... ............................................................3 licenses now on sale ..............................................................8 Guffey Cemetery ...................................................................14 The Slowpoke.........................................................................4 Saved in time: The fi ght to establish Florissant Fossil Beds J. A. ribbon cutting Feb. 28th ...............................................14 National Monument................................................................8 Going to the dogs...................................................................4 Fly fi shing: move over guys, the ladies are here to stay ......15 Ice fi shing in South Park ........................................................8 Cripple Creek job fair at Aspen Mine Center April 30th ..........4 Preliminary report on a fossil bone from the Jurassic period 15 Geology Class in Teller County ..............................................8 Fine art comes to Lake George Charter School ......................5 Excitotoxins: What you may not know ..................................16 Becoming a water wise westerner .........................................10 PPRH Senior Circle Luncheon features Help Yourself Reduce Investment Stress ..............................17 “The History of Ute Pass” .......................................................5 What is a moose? .................................................................12 Changes at the Lake George Post Offi ce ...............................17 Lake George Charter School-Beyond the Abc’s – Guffey 9 Health Fair May 5th ................................................12 Adopt Me .............................................................................17 The Music Program................................................................5 Last chance to win is May 1st ..............................................12 Woodland Park Youth Job Fair - Ute Pass Cultural Center, Turkey hunting seminars in Colorado Springs .......................5 Prospect Home Care & Hospice ...........................................12 April 9th ...............................................................................18 Haren and Felina’s story .........................................................6 Rampart Library District news ..............................................13 PPRH offers free classes! .....................................................18 Happy birthday Mother Earth..................................................7 Career Mentoring at CCV High School ................................13 “Alverta Burns - Angel of the Hills” exhibit...........................18 Page 2 - UTE COUNTRY NEWS - April 2013 AmeriCorps crew helps prevent, mitigate wildfi re threats by The Coalition for the Upper South Platte midst the unpredictable weather of the green forest with a focus On Deck Aa Colorado winter, a group of young on catastrophic wildfi re pre- his has been an exciting issue to put together. sawyers has been hard at work in the forest. vention. Sawyers strategically TWe are grateful for our readership response; AmeriCorps National Civilian Community felled trees to open up densely keep that feedback coming! We receive a wide vari- Corps (NCCC) crewmembers assisted the populated forests and remove ety of submissions and do our best to fi t everything Coalition for the Upper South Platte (CUSP) fuels. Low-lying brush was in. There are times we must make the diffi cult deci- with forest health initiatives from February also targeted and cleared out. sion on what to cut and what to hold off until next 8th through March 22nd. Spacing trees and removing time. We hope you are pleased with the result. While CUSP’s expert fi eld crew typically ladder fuels that enable fi res to April showers bring May fl owers; let’s hope! works through much of the winter on forest become extremely hot crown Crew of AmeriCorps volunteers after a hard day’s labor. We are enduring a drought more severe than projects, volunteer help is usually limited due fi res is crucial to promote any of us expected. Adaptation will be the key to inclement weather and work in hard-to- healthy forest ecology. to survival. Minor changes in behavior can save reach areas. This winter, however, CUSP was All said and done, the private lands. Helping out at Glen Eyrie on gallons of water and may literally save our lives the western edge of Colorado Springs, the because water is the second most important fortunate to get a helping hand from an en- crew cleared about eight acres of brush and crew felled trees that will be used as erosion resource for human survival (see “Becoming a thusiastic and hardworking thinned about three acres water wise westerner” for the fi rst). NCCC crew of nine. With at the Catamount Center. control structures during future workdays. Send in a way of saving water that is not in post-fi re fl ooding impacts These treatments, as part of Out at Flying W Ranch, another business the article and we will publish it next month. Call from the Waldo Canyon Fire landscape-scale efforts, are CUSP has been working with on post-fi re 719-686-7393 or email utecountrynewspaper@ looming and another year of important to slow wildfi res, restoration, the NCCC crew helped fell ad- gmail.com Special thanks to the following for drought looking all but cer- reduce fi re intensity, and ditional trees. Many of these once-hazardous water-saving tips or related in this issue: Ashcraft tain, the extra help could not protect communities in the trees were then installed as log erosion bar- Family, Barb, Beth, Carmen, Amy of CUSP, Jim, have come at a better time. Wildland-Urban Interface riers (LEB) with the help of students from Julie, Maude, and Michael. The NCCC crew started - areas where residential Doane College. Twenty-six students from April 22nd is Earth Day and Bani Kurth has in early February with a structures and forests meet. Doane College, located in eastern Nebraska, taken time out of a very busy schedule to wish full day of safety train- The NCCC crew also expe- dedicated their spring break to working with Happy Birthday to Mother Earth. Welcome back, ing led by CUSP staff. rienced the challenges of res- CUSP to assist communities affected by the Bani, or at least for April. We continue to wish Waldo Canyon Fire. These students, working Bani well on her other endeavors. Neal Vercler, NCCC crew toration in a post-fi re environ- in the burn area from March 18th to 23rd, Rainey Hall took the photo of the chemtrail in leader, was grateful for the ment. Working in the recent Bani’s article. She is expanding her talents in many emphasis on safety while burn scar of the 2012 Waldo joined forces with the NCCC crew to install directions. She’s a great writer, historian, photogra- crewmembers learned to Canyon Fire, the NCCC crew 40 LEBs along the steep inclines surrounding pher, and also will help you get your ad in our paper wield their power saws discovered what it meant to Flying W Ranch. Citing the work at Flying W (719)748-3377, especially west of Woodland Park. as his favorite project, Vercler was amazed at over the next seven weeks. Felling a tree on a slope calls get truly dirty. Ash-covered Rainey is easy to talk to and has a great sense of Vercler and his crew honed from head to toe as a result of the sheer amount of work the crew was able humor. We’re glad to have her on our team! their saw and teamwork for a fi rm stance. working among charred trees, to accomplish and gratifi ed by seeing the pro- We also wish to welcome Christine Ford, aka, skills as they worked in the crewmembers carefully identi- gress and impact as they worked to stabilize “Ghostwriter in the Sky.” Christine is keeping us starkly different environments of crowded, fi ed and felled unstable trees. These trees the high-elevation hillslopes. posted on activities of the paranormal fl avor in Teller green forests and charred, black forests. were then put to good use as erosion control The erosion control work at Glen Eyrie and Park Counties. If you have a spine-tingling story Within the unburned forest, CUSP and structures along mountainsides. and Flying W Ranch will benefi t more than or some activity that is beyond rational explanation, NCCC crews worked at the Catamount Center The crew worked in several areas these individual properties. As a result of feel free to give Christine a call 719-963-0081. this work, surrounding and lower-elevation We are hoping by the time you are reading west of Woodland Park. The crews worked in throughout the burn, on both public and infrastructure, homes, schools, and busi- this our website will be up and running. It’s funny how cyberspace seems to run on different