ARTICLES OPEN SPACE AND TRAILS BOARD OF TRUSTEES April 23, 2015 Plaza One Meeting Room 530 E. Main St., Aspen Newspaper Articles and Letters to Editor North Star Management Plan North Star management plan aims to ‘rewet the wetlands’; 4/08/15 - Aspen Daily News Pitkin County commissioners get first gaze of North Star plan; 4/08/15 – Aspen Times Rio Grande Trail and Aspen Mass Trail Gas pipeline project to close section of Rio Grande Trail; 4/09/15 – Aspen Daily News Water City, PitCo spell out concerns at the headwaters; 4/08/15 – Aspen Daily News Ruedi water lease could affect levels, Fryingpan flow; 4/10/15 – Aspen Daily News Letter to Editor: We need to address our water issues before we become California; 4/13/15 – Aspen Daily News Climate study foresees fewer year-round streams; 4/19/15 – Glenwood Springs Post Independent Forest Service Forest Service Oks Basalt to Gypsum dirt bike trail; 4/15/15 – Aspen Times Planned burn on Basalt Mountain scorched 1,100 acres, captured attention; 4/14/15 – Aspen Times Letter to Editor: Thanks to the F.S. for a successful prescribed fire; 4/18/15 – Aspen Daily News Colorado Parks and Wildlife Aspen-area wildlife losing a prime advocate in Kevin Wright; 4/20/15 – Aspen Times Published on Aspen Daily News Online (http://www.aspendailynews.com) North Star management plan aims to ‘rewet the wetlands’ Writer: Collin Szewczyk Byline: Aspen Daily News Staff Writer Heron numbers down at James H. Smith colony An updated draft management plan for the North Star Nature Preserve east of Aspen aims to address the drying up of the wetland area as well as a huge increase in popularity for recreational use, both of which are having effects on the delicate ecosystem. Pitkin County Open Space and Trails (OST) staff presented the draft at a joint meeting of the OST board and the county commissioners on Tuesday morning. The plan proposes to potentially reconnect the Roaring Fork River to the floodplane, helping to reverse a drying trend in low­water years. It also calls for a year­around public access ban in a section of the James H. Smith Open Space that is now home to a heronry, which has seen its numbers decline in the last few years. The draft, which will cover both North Star and the James H. Smith North Star Open Space under the same management plan, will also be brought before the city’s open space and trails and Healthy Rivers and Streams boards for review, prior to being released to the public on April 27. The plan will also restore the streambanks to protect the existing cottonwood trees; study existing stream features to determine if they should be removed or altered; usher in a stronger message of “pack­in, pack­out”; and stabilize the groundwater supply. The 175­acre North Star Preserve’s wetland area, which is a fen, has diminished by as much as 30 percent according to ecologist Randy Mandel, of Golder Associates of Denver, through a combination of factors including a 38 percent reduction of water due to the Independence Pass transmountain diversion. He called the area very unique for Colorado, noting that only about 2 percent of all wetlands are actually fens, which are typically fed by a combination of both ground­ and surface­water. Mandel said a goal of the plan is to “rewet the wetlands.” Gary Tennenbaum, OST assistant director, showed historical photos of the Roaring Fork’s course through the preserve when it took a more serpentine path. But the area has since been impacted by the transmountain diversion, as well as human activity including draining of the wetlands, removal of natural willows, and the straightening of the river to make the area better for agricultural purposes. This has caused a greater focus point for pressure against a terminal moraine, which could breach from erosion and rapidly drain the area of water. Mandel likened the moraine, which is the hillside near the Stillwater Bridge, to a plug in a bathtub. “If that plug is breached, the hydrology, and the natural wetting effect, if you look at this like a sponge, will change drastically,” he said. “That will cause a huge environmental alteration.” The diminishing of the water in the area has also led to a shift in the types of vegetation that grows there, bringing in noxious weeds, and causing a “rapid die­off” of aspen trees. “This property is a gem. [I’ve worked] on properties all over the state and the West, and most of them are not nearly this nice,” Mandel said. “But [with the drying out] we’re seeing a change in the wetland vegetation going to more of an introduced and meadow­type vegetation that shouldn’t naturally be there. These things are working in concert to potentially threaten the gem that you have here in your community.” Commissioner Rachel Richards asked that studies on the region’s fish be incorporated into the study, so it can be used to determine how much water needs to remain in the preserve. “Given that there’s potential for future water diversions of up to 20 percent more from the Roaring Fork River, … having these baseline standards in place is very important for negotiating any mitigation measures,” she said. “We need to use this as a jumping off point for those efforts.” Improvements to the access corridors and parking areas, soil moisture monitoring, as well as establishing educational programs similar to those at Filoha Meadows, are also included in the plan. Wildlife flourishing Wildlife Ecologist Jonathan Lowsky noted that wildlife in the preserve is doing very well, saying he counted 13 individual bears living there last year “doing what bears are supposed to do,” and has documented myriad birds, many mule deer, and smaller mammals on the property. He said much of this has to do with the existing wilderness plan, which keeps limited recreation on the east side of the river, and only allows educational pursuits on the west. “All of the species that we expect to occur out there, are there,” Lowsky said. “Most of them are flourishing, with the lone exception being the great blue heron.” He said North Star is one of the three highest elevation heronries in Colorado. He noted the numbers have been declining since right around 2012, which is when recreation river use exploded, but added that it could be coincidental. “It happened right around when that boom happened, so there may be a direct correlation,” Lowsky said. “So we need to look into that further.” He added that lower­elevation wildlife areas need to be protected, since this is where most of the development occurs. North Star, which was purchased in 1978, was the first open space property acquired by Pitkin County. At one time it was off­limits to all activity other than educational purposes. Various partners including the Aspen Valley Land Trust, which holds a conservation easement at North Star; the city of Aspen, which is a joint owner of James H. Smith; the U.S. Forest Service; the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies; and the East of Aspen Caucus, have offered input on the plan. Feedback from online public surveys was also included. Following the public comment period, the plan will again go before the OST Board, City of Aspen, and the county commissioners for adoption. [email protected] Add Image: Photo Credit with Byline: Image courtesy of Golder Associates Photo Caption: In yellow, the Roaring Fork River’s channel in the North Star Nature Preserve as it would have been in 1898 is placed over a modern aerial photograph. archive_date: 1 day Source URL: http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/166286 Rick Carroll [email protected] April 8, 2015 Pitkin County commissioners get first gaze of North Star plan A flourishing nature preserve on the outskirts of Aspen is tempered by a reduction in water and change in vegetation, ecologists and wildlife experts told Pitkin County commissioners Tuesday. An updated management plan for the 175­acre North Star Nature Preserve and the adjoining 70­acre­plus James H. Smith Open Space — located along the Roaring Fork River — was introduced to commissioners as part of a work session with the Open Space and Trails Board. The plan, in its draft form, also will get review from the city of Aspen, a partner in the project, and the Pitkin County Healthy Rivers and Stream Board. A six­week public comment period opens April 27. The area, located off Highway 82 east of Aspen, is becoming increasingly popular with recreational users. Kayakers, rafters and paddleboarders enjoy some of the river’s calmest waters. Walkers, runners, hikers, cross­country skiers and bikers use the trail that ends at Difficult. And paragliders use a public portion of the preserve as a landing spot. Fishing is prohibited except by boat. “It’s a huge nature preserve,” Gary Tennenbaum, assistant director of Open Space and Trails, told the commissioners and the open space board. “It’s beautiful wetlands, really pretty habitat, so overall it’s great.” But the original management plan, created in 2000, needs to be updated, he said. “Overall, it’s great. The management plan is working. We just want to slowly tweak it and add some nuances to it.” Human impacts to the river as well as the straightening of the river have resulted in less water, drying wetlands and such vegetational changes as an uptick in noxious weeds. “The aspens are suffering with what’s known as rapid die­off,” said Randy Mandel, a senior restoration ecologist with Lakewood­based Golder Associates, which worked on the draft of the management plan.