Owl Mountain Partnership

Owl Mountain Partnership
100 Main Street
PO Box 737
Walden, CO 80480
ph: 970-723-0020
fax: 970-723-0021
owl000@centurytel.net

Services

Owl Mountain Success Stories

Creating wetlands for waterfowl on a Bureau of Land Management grazing allotment with cooperation of local ranchers, the permittee, Ducks Unlimited and Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Working with other ranchers to develop land management plans for economic, biological and cultural sustainability.

Providing special fences to keep elk away from haystacks and reduce conflicts between wildlife and livestock.

Installing new water tanks on BLM, USFS and private lands to provide water for cattle and developing nearby underground springs to provide water for wildlife. Spring sources are fenced to keep livestock away.

Restoring riparian areas by planting hundreds of willows

Conducting an extensive vegetation inventory on both public and private lands to help access rangeland health.

Gathering information on wildlife species and habitat in the project area -- deer, elk, antelope, moose, bighorn sheep, sage grouse, neotropical migratory birds, small mammals, raptors, fish and aquatic invertebrates.

Sampling streams to determine the effects of sedimentation on water quality.

Habitat management for threatened and endangered species.

Communitcation, Collaboration and Consensus
These are the keys to Owl Mountains success. Government and citizens must learn to work together, not only for economy and efficiency, but also because land health is essentially seamless and interconnected. It knows no boundaries: soil moves, the wind blows streams flow, animals migrate. Land will always be managed for many different things, but sustainable land management requires analyzing the whole while working with its parts -- dealing with problems and not the symptoms.
The partnership recognizes that science cannot provide all the answers. Common sense and experience, available through local expertise, are essential ingredients. This can only come from grass-roots levels. That means local people who are willing to take risks and are willing to demonstrate that successful management can be initiated and accomplished by them in their own communities. People support what they help create.