‘Big Ideas’ proposed to help deer and elk in Aspen area
December 27, 2022
The Roaring Fork Valley still boasts an impressive quantity and quality of habitat for deer and elk but action is needed to reconnect large landscapes and prevent further fragmentation, according to a new landmark study two years in the making. The Watershed Biodiversity Initiative gives public land managers and policy makers comprehensive, science-based information to help guide what lands need to be conserved, what forage needs to be enhanced and what connections are critical in the sprawling 928,640-acre watershed, which includes the Frying Pan and Crystal River Valley as well as the main stem of the Roaring Fork.
EFFORT UNDERWAY TO CREATE SAFE PASSAGES FOR WILDLIFE ACROSS HIGHWAY 82
December 19, 2022
A new citizens’ advocacy organization that aims to reduce wildlife and vehicle collisions in the Roaring Fork Valley has started fundraising to get the effort rolling. Roaring Fork Safe Passages recently received a $10,000 grant from the Aspen Skiing Co. Employee Environment Foundation. Roaring Fork Safe Passages is now attempting to raise $150,000 by June 1 to complete a prioritization study that is vital to receiving state and federal funding to build mitigation structures, said the new nonprofit’s director, Cecily DeAngelo. The ultimate goal is to construct land bridges, tunnels and fencing in strategic places along Highway 82 and Highway 133 in the Crystal River Valley. Roaring Fork Safe Passage’s efforts to complete a prioritization study goes hand in hand with the work of another Roaring Fork Valley nonprofit, the Watershed Biodiversity Initiative.
Biodiversity study sheds light on how to protect the Roaring Fork watershed
January 18, 2022
EMMA — As the impacts of human development and the climate crisis worsen, native plants and animals like elk, deer, and bighorn sheep are declining in our region. In response to this, a group of local stakeholders conducted a three-year biodiversity study of the entire Roaring Fork River watershed. “Rather than let it continue to unravel, identifying the best places to knit biodiversity back together seems like the best practice,” said Tom Cardamone, local ecologist and the executive director of Watershed Biodiversity Initiative.
Study aims to provide helping hands to deer, elk and bighorn sheep in Roaring Fork Valley
December 3rd, 2021
EMMA — The number of deer, elk and bighorn sheep is falling in the Roaring Fork Valley but a relatively new nonprofit organization is hoping to end the trend. The Watershed Biodiversity Initiative is undertaking an ambitious project to help identify large-scale swathes of land that provide the best habitat within the nearly 1 million acre Roaring Fork watershed and the critical connections among the swathes.
Watershed-Wide Study Aims To Protect Wildlife’s Homes
July 1, 2019
EMMA — Tom Cardamone’s house in Emma pulses with life: Songbirds flutter and donkeys roam outside, and inside, Tut, a desert tortoise, creeps; Frodo, the macaw, screeches, and Cardamone’s grandson runs from room to room.
Cardamone is executive director of the Watershed Biodiversity Initiative, a nonprofit he founded in hopes of protecting all the life that calls the Roaring Fork Valley home.
“Without a home, without a place to live, your life is over,” he said.
Watershed-Wide Study Aims To Protect Wildlife's Homes
July 1, 2019
A United Nations report in May warned that a million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, worldwide. The biggest cause of that threat, it said, is the way humans have destroyed or modified the lands and oceans where these species live. Aspen Public Radio is collaborating with Aspen Journalism to produce a series of stories centered on local biodiversity and efforts to identify the Roaring Fork Valley’s best remaining wild lands for our wild creatures.
PitCo Open Space Board Agrees To Funding Wildlife Studies
October 9, 2018
Pitkin County has committed to using science to protect wildlife and habitat on the 5,000 acres of open space property it owns, and last week, the Open Space and Trails Board recommended spending more than $200,000 studying area wildlife.
Much of the funding is going to a new local organization, called the Watershed Biodiversity Initiative. That group, which is headed up by Tom Cardamone, is undertaking a landscape-wide survey that looks at the entire Roaring Fork watershed. Its goal is to identify the highest priority areas in the watershed for restoration and conservation.