logo
Elementary students join annual trout release

Elementary students join annual trout release

Yahoo16-05-2025

(MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo.) — On Thursday, May 15, students from Ute Pass Elementary, along with the City of Manitou Springs and other partners, took part in the annual trout release at Fields Park.
The release is part of the Trout in the Classroom program, where students raise their fish from egg to release. Along with the release, the students host various stations on biology, water conservation, and stewardship.
Manitou Parks and Recreation, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Pikes Peak Trout Unlimited, and even the City of Colorado Springs take part in offering education opportunities.
'Seeing them every day, taking care of them. To see them swim away is a bit challenging, but it's also really cool, and the kids are excited to see that, and seeing the smile on their face, and just even getting to hold the trout in your hands in a little cup, and seeing it swim around is a pretty cool experience,' said 6th Grade Teacher Miles Groth.
This year, Ute Pass Elementary students released around 102 trout into Fountain Creek, according to the school.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Keep Colorado Wild Pass helps fund search and rescue drone conference
Keep Colorado Wild Pass helps fund search and rescue drone conference

Yahoo

timea day ago

  • Yahoo

Keep Colorado Wild Pass helps fund search and rescue drone conference

DENVER (KDVR) — Douglas County Search and Rescue partnered with Colorado Parks and Wildlife for the first-ever Rocky Mountain SAR UAS Conference, held May 31 at the Highlands Ranch Law Enforcement Training Facility. The event focused on search and rescue teams' usage of unmanned aerial systems, aka drones, during operations. The SAR team can use the tool to search large areas quickly, get an overhead look at a situation, scan the area using thermal cameras and communicate remotely with the people once located with a drone. Parker police use drone to find child who didn't return from playground It's something the Douglas County team is familiar with: In March, the Douglas County SAR was called to Roxborough State Park for two teenagers who got lost near Carpenter Peak. The team used drones to search for the teens and quickly located them after seeing a flashing light. Using the drone's technology, the team was able to have a family member communicate with the teenagers. 'From their standpoint, here they are lost in the wilderness, you know, you could hear dad coming over the speaker with some positive words of encouragement. I think it really uplifted their spirits,' drone lead Darren Keralla of DCSAR told FOX31's Kasia Kerridge. 'We can't receive audio, but we typically ask them if you're OK, give me a thumbs up, and they'll respond with a thumbs up. We can interpret a lot from their motions and what they're communicating back to us physically.' The conference drew together over 60 drone professionals from over 25 agencies in Colorado, where they shared best practices and lessons learned. 'This event was an outstanding success,' said Brent Lounsbury, Emergency Management Coordinator for CPW, in a release. 'Douglas County SAR identified the need for an event where SAR UAS professionals could collaborate and learn from each other; it clearly hit the mark. We're really looking forward to this event coming around again next year, and it being an even larger success.' Colorado's search and rescue teams are all staffed by volunteers, and CPW's Backcountry SAR program helps funnel funds from sales of the Keep Colorado Wild Pass, as well as hunting and fishing licenses, to search and rescue teams around the state. The pass costs $29 for Colorado residents and can be added to your vehicle registration. CPW says clean boats make for happy lakes CPW noted that modern drones have high-tech cameras and sensors that can provide inaccessible views for ground crews. The agency also uses drones for wildlife and land management. 'This conference allowed us to get everyone in a room, make contacts and share best practices. I particularly enjoyed the question and answer sessions after each presentation, where critical discussions and learning were exchanged peer-to-peer,' said Dave Miska, president of Douglas County SAR, in CPW's release. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Another Colorado wolf dead, CPW watching 4 potential dens for pups
Another Colorado wolf dead, CPW watching 4 potential dens for pups

Yahoo

time03-06-2025

  • Yahoo

Another Colorado wolf dead, CPW watching 4 potential dens for pups

DENVER (KDVR) — Another wolf that was reintroduced to Colorado has died, and wildlife officials are continuing to monitor several potential dens where there may be new pups. Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced Monday that it received a mortality alert for the male gray wolf 2507 on May 31, and said the wolf died in northwest Colorado. Colorado Parks and Wildlife kills grey wolf in Pitkin County after attacks on livestock Because the species is federally listed under the Endangered Species Act, the death is being investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. CPW said the cause of death will be determined in a necropsy as part of the investigation. Further details about the death have not been released, but the agency said it is continuing to monitor wolf activity, including four potential dens. 'It is likely there are an unknown number of new pups that were born this year,' CPW said in a press release. The agency said it is working on plans for translocation efforts in the coming year so that the state's wolf population will continue to grow, leading to a self-sustaining population, in addition to the new pups. A total of six wolves that were relocated to the Centennial State have died so far this year. Last week, CPW announced that it had killed a gray wolf in Pitkin County after reports of chronic depredation despite livestock producers' non-lethal efforts to deter wolves from their animals. Last month, another gray wolf in northwest Colorado died. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Colorado Officials Euthanize ‘Chronic' Problem Wolf That Was Killing Livestock
Colorado Officials Euthanize ‘Chronic' Problem Wolf That Was Killing Livestock

Yahoo

time02-06-2025

  • Yahoo

Colorado Officials Euthanize ‘Chronic' Problem Wolf That Was Killing Livestock

The challenges associated with bringing gray wolves back to Colorado were illuminated yet again last week. On Thursday, state wildlife managers made what they called the 'very difficult' decision to kill a wolf that was preying on livestock on private land in Pitkin County, and which had previously been relocated from another county due to concerns around livestock depredations. The lethal removal took place the evening of May 29 on an unidentified cattle ranch. It was the first time that officials with Colorado Parks and Wildlife have killed a wolf since the voter-led reintroduction effort began in 2023. It was not, however, the first time that CPW has dealt with this particular wolf, which was identified in an agency news release as gray wolf 2405 and a member of the Copper Creek Pack. Read Next: The Wolf Pack Responsible for the Majority of Livestock Depredations in Colorado Will Be Relocated, Not Killed Officials explained that the young male wolf had met their definition of 'chronic depredation' after being linked to four such events in an eight-day period. They said those events occurred even with non-lethal deterrence measures in place. They pointed to 'clear and convincing evidence' that 2405 was responsible for three of the cows that were injured or killed on several different ranches in Pitkin County around Memorial Day weekend. 'The decision to take lethal management action was very difficult,' CPW director Jeff Davis said in a statement. 'Our wildlife biologists constructed a timeline of recent events that shows the depredation behavior met the conditions for chronic depredation that were defined earlier this year. We have great respect for these animals and take the removal of a wolf very seriously.'Davis went on to explain that the action was meant 'to discourage [the] other pack members' from preying on livestock. He said the agency would continue to monitor the behavior of those remaining pack mates 'to determine if behavior has changed,' but didn't specify what management actions might be taken based on that behavior in the future. It's also unclear based on CPW's timeline of events whether wolf 2405 was acting alone, or if other members of the pack were involved in the depredations as well. That timeline cites GPS collar data, which showed 'some wolves from the Copper Creek Pack were in the area' where the depredations took place on May 24 and 25. A CPW spokesperson did not give a specific answer when asked by OL whether this collar data might indicate that multiple wolves from the Copper Creek Pack were involved in the Pitkin County depredations in May. The spokesperson clarified that 2405 was 'a member of a pack determined to have met the definition of chronic depredation' and said CPW would post a full report with more information soon. '[This] is not something that we take lightly,' CPW wolf conservation program manager Eric Odell said in Friday's news release. 'Removal of animals early in the restoration process is a balance between managing populations of wolves, while also assisting landowners in resolving ongoing conflicts with wolves.' CPW also noted in Friday's announcement that it is currently monitoring four potential dens across the state, and that more pups will likely be born this spring. That should bring Colorado closer to its eventual goal of a self-sustaining gray wolf population, while at the same time giving wildlife managers more GPS-collared wolves to keep track of. There are currently 23 collared wolves roaming the state, and their movements are updated monthly in a map maintained by CPW. In many ways, the Copper Creek Pack has embodied how complicated and contentious Colorado's wolf restoration process has been. The pack was formed by two of the 10 wolves that were initially brought over from Oregon and released in Grand and Summit Counties back in December 2023. The mating pair established a den in Grand County that winter and gave birth to five pups the following spring. Read Next: Coloradans Who Oppose Wolf Reintroduction Can't Agree on How to Try Ending It Conflicts soon followed. Between April and July 2024, as wolf advocates celebrated the pack's formation, CPW confirmed multiple livestock depredations by the pack's two adult wolves. Ranchers in Grand County pleaded with both the state and the federal government to lethally remove the wolves, but their requests were denied. Although CPW's policy director told commissioners at one point that the adult pair had caused 'the main issues in depredation' among all the wolves that were relocated there from Oregon, the agency ultimately decided that killing the two breeding wolves would be 'irresponsible' and could hamper its larger recovery goals. CPW chose instead to capture and relocate the Copper Creek Pack in September. The male wolf died soon after capture, and one of the pups eluded officials, while the remaining four pups and the female were trapped and held at an undisclosed facility for several months. The five Copper Creek wolves were then re-released this last winter along with the 15 additional gray wolves that were translocated from British Columbia to Eagle and Pitkin Counties in January. At the time of the Copper Creek Pack's capture last fall, CPW acknowledged that relocation was not how it planned to handle those types of conflicts going forward. Ranchers, meanwhile, expressed their concerns that by relocating the wolves, wildlife managers were simply moving the problem instead of solving it. Read Next: Colorado Parks and Wildlife Releases Second Batch of Wolves Amid Threats, Rumors, and Growing Controversy 'By refusing to manage problem wolves, CPW has allowed livestock depredations to continue unchecked, while fostering a pack of depredating wolves,' read an August 2024 letter from the Colorado Cattlemen's Association to CPW director Jeff Davis. 'Pups from these problem wolves will be trained to 'hunt' and survive off livestock.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store