Rio Blanco County receives Elk Foundation grant

RBC | Wildlife conservation projects in 14 Colorado counties have been selected to receive grants from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation in 2010.
The new RMEF funding, totaling $146,250, will affect Rio Blanco County, as well as Archuleta, Chaffee, Delta, Fremont, Garfield, Grand, Gunnison, Las Animas, Mesa, Montrose, Ouray, Park and San Miguel counties.
“These grants are possible because of the successful banquets and fundraisers staged over the past year by our Colorado volunteers – most of whom are elk hunters as well as devoted conservationists,” said David Allen, RMEF president and CEO. “Since 1984, our annual grants have helped complete 502 different projects in Colorado with a combined value of more than $115 million.”
RMEF grants will help fund, in Rio Blanco County: Enhance forage conditions for elk and deer by prescribe burning 250 acres of shrub-choked lands in the Oak Ridge State Wildlife Area; treat 300 acres of noxious weeds in the Flat Tops area of Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest (also affects Routt, Grand and Garfield counties), use hydro-axe to clear 150 acres, prescribe burn 880 acres, and treat noxious weeds on 100 acres in the White River National Forest.
Projects are selected for grants using science-based criteria and a committee of RMEF volunteers and staff along with representatives from partnering agencies and universities.
Partners for 2010 projects in Colorado include Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Colorado Division of Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, other agencies, corporations and landowners.