The Flat Tops Chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) is celebrating 30 years this year. The first banquet was April, 29 1994. Rich Parr, Greg Glasgow, Stu Massey and Dale Dunbar made it happen along with other volunteers. Travis Flaharty has been the chair for the last decade.
As of Dec. 31, 2023, the Flat Tops Chapter has raised $1,830,712.
Today the RMEF is helping to protect the right to hunt in Colorado, by helping Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management fight the Ballot initiative to ban hunting Mountain Lion Hunting.
Most projects are done collaboratively with partners — it makes the dollar go farther
Locally some of the grants/projects the Flat Tops Chapter has been involved in recently include:
Cast, Blast n Twang: Thanks to RMEF volunteers, Colorado kids learn life-long skills in a fun-filled way.
In Meeker, Colorado, the Nine Mile Guest Ranch is normally where the deer, pronghorns and the largest elk herd in the world play. But on June 10, 2023, they were joined by people learning and practicing fishing, shooting and archery skills at Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s (CPW) 15th annual Cast, Blast and Twang Clinic.
The sunny day brought in more than 60 kids and adults to the free event. Attendees rotated through five stations featuring shotgun and .22 rifle shooting ranges, food, archery instruction and a fishing pond. Along with teaching hunting and fishing skills, the clinic promotes awareness for Colorado land and wildlife conservation. Kathleen Mawhinney, CPW’s northwest region education and hunter outreach coordinator, says organizers rely heavily on partners like RMEF. Six RMEF volunteers put in a full day’s work from setup to teardown. RMEF also donated $1,000 in grant funding for food, supplies and giveaway prizes.
“Volunteers make it fun and keep coming back,” says Mawhinney. “We can’t make it happen without them. These events take lots of trained and competent mentors to make all the stations and activities possible and safe.”
RMEF Life Member Travis Flaharty has helped at every Cast, Blast and Twang clinic since the beginning. Flaharty, who served as the Flat Tops Chapter chair for 10 years, owns an outfitting company. He believes the clinic brings together a good mix of individuals, large families, single parents and grandparents to learn new outdoor skills. “My focus is to promote youth,” he said. “This event gives kids the opportunity to try something different that they can’t get in other ways.” Flaharty’s favorite memory from the most recent clinic was an 8-year-old boy who stayed at the fishing pond (the most popular station) all day, and after catching a rainbow trout, asked him to cook it. He couldn’t grant his request on the spot but packaged it up for the boy to take home.
Flaharty is also business partners with longtime RMEF members Rocky and Margaret Pappas, owners of the ranch where the event takes place. It sits on a mountain shrub ecosystem that eventually transitions to aspen groves. At 8,000 feet, it provides calving areas and migration routes for elk herds, pronghorns and mule deer. Participants didn’t leave empty handed. Every kid received a prize, and lucky anglers who landed a tagged fish picked out bigger prizes of camping equipment. Others received fishing rods and almost everyone took home an RMEF hat—a hot commodity amongst the attendees in collaboration with CPW-area 6 and Mule Deer Foundation.
2024 – Elk Study – $22,565, Virtual Fencing Meeker $ 13,750., Bears Ears $39,750.
Elk collars for cow elk studies:
CPW – $10K was to gather some baseline data for elk use in the Williams Fork drainage. The RMEF grant was titled Williams Fork Drainage Oil and Gas Study.
CPW – $20K for elk capture and collaring work to better understand landscape scale elk use, movement and distribution within the White River and Bear’s Ears elk herds. The RMEF Grant money was used to supplement a larger HPP grant that was acquired to purchase collars and capture elk.
Ute Creek Fence Removal:
On Saturday, July 15, 2023, 14 Colorado RMEF volunteers traveled to Meeker, Colorado, for a new and challenging conservation project in the state. On the morning of July 15, we met up with CPW Commissioner Marie Haskett, who brought a few friends of her own, as well as a pack string of horses to help get into the project site. The project site was deep into the National Forest – more than three miles and a 1,500’ climb from the trailhead but volunteers were not deterred.
The work was grueling – the barbed wire fence was covered by numerous downed trees, and meandered over steep terrain and through thick forest. The mosquitoes were brutal, and the temperatures soared into the upper 80’s. By the end of the day the team had removed approximately 1 mile of barbed wire fence from the area. The work helps wildlife, and demonstrates sportsmens’ commitment to conservation in Colorado. In the July 20-21 commission meeting, Commissioner Haskett used her opening comments to highlight the work that she and the RMEF volunteers had accomplished the week prior. In a state with rapidly changing values and demographics, this was an incredible opportunity to once again prove, in front of a large and powerful audience, “Hunting is Conservation!”
Great Divide Fence Removal – Phase II
Funding Summary: RMEF Funds = $7,000, CPW Funds (cash) = $4,100, CPW In-Kind (labor) = $2,400, BLM Funds (cash) = $3,600 BLM In-Kind (labor) = $1,400, Project Total = $18,500.
The Great Divide area northwest of Craig, Colorado, represents a major migration corridor and winter range for thousands of elk from the Bears Ears Herd, the second largest herd unit in Colorado. The Great Divide area is also important agriculturally, with numerous cattle and sheep operations utilizing the sagebrush-steppe rangelands which characterize the area. Hundreds of miles of fence lines help manage domestic grazing operations, but also present a hazard to elk and other wildlife. In addition to legitimate pasture and allotment fences, there are countless miles of abandoned, obsolete fence in the area which no longer provide a service to grazing management but which continue to represent a hazard to the elk, mule deer, pronghorn, sage-grouse, and other wildlife which live in the area. The purpose of this project was to remove as many miles of old, obsolete fence as possible in the project area, building upon previous work in this area that began in 2014. Project work was completed in June 2017 (with BLM and CPW matching funds) and in June 2018 (with RMEF funds). A total of 21 miles of fence was removed during this period. The majority of work was completed in the Great Divide project area (~18 miles) while additional work was completed in Dinosaur National Monument (1 mile) and in the Black’s Gulch area about 15 miles west of Meeker in Rio Blanco County (~2 miles). In total, CPW and other project partners have completed approximately 40 miles of obsolete fence removal in the Great Divide area over the past five years.
Miles of Fence Removed by Land Ownership: BLM = 10.5, Private = 5, State Wildlife Area = 4.5, NPS (Dinosaur) = 1
Right Hand Meadow Creek Wildlife Friendly Fence
Funding Summary: RMEF Funds = $10,000 CO State Land Board (cash) = $24,000 CO Habitat Partnership Program (cash) = $1,650 CPW/BLM Funds (cash) = $16,697 CPW In-Kind (labor) = $1,000 Project Total = $53,347
To improve elk habitat permeability and also improve riparian and forage conditions for wildlife within an area that supports 300+ elk in one of Colorado’s premier quality hunting units, Colorado Parks and Wildlife collaborated with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Colorado State Land Board and Bureau of Land Management to remove 4 miles of old 50+ inch tall 6- strand barbed wire fence that was in very poor condition and no longer functional and replace the 2.75 mile portion that represents the boundary between two large federal grazing allotments with wildlife-friendly 4-strand fence that incorporates 11 permanent big game crossing structures. This project will lead to improved forage conditions and easier access to highly important perennial water sources in year-round habitat that also includes vitally important calving areas for a resident population of 300+ elk. This particular area is also one of the most popular elk hunting destinations in the entire hunting unit, is designated as priority habitat for the greater sage-grouse, and supports a small population of mule deer and pronghorn. This project resulted in the removal of 4 miles of dilapidated 6-strand fence. Of that total, 2.75 miles is required for livestock management and was replaced with wildlife friendly 4-strand fence with 11 crossing structures, including 5 permanent jump-out style wildlife crossings and 6 walk-through gates which will be left open for wildlife passage for approximately 9 months out of each year.
Conservation Easements and Public Access
Pot Creek II-Green River, the tract is nearly surrounded by public lands. It is also adjacent to the Diamond Breaks Wilderness Study Area and just a few miles away from Dinosaur National Monument and Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge. With a stunning diversity of habitat and wildlife, including sagebrush shrub-lands, pinyon-juniper woodlands, aspen, and approximately three miles of riparian areas along Pot Creek, this property provides key connectivity for an elk/deer migration corridor that runs north and south. More than 500 elk utilize the ranch land year-round, as it provides elk and deer summer, transitional, and winter range. It is also core greater sage grouse range and lies within a two-mile radius of leks in both Colorado and Utah, one of which contains more than 60 males. Though the conservation easement is on private property, the landowner granted a public access easement to CPW, allowing public elk hunts every year going forward in the highly limited draw unit of Game Management Unit 1. CPW will manage the hunts, and public hunters will be allowed to access the landlocked BLM-administered lands beyond, benefiting wildlife and sportsmen. The landowner previously placed a RMEF conservation easement on a 796-acre plot of adjacent ranch land immediately across the border in Utah.
Cross Mountain-
The 2,600-acre Cross Mountain conservation easement lies adjacent to Colorado’s Routt National Forest, making it invaluable to elk moving on and off of public land throughout the year. Landowner Michael Cosby took a critical step toward ensuring the wildlife values of his ranch remain intact for generations to come by donating a conservation easement to the Elk Foundation on 340-acres in 2007. The ranch supports a diverse mix of habitats including sagebrush, aspen, riparian areas, ponderosa pine, meadows and spruce/fir. East Fork of William Creek runs through the property along with six smaller drainages. Several ponds are located on the ranch including two within the 340-acre parcel. Elk used the area year-round, but concentrate on the easternmost and southern portions of the property in winter. In addition, the ranch provides habitat for deer, bear, mountain lion and other wildlife. Mr. Cosby intends to place an additional 520-acres under easement with the Foundation in 2008. In addition, he is working to gain permission to transfer the remaining 1,740-acres, which are currently encumbered under an easement with the Yampa Valley Land Trust, to the Elk Foundation
Louisiana Purchase-
Thanks to a conservation-minded landowner, RMEF joined Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) to permanently protect 2,677 acres of vital elk habitat in northwest Colorado. This ranch is bordered on three sides by State Land Board and Bureau of Land Management lands in a part of the state home to Colorado’s largest elk herd, providing connectivity for elk and mule deer migration. Thousands of elk pass through the area during the spring and fall. The property also provides summer and winter range for both species and other wildlife. Access is improved through perpetual permission provided by the landowner for public hunters for a 25-day period each year with drive-through access to adjacent BLM lands.
Keystone East-
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and other partners worked with conservation-minded landowners northwest of Meeker, Colorado, to protect 6,267 acres through a purchased Conservation Easement (CE). The property sits just south of the RMEF-held Louisiana Purchase Ranch CE and is adjacent to public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The property provides calving range, winter range, and a migration corridor traveled by Colorado’s two largest migratory herds, the White River elk and mule deer herds. The area is also home to some of the state’s densest populations of greater sage grouse.
Keystone West-
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) and other partners worked with conservation-minded landowners northwest of Meeker, Colorado, to protect 5,485 acres through a purchased Conservation Easement (CE). The property sits just south of the RMEF-held Louisiana Purchase Ranch CE and is adjacent to public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The property provides calving range, winter range, and a migration corridor traveled by Colorado’s two largest migratory herds, the White River elk and mule deer herds. The area is also home to some of the state’s densest populations of greater sage grouse.
The Flat Tops Chapter Big Game Banquet is planned for Saturday, March 23, 2024 at Rio Blanco 4-H Building Fairgrounds. We look forward to seeing you there and appreciate your continued support! Call Lynne Miller at 970-208 3158 or email [email protected] for details and ticket information.
