Colorado
Opinion: Having a healthy beaver population will help restore Colorado ecosystems and watersheds
Beavers are having a moment. In October in Boulder, I joined hundreds of people from around the globe at BeaverCON 2024. It was one of the hottest tickets in town and it did not disappoint. I got to hear firsthand from top beaver experts (yes, that’s a thing) about how one small mammal can have a huge positive impact on waterways and ecosystems.
Beavers are one of the best ways to maintain and restore ecosystems — and they do it in addition to the good work by landowners and scientists. As diligent architects of the ecosystem, beavers reshape stream and river corridors by dispersing water across the floodplain, saturating the terrain before it descends through valleys.
Healthier riverscapes help support wetland vegetation, sustain fish species that thrive in calm water and ponds, and encourage more water to seep into the groundwater. Numerous fish and wildlife species favored by hunters and anglers rely on thriving wetlands and streams, and beavers play a vital role in creating and maintaining these essential habitats. Without beavers and the winding streams they construct, water rushes down the channel unrestrained, transporting sediment and causing erosion along its course.
Beavers could once be found across North America and numbered from 60 million to 400 million, but their populations suffered significant declines in the 1800s due to widespread historic trapping and removal across the West, including Colorado. Their disappearance from much of their natural range has negatively affected the health of riparian and wetland areas, leading to the deterioration of water and land habitats.
Rivers and river systems are integral to the health of Colorado’s natural habitat, and as a headwaters state, our state is the home to the origins of four of our nation’s major rivers. In the Colorado River Basin, we’ve seen climate change fuel extended drought, invasive species and intense wildfires. Increasing demand on water resources from municipal and agricultural users has placed the entire system under greater stress.
While beavers are known to be effective hard workers, their widespread removal over the past 150 years means they need a little help to carry out this function effectively. This is where a tool called low-tech, process-based restoration comes in. This tool focuses on restoring degraded river ecosystems by working to mimic natural processes (hint: beaver dams) and creating improved habitat that could better support beaver populations.
The Cameron Peak and East Troublesome mega fires of 2020 provided a look at how beavers have contributed mightily to resiliency of our landscape: The areas with beaver stuck out like green oasis in the middle of the burn scars. Watershed groups and some landowners have taken notice and are adopting this low-tech restoration tool in other communities in Colorado.
Some agricultural and other private landowners, as well as the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, are working together to restore river ecosystems. This is a positive step forward.
And, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is beginning its work to develop a statewide beaver management plan. They are laying the foundation for a well-rounded approach to bring beaver populations back to some upper elevation watersheds. The goal is to improve drought resilience, boost water quality, and increase biodiversity — all while keeping human-beaver conflicts in check.
State support behind beaver management will help Colorado become more climate-resilient while addressing social and economic needs. Successful beaver recovery in Colorado will depend upon engaging more agricultural and private landowners from the start and addressing their concerns.
Surrounded by experts from around the world, BeaverCON truly reinforced the idea that beavers aren’t some comic book superheroes — they are actual superheroes with the potential to play a meaningful role in restoration and recovery efforts for Colorado’s river and stream ecosystems.
Madison Martin, of Lakewood, is a biologist, an avid outdoorswoman and the deputy director of the Colorado Wildlife Federation.
The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun’s opinion policy. Learn how to submit a column. Reach the opinion editor at opinion@coloradosun.com.
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Colorado
Two-alarm fire damages hotel in Estes Park, 1 person taken to a Colorado hospital
A two-alarm fire damaged a hotel in Estes Park on Friday night. It happened at Expedition Lodge Estes Park just north of Lake Estes.
The lodge, located at 1701 North Lake Avenue on the east side of the Colorado mountain town, was evacuated after 8:30 p.m. and the fire chief said by 10 p.m. the fire was under control.
One person was hurt and taken to a hospital.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. So far it’s not clear how much damage it caused.
A total of 25 firefighters fought the blaze.
Colorado
Warm storm delivers modest totals to Colorado’s northern mountains
Lucas Herbert/Arapahoe Basin Ski Area
Friday morning wrapped up a warm storm across Colorado’s northern and central mountains, bringing totals of up to 10 inches of snowfall for several resorts.
Higher elevation areas of the northern mountains — particularly those in and near Summit County and closer to the Continental Divide — received the most amount of snow, with Copper, Winter Park and Breckenridge mountains seeing among the highest totals.
Meanwhile, lower base areas and valleys received rain and cloudy skies, thanks to a warmer storm with a snow line of roughly 9,000 feet.
Earlier this week, OpenSnow meteorologists predicted the storm’s snow totals would be around 5-10 inches, closely matching actual totals for the northern mountains. The central mountains all saw less than 5 inches of snow.
Here’s how much snow fell between Wednesday through Friday morning for some Western Slope mountains, according to a Friday report from OpenSnow:
Aspen Mountain: 0.5 inches
Snowmass: 0.5 inches
Copper Mountain: 10 inches
Winter Park: 9 inches
Breckenridge Ski Resort: 9 inches
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area: 8.5 inches
Keystone Resort: 8 inches
Loveland Ski Area: 7 inches
Vail Mountain: 7 inches
Steamboat Resort: 6 inches
Beaver Creek: 6 inches
Irwin: 4.5 inches
Cooper Mountain: 4 inches
Sunlight: 0.5 inches
Friday and Saturday will be dry, while Sunday will bring northern showers. The next storms are forecast to be around March 3-4 and March 6-7, both favoring the northern mountains.
Colorado
Avalanche discipline, power play falters, Central Division lead shrinks in 5-2 loss to Wild
The Colorado Avalanche had a chance Thursday night to regain some real separation between them and the Minnesota Wild.
It didn’t happen, and special teams were again an issue.
Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek scored a pair of power-play goals, while the Avalanche took too many penalties and did not convert its chances with the extra man in a 5-2 loss at Ball Arena. The Wild scored on two of six power plays, both in the second period, then added a shorthanded goal into an empty net for good measure.
“We took six (penalties). Six is too many, especially against a power play like theirs,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We had a slow start to the second and then just kind of started getting going, then took a bunch of penalties and kind of took the momentum away and swung it back in their favor again.”
Mackenzie Blackwood was excellent early in this contest and stopped 31 of 34 shots for the Avs in his first start since the Olympic break. Colorado, which went 0-for-3 on the power play, has not scored an extra-man goal in back-to-back games since Dec. 31 and Jan. 3. The Avs are 2-for-31 with the man advantage since Jan. 16, and at 15.1% are last in the NHL.
The Wild are now just five points behind the Avs in the Central Division, though Colorado has two games in hand. Filip Gustavsson made 44 saves for the visitors.
“I think we crated enough chances to win the hockey game,” Bednar said. “We give up the (second power-play goal) and that’s the difference in the hockey game for me. We had a chance (on the power play) … we score and it’s a tie game. We haven’t had an easy time capitalizing on some of our chances that we created in the last month.
“I’d like to see that turn around a little bit.”
Minnesota took advantage of three penalties on Colorado in a span of 53 seconds to take the lead with 2:23 left in the second period. Captain Gabe Landeskog was sent to the box for elbowing Eriksson Ek away from the play at 14:15 and Valeri Nichushkin was called for cross-checking at 15:04.
That gave the Wild a 5-on-3, but it went from bad to worse in a hurry for the home side. Brock Nelson won the 3-on-5 in his own end, but Brent Burns’ backhanded attempt to clear the puck out of the zone went into the stands for a delay of game.
Minnesota had a 5-on-3 for 1:56, which Colorado successfully killed off, but because Burns’ two minutes didn’t start until Landeskog’s penalty ended, there was more 5-on-4 time and Eriksson Ek scored his second of the night. The Swedish Olympian was trying to send a cross-crease pass to Kirill Kaprizov, but it hit the inside of Blackwood’s right leg and pinballed across the goal line.
Because of the extended penalty time, both Eriksson Ek and Boldy officially logged a shift of more than four minutes, leading to that goal.
“I’m not a big fan of the penalties we took, necessarily,” Landeskog said. “Obviously, mine is a penalty. Val, I felt like he was protecting himself and Burns, that’s a penalty. There’s nothing to argue about there. But yeah, that tilts the ice for sure and just gives them unnecessary momentum.
“So yeah, undisciplined and we’ve got to be better there for sure.”
Eriksson Ek put Minnesota in front at 7:48 of the second period. Cale Makar was called for slashing when his one-handed swipe while Yakov Trenin was attempting to shoot from the left wing. Trenin’s stick broke, so Makar went to the box.
Blackwood made the initial save on Matt Boldy’s shot from the high slot, but Eriksson Ek was there near the left post to clean up the rebound.
Martin Necas continued his hot run with a goal to even the score at 13:30 of the middle frame. Nathan MacKinnon picked up the puck in his own zone and carried it into the offensive end. He left a drop pass for Necas near the right point and then played fullback, driving Wild defenseman Daemon Hunt back to give Necas space and then providing a screen on a lethal wrist shot from his Czech linemate.
That was Necas’ 24th goal of the season. He added a second goal in the final minute after the Wild had built a three-goal advantage to give him 25 on the season.
It’s also three in two games since the Olympic break. Necas had three goals and eight points in five games for Czechia at the Olympics in Milan, equaling his country’s record for points at the event.
MacKinnon missed Colorado’s first game back on Wednesday because of maintenance. He actually slipped to third in the NHL scoring race as of Thursday morning, in part because Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov has now has 53 points in his past 23 games to track down MacKinnon and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid to make it a three-man race for the Art Ross Trophy.
McDavid (five times) and Kucherov (three) have combined to win the Art Ross in eight of the past nine years. MacKinnon has never won it, but has finished second each of the past two seasons.
Minnesota scored a second goal off a Colorado player to make it a 3-1 game and then added two empty-net tallies around Necas’ second goal to seal the Wild’s sixth win in a row.
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