Local volunteers returning cottonwoods to Colorado River
Release Date: October 18, 2006
Grand Junction
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Contact:
Mel Lloyd
Bureau of Land Management, Grand Junction Field Office
970-244-3097 |
Contact:
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Local volunteers and businesses, and county, state and federal agencies are teaming up to plant 30 cottonwood trees along the Colorado River at the mouth of Mee Canyon on October 27-29, 2006. Crews hope to restore cottonwoods to an area where escaped campfires through the years weakened and then finally destroyed the last tree remaining from a centuries-old cottonwood gallery. This area is a popular campsite for boaters floating through Ruby-Horsethief Canyons in the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area.
The Mesa County Sheriff's Office, Colorado Division of Wildlife, the W.A.T.E.R. Club, Centennial Canoe, Whitewater Rafting, Boy Scout Troop 303, and Mesa State students enrolled in environmental studies are working with staff from the Bureau of Land Management and McInnis Canyons NCA to complete the project. But it won't end there-the trees' survival will depend on those boaters who stop there to camp or take a break. A total of five watering stations, complete with buckets, will be set up by the BLM to encourage boaters to water the young trees.
The 123, 430-acre McInnis Canyons NCA is managed under BLM's National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS). The NLCS is composed of special public lands, many of which have received special recognition and protection through congressional or presidential conservation designations.
For more information on the NLCS, go to
www.blm.gov/nlcs. For additional information on this project, contact Park Ranger Troy Schnurr at 970-244-3032 or BLM Ecologist Anna Lincoln at 970-244-3019.
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Editor's Note: Great photo opportunities for those who can float the river on their own to reach the project work site. Alternative opportunities are at the Loma boat launch at 10:15 a.m., Tuesday, October 24 (Loma exit off westbound I-70). Interviews available. Call Mel Lloyd for details & directions.
