Battle At Bellyache Ridge Fence Removal  By Briant Wiles   It was the end of May 2024, and the BHA stewardship team was riding high after victories at Meeker, Rabbit Mountain, Perins Peak, and the momentous Beer, Bands, and Barbwire Strands event. I might say that we were a little bit smug having battled everything from 4 strand wire in scrub oak to woven wire embedded in thick sage. Overconfident and foolhardy I plunged the Toyota off the pavement onto the dirt road leading up Bellyache ...

  San Isabel National Forest Fence Removal By Briant Wiles   “The fence just disappeared” was the overheard remark of one of the participants at the recent Salida fence pull event. 16 motivated volunteers meet up on a warm and sunny mid-September morning at a work site on San Isabel National Forest. A joint effort between BHA, Greater Arkansas Nature Association (GARNA), and Chaffee County Rec Adopters brought folks together from many walks of life with one goal in common: improve habitat. ...

Snowmass Falls Ranch  A New Beginning By Briant Wiles   When it comes to opportunities to help improve habitat on a newly acquired piece of public ground in the mountains of Colorado, it is hard to beat the Snowmass Falls Ranch project. The 600 plus acre property had been listed for sale and without a conservation easement in place making it ripe for development. The property is important for wildlife being a migration corridor for elk and deer between summer and winter ranges. Up ...

Under a hot July sun, the wire shined, and our core body temperatures rose. We dug, pulled, cut, and wrestled the fence. The mixed woven and barbed wire barrier was deeply entrenched in a mountain shrub community north of Hayden Colorado. It was draped across the hillside tired and rusted. Put there years ago, it no longer serves its purpose of managing grazing. No longer would there be an obstacle ready to cut, ensnare, trap, separate, deprive, or redirect the wildlife that live here. ...