Lone Pine Project Successfully Completed
In late April, 14 volunteers from Rocky Mountain Flycasters (RMF) teamed up with local Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) employees to complete the RMF Conservation Committee’s first project of the year. The project was funded in part by a $1,500 Gomo Grant awarded in early April by Colorado Trout Unlimited. RMF covered the remainder of the project expenses.
Over a two day period the team built approximately one-half mile of wildlife-friendly fencing designed to protect riparian habitat along Lone Pine Creek, a naturally reproducing brown trout fishery on the Lone Pine Unit of Cherokee State Wildlife Area. The new fence will encourage plant growth near the creek and reduce bank erosion by excluding cattle from specific reaches of the creek, some of which include beaver ponds. Seeing new areas to fish is a benefit of volunteering for RMF projects!
The fence design specified smooth wire on the top and bottom and two strands of barbed wire in the middle. Wildlife has a much easier time crossing such a fence when either jumping over or crawling beneath it. Over 100 metal T-posts were manually pounded into the ground during the effort, some of which were placed on a steep and very rocky hillside. Several wooden H-braces were built on the ends, corners and mid-span locations to provide strength and integrity to the fence. CPW was able to arrange a skid steer on site, eliminating a lot of manual digging with post hole diggers. It was truly impressive to watch expert operators use this equipment to drive 5” diameter posts about 4 feet into the ground with no digging required. CPW provided skilled employees to lead the effort and to operate the equipment. They also shuttled the volunteers about 2 miles from the parking lot to the work site, which was very much appreciated, especially at the end of a long day!
RMF Conservation Committee members Scott Baily and Tony Popp coordinated the project. Committee chair Dick Jefferies designed and built two stiles to facilitate easy angler access to the fenced-in areas of the creek. These will provide sure and steady passage over the fence for many years to come.
The volunteers on this project were really outstanding. It was a most rewarding experience to watch a massive pile of materials transform into a long (and impressively straight!) span of fence that will protect a beautiful stretch of Lone Pine Creek for decades.
Since the fencing project has been completed, the May 15-16 work days have been canceled. Thank you to those that had volunteered for that weekend. Please consider donating your time to the Stream Monitoring Project (read above) or the other volunteer opportunities. Visit RMF website for complete volunteering information.
Our sincere appreciation goes out to everyone involved with this project. RMF and CPW regard it as being a huge success!