Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- Time for a TurnaroundWell, my friends, things are finally looking up, and good timing, too, since I’m sure you’re all sick of me bitching. Recent bike build, including wheels… fun! In what feels like a fairly short time, I’ve come from sitting around … Continue reading → […]
- This Raised My PulseHey, baby… wanna ride? I may be injured, but I’m not dead yet. I can still have racy thoughts. Here’s more info. In other news, UBI was an awesome success! I had a blast. I highly recommend it. Overhaul day…. … Continue reading → […]
- Time for a Turnaround
- Edgy Veggie
Front Range mountain lions “not long for this world”
A mountain lion that was part of the Colorado Division of Wildlife study is pictured within the study area, which spanned from Lyons south to Evergreen | Colorado Division of Wildlife
The Colorado Division of Wildlife is halfway through a six-year study tracking mountain lions across the Front Range, including ones that frequent the mountains above Boulder.
There’s all sorts of questions that this kind of study is helping to answer. (For example, it’s not true that mountain lions lay in wait on the edge of suburban neighborhoods because they’ve learned it’s easier to pick off poodles compared to elk.) But one striking thing that the biologists have learned so far is that mountain lions around here are facing long odds for living a long life.
A story in today’s Denver Post follows one particular lion who’s a Boulder County local known as AM06 — a male who wanders his 230-square-mile territory from Nederland to Lyons.
Halfway through a six-year study of cougars in the suburbs — the elk-eating kind, not the bar-hopping divorcees — AM06 is a well-known quantity. At any given moment, researcher Mat Alldredge can print out a terrain map showing the prowling puma’s every move for an entire month.
What they’ve learned is that most lions are not long for this world.
“We have an incredibly low survival rate,” Alldredge said.
Of 40 lions captured and tagged in the study so far, only 18 are alive and on-line. A few may have shed their tags, but most died from car hits, homeowner shootings or starvation.
Read more of the story at DenverPost.com.
El Nino is Spanish for “fewer powder days”
Courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
It’s an El Nino year, again, which means that this winter could be a little grim for powder hounds in Colorado (unless you live around Telluride and Silverton).
For the Front Range and ski resorts north of Telluride — including Aspen, Vail, Breckenridge, etc. — an El Nino winter means a wet fall and a dry winter.
It doesn’t actually mean that less snow will fall, just that through December, January and February, there will be fewer storms — but those storms could dump more snow.
El Niño may mean fewer snowy days during the winter for most of Colorado’s resorts, according to Klaus Wolter, an atmospheric scientist who works with the University of Colorado and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“You get fewer storms, and once in awhile we’ll get hit and those storms can be healthy storms,” Wolter said. “But you shouldn’t expect a lot of powder skiing.” Read more
