Wild Connections is proud to sponsor Rocky Mountain Wild's Links for Lynx event as part of their upcoming Colorado Endangered Species Week event series.
The elusive Canada lynx once ranged from Alaska to northern New Mexico, west into California, and east to Maine. By the early 1970s, Canada lynx were all but eliminated from the Rockies due to trapping, shooting, and habitat degradation.
Between 1999-2007, 218 lynx were reintroduced to southwestern Colorado, but new problems like highway mortality, habitat fragmentation, ski area expansion, and lack of adequate habitat protections dwindled their numbers.
Learn more about Canada lynx and see what you can do to help protect them.
Photo: Canada lynx, provided by RMW courtesy of Eric Kilby. Click the photo to go to the event registration page.
McIntyre Hills Backcountry Day Hike,
A BLM Wildlands Outing May 22, 2021
9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (trailhead to trailhead times)
McIntyre Hills Wilderness Study Area is filled with rugged canyons that flow to The Arkansas River west of Royal Gorge along US Highway 50. This Wild Connections moderate six-mile hike will explore upper ends of a few of these seldom visited canyons. We will travel on and off trails and gain 750 feet in elevation.
Participants should bring lunch, plenty of water and snacks, clothing suitable for the weather condition, including rain gear, and good footwear suitable for hiking in gravel and brush.
Because of COVID-19 restrictions, we will be practicing safe health precautions. Wearing masks and maintaining social distance is requested upon our hike meet-up, with the option of not wearing your mask on the hike with safe social distancing. We ask people not to carpool with people who are not members of their household, if carpoolers have not completed their Covid-19 vaccinations. Cars will meet in Cañon City at 8:45 AM and caravan to the trailhead.
Pre-trip registration with the leader John Stansfield is required by 5:00 PM, May 21. To register and obtain trip information, including directions to the caravan meeting location, contact John Stansfield at phone 303-660-5849 or email jorcstan@juno.com.
Wild Connections 2018 McIntyre Hills Hike. Photo Misi Ballard.
McIntyre Hills Day Hike, a BLM Wildlands Outing May 22, 2021
9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (trailhead to trailhead times)
Wildcat Canyon Hike May 15, 2021
Rescheduled for May 29, 2021
9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. (trailhead to trailhead times)
This hike has been rescheduled from May 15 to May 29. This is due to safety concerns to access the trailhead and trail conditions due to recent rain and snowfall in the mountains.
Join Wild Connections for a hike into a remote section of the South Platte River known as Wildcat Canyon. This area upstream of Cheeseman Reservoir largely escaped damage in the Hayman Fire, but is now threatened by illegal motorized use.
This hike will cover about 8 miles, with an elevation change of about 1200 feet, and is rated strenuous because of the distance and elevation change. Maximum 10 participants. Participants should bring lunch, plenty of water and snacks, clothing suitable for the weather condition, including rain gear, and good footwear suitable for hiking on gravel.
Because of COVID-19 restrictions, we will be practicing coronavirus precautions, including wearing masks and maintaining social distance upon our hike meet-up, with the option of not wearing your mask on the hike with safe social distancing. We ask people not to carpool with people who are not members of their household.
To officially register for this hike and to obtain the pertinent information, including directions to the trailhead, contact Jim Lockhart at phone 719-385-0045 or e-mail jlock@datawest.net.
Wild Connections Board member Karl Ford recently presented on the Colorado Trail in the Wild Connections Area.
Karl is a Triple Crowner, having completed 8,000 miles on the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail and Continental Divide Trail long distance hikes. He has also one and a half completions of the Colorado Trail.
He showed slides of his 2020 250-mile hike along the Colorado Trail and discussed the status of protected and proposed Wilderness Areas and other Wild Connections activities along this segment of this world-class Trail.
In mid-January new rules regulating oil and gas development in Colorado went into effect increasing protection of 12.7 million acres of wildlife habitat across the state.
Go to Rocky Mountain Wild's story map and zoom in to Wild Connections region to see how this plays out here. When you turn the "old rules" and "new rules" on and off, you will be struck by the increase in protections for both the Arkansas and S. Platte tributaries and mainstems.
Wild Connections Climate Planning video
January 26, 2021 Zoom presentation
available on YouTube
Alison Gallensky presented Wild Connections approach to climate modeling and how various scenarios might play out in key locations in our region. View the 50 minute video at the left or go to YouTubehttps://youtu.be/EpEKzo9ay4k
Current Biodiversity modeling from Interactive Map. Click image to go to the map.
Interactive Map
The many data layers that are used in the climate planning project can be utrned on or off in the Interactive Map at
Wild Connections recognizes that our region is the acnestral lands of the Ute, Arapaho and Cheyenne peoples.
Virtual Journeys
Go to a roadless area
Fly Over Grape Creek Wilderness Area Threatened by proposed mining
EcoFlight will take you over the Grape Creek area where a mining company is proposing to mine various minerals. Already there are impacts from helicopter activity that droped in an exploratory drill rig and water was pumped out of Grape Creek to service the rig.
Arkansas Canyon Wild Areas
Fly over the exceptional wildlands in the Arkansas Canyon with EcoFlight
Wildcat Canyon
Take a short journey down to the South Platte River in Wildcat Canyon
Listen to a podcast
Bob Falcone talks with Jim Lockhart and John Stansfield. Click image to listen
Hiking With Bob podcast
John Stansfield and Jim Lockhart on
the CWA and CORE
They discuss the Colorado Wilderness Act and the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act, and get into what the legislation’s will do, and their impact on outdoor recreation in Colorado. Listen to it at
Roger Wendell, host of KGNU's "Connections" radio broadcast, and Jim Lockhart, WC president, talk about Wild Connections' conservation work. Go to https://www.kgnu.org/connections and scroll down to December 4, 2020.
View a webinar or film
President L. B. Johnson signs the Wilderness Act at the White House, September 3, 1964 Photo Wilderness Watch.org . Click above to go to the video.
Celebrate the Birthday of the Wilderness Act with Prose & Poetry A Wild Connections 25th Anniversary Indoor Outing
"Celebrating the 56th Anniversary of The Wilderness Act" with readings by Wild Connections members is onYouTube. Hear from Howard Zahniser, Aldo Leopold, W. E. B DuBois, Richard Nelson, Edward Abbey, Mardy Murie and Terry Tempest Williams, and Wendell Berry.
View of james Peak, Samuel Seymour 1820
First Known Man’s and Woman’s Ascents of Pikes Peak John Stansfield, Storyteller and Writer, recounts the fascinating history of the early adventurers on Pikes Peak. Ute people, Edwin James of the Long Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, and Julia Archibald coming west with her family are featured.
Click the image to go to the YouTube video
Celebrate 25 years of protecting wildlands in central Colorod
Explore some of Wild Connections' history and accomplishments with photos and maps.
Wild Connections' mission is to identify, protect, and restore wildlands, native species, and biological diversity in the Arkansas and South Platte watersheds. They are the ancestral lands of the Ute, Cheyenne, Arapaho and other indigenous peoples.
