DFO Program Monday, Nov 22 at 7 PM

[Sharon]

From "Crazy French" to Fishers Peak: a new Colorado State Park

Denver Field Ornithologist's November program will happen via Zoom. The featured speaker is Crystal Dreiling, park manager for Colorado’s new Fishers Peak State Park. Register in advance using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_JvDOzzapSiq1xSEFkmjAgA. Ahead of the Nov. 22 program date, you will receive an email with a link and instructions on how to join the program.

 In October 2020, Fishers Peak became the newest (and second-largest) of Colorado’s With rugged topography, dense, wildlife-rich forests, grasslands, foothills and mesas in the mountainous southern borderlands outside Trinidad, Fishers Peak opened in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic with public access to only a tiny, 250-acre patch of its 19,200 total acres.

At the time, Dreiling, park manager of both Fishers Peak and nearby Trinidad Lake State Park, said the goal was “to give everyone a taste of the hiking, hunting, wildlife watching and more that will be available once the park is fully developed in coming years.” For now, most of it remains closed “while scientific inventories, planning and development occur,” Dreiling says. Fishers Peak is the result of a partnership of the state, the Trust for Public Lands, The Nature Conservancy, Great Outdoors Colorado, and the local Trinidad community, among others.

Join us the Monday before Thanksgiving to learn more about the park’s origins (locals called it Crazy French Ranch), what has been learned about it thus far, what’s ahead, and the prospects for birders (70 species in just 23 eBird reports from the park’s Moore Canyon hotspot since May 2020). As always, DFO programs are free and open to all.