The wild indoors

On Monday morning, the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES) brought three visitors to Crystal River Elementary School’s fourth grade classrooms: a barred tiger salamander, a mixed-breed cottontail rabbit, and a great horned owl.

"ACES was bringing our science unit to life by showing our students live animals that exhibited some of the body defense mechanisms we have been learning about. For example, both the owl and bunny were meant to show kids what camouflage looks like in real life,” explained Mira Winograd, a fourth grade teacher.

Above: Grayson Bauer, ACES Hallam Lake coordinator, shows off some of the ways an owl is well adapted to its habitat.

Right: ACES naturalist and educator Joshua Cohen feeds a salamander live crickets to show how it hunts.

Photos by Will Sardinsky

Bottom-left: ACES educator Christian Fowler peeks in on a shy rabbit.

By Dale Will CVEPA Views

On Dec. 20, 2022, Jeff and Janette Bier donated 8.5 acres adjacent to the Marble Wetlands to the Trust for Land Restoration (TLR). The 55-acre Marble Wetlands was donated to TLR a year earlier by an anonymous individual. These properties lie between lands already owned by the Division of Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

The assemblage now protects about a mile of Crystal River riparian habitat just upstream of the town of Marble. Efforts are underway by TLR to remediate some damage done there during the mining era, and the ultimate goal will be to preserve this entire reach forever. The Crystal Valley has thus quietly secured its own “North Star,” equally important to wildlife and humans in our

Letters

Forever Young

fragile watershed.

All of this has got me feeling deep gratitude toward landowners who have donated lands and conservation easements. It’s also got me thinking about what a profound act such a donation really is.

Aldo Leopold was perhaps our first “deep ecologist.”

In “The Land Ethic” written in 1948, Leopold grasped the conflict between land as mere property, and land’s transcendent value to our communities and to our biosphere. He wrote:

“There is as yet no ethic dealing with man's relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it. Land, like Odysseus' slave-girls, is still property. The land relation is still strictly economic, entailing privileges but no obligations.”

Odysseus had hung slave girls without moral compunction because they were simply property. And so too our property laws allow owners to disregard critical ecological functions and other community values based on private whim. Leopold thus essentially characterized mindless development as land slavery. He propounded “The Land Ethic” to challenge the simple concept of ownership as determinative of the fate of

Congratulations on the occasion of Alpine Bank’s 50th anniversary. Carbondale is the birthplace of Alpine Bank and it has been much more than just a bank. We have all heard Alpine’s ads and jingles espousing community involvement and concern for its patrons. For 50 years, founder/president Bob Young has walked his talk and been a benevolent presence in our valley. There is little that has not benefited from the practiced philosophy of Bob Young. In a society sorely short of heroes it is important to recognize people committed to sharing their good fortune by leaving their space a better place.

Happy anniversary, Alpine Bank, and thank you, Bob Young!

John Armstrong, Satank

My long-lost brother?

Hi! I’m white dog named Bernie, residing on the dirt part of Capitol Creek Road in Snowmass. I like to read my favorite newspaper — The Sopris Sun — to keep abreast of community happenings! Imagine my surprise when I spotted a white dog on the front page of the Jan. 5 edition who is the spittin’ image of me! Does anyone know the owner of this dog, whose image was captured by photographer Jane Bachrach at the River Valley Ranch sledding hill? I think he must be the brother I never knew I had!

Bernie, canine, Snowmass

Thoughts to share

Hello, my name is Anne and I am a