Call to Action — A Bald Eagle Nest in Colorado Needs Our Help!
September 20, 2019
by Dave Bove, Front Range Nesting Bald Eagle Studies
In Colorado’s Front Range – specifically in Weld County – Bald Eagles are in trouble. Weld County is among the fastest human growth areas in the state, and residential and commercial development continue to threaten existing eagle territory.
Graphic shows Colorado county population growth between 2010 – 2017. The Erie nest is enclosed in red rectangle.
A Call to Action to Protect the Erie Nest from Encroachment
The American Eagle Foundation joins with Front Range Nesting Bald Eagle Studies, a Colorado non-profit research & conservation group, in urging our readers to submit original, kind and informed comments to the Weld County Planning Services based on salient points documented in the following blog post. Factual statements, brevity, and positive statement relating concern for the welfare of these and other nesting Bald Eagles in the Colorado Front Range will have the most impact.
Extended Deadline for Comments is June 15, 2019.
Please ACT NOW by sending your comments to the address below. Deadline for comments has been extended until June 15, 2019. Help Protect the Erie Nest from Encroachment!
Letters or emails should be sent to:
Chris Gathman
Weld County Planning Services
1555 N. 17th Ave.
Greeley, CO 80631
cgathman@weldgov.com
RE: USR19-0023 GS Farms LLC
Land use projections indicate that the majority (70%) of the 9 square kilometer territory that the Erie Bald Eagles now hunt and depend upon will be lost to development in the near future.
The Erie Nest – A Story of Courage & Resolution, Heartbreak & Determination
The Erie nesting Bald Eagles are emblematic of the remaining 195 pairs that live in Colorado, a state that now ranks #5 in the U.S. in human population growth. The pace of human development in the state is most pronounced in the northern Colorado Front Range, which is home to the Erie Bald Eagle nest. Unfortunately, many of the counties in the northern Front Range, like Weld County, lack land conservation programs, and coincident with the human population growth, wildlife habitat is disappearing at a blistering pace.
We all know the story about miners in the past using canaries to check the quality of air before descending into the tunnels to bring forth coal and other minerals. The Erie nesting Bald Eagles are the “canaries” in the proverbial Colorado nesting Bald Eagle coal mine. Their recent history documents ongoing struggles with human encroachment over the past four years. The onset of these disturbances was the legal removal of their original nest tree in 2015, which paved the way for construction of 2,200 homes on this undeveloped square mile tract. Since that time, the eagles have twice moved their nest location, largely due to the difficulty of finding a suitable nest tree and sustainable environment.