Work connects trails for horse lovers, hikers near Fruita

By PAUL SHOCKLEY/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

Getting along on horseback in the area of Devils Canyon in McInnis Canyons National Conversation Area had never been a problem for 67-year-old Mark Ackerman.

Finding parking space that wasn’t in conflict with other users at Kingsview Drive in Fruita, however, was another story.

A parking lot that recently was completed at the start of a trail head is off-limits to his oversized horse trailer.

So Ackerman, a Glade Park resident, along with other horse lovers, made their own way Saturday.

“This trail we’re making today will avoid that parking lot altogether,” said Ackerman, one of 16 volunteers who on Saturday started and finished a one-third-mile section of trail in McInnis Canyons.

“This opens up everything to horses around here.”

Ackerman, a member of the Grand Junction chapter of the Grand Mesa Back Country Horsemen, worked Saturday with rangers from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to build a section of trail connecting to a parking lot reserved for horse trailers at the base of nearby Opal Hill.

The project is the continuation of work completed last fall by staff with the Western Colorado Conservation Corps.

“I’m guessing we’re talking about 12 to 15 miles of new trails,” said Troy Schnurr, a Bureau of Land Management supervisor, who oversaw Saturday’s work.

Schnurr noted that the new trails are open to hikers, but mechanized use isn’t allowed.

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NOV 18 : BLM Vounteer Recognition Event

Join the BLM and celebrate the hard work done by volunteers on public lands throughout the year!

WHEN: November 18, 6:30pm

WHERE: Museum of the West, Whitman Education Center,
248 S. 4th Street, Grand Junction, CO

RSVP: November 15
Click HERE or call 970-244-3000
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Possible Oil/Gas Development near McInnis Canyons NCA

The Grand Junction Sentinel is reporting on possible new oil & gas leases adjacent to McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area.


BLM offers parcels near canyons
Oil and gas development possible on private land

By DENNIS WEBB/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

Monday, October 26, 2009

The Bureau of Land Management is offering hundreds of acres next to McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area for oil and gas development, and is considering whether to lease thousands of acres in the same vicinity.

The agency’s November oil and gas lease sale includes a 480-acre parcel adjacent to McInnis Canyons on its north side, and a nearby, 320-acre parcel. The parcels are northwest of Mack and are generally private land with underlying federal minerals.

However, the BLM has deferred decisions on leasing some 11,500 acres in that same area. In some cases that’s because of proximity to Highway 139, a designated scenic byway, and in others it’s because the land is used by pronghorn as winter habitat, said BLM spokeswoman Erin Curtis.

Luke Schafer, northwest organizer for the Colorado Environmental Coalition, said his group hasn’t decided whether it will protest the leases near the conservation area, but he finds them “curious.”

He worries about the drilling’s potential visual and air quality impacts on the conservation area and nearby communities such as Fruita.

“The impacts not withstanding, is it worthwhile in the scheme of things to potentially allow oil and gas development in that area? … I’m not sure. I think the question needs to be asked,” Schafer said.

No drilling is permitted in the conservation area, but Curtis said the legislation creating it also specified that drilling-free buffer zones would not be created around the area.

Nevertheless, she said, the BLM took the conservation area’s proximity into consideration in deciding whether to lease the parcels. She said the part of the conservation area near the parcels requires the least restrictions to protect views because those views already include Interstate 70.

Schafer said he hadn’t been aware of a lot of oil and gas being in that area. Curtis said the BLM leases only parcels that others have nominated as candidates for leasing.

She said the BLM will take a closer look at the other parcels that were nominated in that area to determine if they should be leased, and if so, whether more protective measures should be attached to the leases. She said the BLM decided to defer decisions until it finishes updating its management plan for the Grand Junction Field Office, a process that could take until early 2011.

The BLM’s quarterly lease sale is Nov. 12. For the first time in Colorado, it will include geothermal leasing, involving a parcel of about 800 acres next to Mount Princeton Hot Springs Resort west of Buena Vista.

Scott McInnis, a Republican candidate for governor and the former congressman after whom McInnis Canyons is named, said he would have to leave it to the experts in the BLM to consider questions such as visual impacts of nearby drilling.

But he voiced wariness over the idea of possibly preventing such drilling, noting that the conservation area is near communities as well.

“If you logically take what they’re saying, how should we address home and restaurants and things in Fruita or Mack or Loma?” he said.

FMC is on Facebook!

You can now receive up-to-date information about our activities and events, see photos of our members and events right in your Facebook news feed!

Become a Fan of Friends of McInnis Canyons NCA to stay in the loop!
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JOIN US NOV 7 ... Fall BBQ Mixer & Volunteer Event

Visitors search for dinosaur fossils at the Trail Through Time.

We’re looking forward to a great day in Rabbit Valley enjoying nature and doing our part to be good stewards of the land in McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area.

Please Join Us on November 7 !!

WHAT: FMC Fall BBQ & Adopt-A-Highway Clean-up — Join us for any or all of these activities!

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL TOUR: FMC Board Member and Museum of Western Colorado Archaeologist Zebulon Miracle will lead an educational tour highlighting the geological and paleontological features of the area. Come learn how to identify dinosaur fossils!

WHERE: Meet at Trail Through Time trail head. Take I-70 West to Exit #2. Turn right and drive straight into the trail head at the Trail Through Time.

WHEN: November 7, 2009
• Adopt-A-Highway Clean Up = 9:00 a.m. to noon (muffins & coffee provided)
• BBQ Mixer = Noon – 3 p.m.
• Dinosaur Tour = 1:30–2:30 p.m.

RSVP by Wednesday November 4 so we will know how much food to prepare.

Volunteers Also Needed for Event Prep: Please let us know if you are interested in helping us get ready for the event. We need people to help acquire donations of coffee/muffins, drinks for the BBQ, etc.

Volunteers keep McInnis Canyons NCA free of litter.
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BLM Colorado Volunteer Work Valued at Nearly $3.5 Million

DENVER, Colo. – Colorado volunteers worked more than 172,000 hours on public lands in Fiscal Year 2008 according to the Bureau of Land Management’s 2008 Volunteer Annual Report, which tracks and highlights BLM volunteers’ contribution to public land stewardship. These volunteer hours equate to nearly $3.5 million in service on public lands.

BLM Colorado projects include trail maintenance in Grand Junction, invasive species control in McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area, and a bat survey and data collection project in Montrose.

Across the country, volunteers working individually, in teams, and in partnerships contributed more than 1.2 million hours of work on BLM public lands. The volunteer hours equate to the work of more than 650 full-time agency employees totaling $24 million.

Through the volunteer program, the BLM is able to connect communities with public lands. The program also offers opportunities for youth to engage in natural resource work within their communities.

Friends of McInnis Canyons NCA is a non-profit, non-partisan community group that partners with the BLM to assist with the stewardship of the 128,000 acres within McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area.

The BLM manages more land — 256 million acres — than any other Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The Bureau, with a budget of about $1 billion, also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.
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Cottonwood Club River Trip a Success!

Floating down Ruby/Horsethief Canyon. Photo by volunteer Greg Joder.

Weekend river trippers take on cottonwood tree-planting mission

By Sharon Sullivan

Grand Junction Free Press

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Boatman Tom Kleinschnitz remembers his first river trip as a kid.

“I said, ‘Holy Toledo, this is as good as it gets,'” Kleinschnitz said.

He's made a career on rivers ever since — from chief pot scrubber for a rafting company at age 14, to owner of Adventure Bound River Expeditions since 1973 leading trips down Colorado and Utah rivers.

Kleinschnitz and four other volunteer guides — Matt Simpson, Al Kreinberg, Josh Powers and Jeff Winegar — donated their time and equipment during the weekend by leading a group intent on restoring shade and natural habitat along a stretch of Colorado River in the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area.

Black Rocks. Photo by volunteer Greg Joder.

Kleinschnitz and his crew led three rafts though Ruby Horsethief Canyon Saturday and Sunday, camping along the way in an area called Black Rocks where members of Friends of McInnis Canyons NCA planted 20 Fremont Cottonwood trees.

Dams on the Colorado River have eased natural flooding over the years, causing fewer cottonwood saplings to take hold. Additionally, invasive plant species such as tamarisk compete with cottonwoods for water.

Eight years ago, Bureau of Land Management park ranger Troy Schnurr — 2009 National River Ranger of the Year — began planting cottonwoods along the Colorado to bring shade and native habitat back to the area. To date he's planted 275 cottonwoods in Ruby Horsethief Canyon. He tends to the saplings all summer long.

Owen O'Fallon, president of Friends of McInnis Canyons NCA, contacted the BLM about contributing to the agency's effort at restoring the native Cottonwoods.

About a dozen people participated in the tree-planting river trip, including Greg Joder of Boulder.

“I wanted to be part of a neat conservation project with a bunch of people who clearly appreciate the river,” Joder said.

Laney Heath of Grand Junction also attended the trip.

“It will be wonderful to come back in maybe 10 years and see the cottonwoods shading this beautiful area,” Heath said.

Volunteers camping at Black Rocks.
New cottonwood trees will eventually shade these camp sites.
Photo by volunteer Greg Joder.

Schnurr and Katie Stevens, NCA manager for the BLM, arrived to Black Rocks Friday, bringing with them the trees and shovels. Twenty trees were planted Saturday in several campsites in the Black Rocks area.

Wherever along the river there's a cottonwood sapling with a wire cage around it, there's probably a bucket nearby.

Schnurr devised a watering system where barrels filled with river water are hooked up to a gravity-fed drip system timed to water the trees every other day. Schnurr refills the system every two weeks beginning in the spring.

He also relies on campers to pitch in and water the trees as well. Buckets are left at poles with signs asking campers to haul a bucket or two of river water to the young trees.

“Next year we'll focus on the old Cottonwood galleries along the river corridor,” Schnurr said. “The best way to keep those cottonwoods healthy is to go in and remove the tamarisk out from underneath those old cottonwood trees.”

The thirsty tamarisk compete for water and are a source of fuel in the event of fires, Schnurr said.