There they stood—two bull moose looking over the work done by a group of soggy yet dedicated volunteers for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. They had to be impressed.
The volunteers endured showers and slogged through boggy conditions to remove an estimated one ton of rusty, brittle barbed wire and old fence posts that previously covered about two miles of acreage in north-central Colorado’s Golden Gate State Canyon Park. (Park access is limited but some hunting permits are available for elk management purposes.)
In the end, there was plenty of satisfaction to go around among those taking part in the annual work project. The more than two dozen mostly puncture proof volunteers shared good times, hard work, swapped hunting stories and enjoyed a barbecue meal. And as they headed for home, they knew they made a difference for elk, moose and all kinds of other critters that traverse the Colorado landscape.