Vail council to consider partnership with CPW on bighorn sheep habitat improvement project
Rick Spitzer/Courtesy photo, Vail Daily archive
The Vail Town Council will consider a resolution Tuesday approving a partnership with Colorado Parks and Wildlife aimed at improving bighorn sheep habitat in East Vail.
Town staff is recommending approval of the resolution, which would authorize an intergovernmental agreement between the town and the state wildlife agency, according to a memo from Vail’s Environmental Sustainability Department.
“The project will enhance approximately 3,600 acres of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep habitat while reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire and degradation of water resources to local communities in Eagle County,” according to the memo.
Town officials say the area has been identified as at high risk for large, severe wildfires and contains critical habitat for several wildlife species. The nearby Gore Creek, a gold medal trout stream, is also listed as imperiled, making watershed protection a key component of the effort.
East Vail has long been identified as bighorn sheep habitat. However, the area has received a new attention over the last decade after the Eagle County assessor in 2016 determined that Vail Resorts owned a parcel of East Vail land that contained bighorn sheep habitat, and the company subsequently took steps to develop housing on the property.
Support Local Journalism
Wildlife experts hired by the town determined that the land is an important part of the herd’s winter range, and in studying the area further, the town learned that the herd is in decline. In 2019 a wildlife biologist told the town the most recent count of the herd was 41 sheep, down from 125 in the 1990s.
Those figures prompted the town to look into the idea of habitat restoration in the East Vail area, looking at how the habitat could be improved to strengthen the herd. In an effort to protect the herd, the town also condemned the property that Vail Resorts had considered for housing in 2023.
“The last 4 years of work has resulted in a fuels treatment Environmental Assessment titled ‘Booth Creek Fuels Reduction Project,’ which calls for a variety of hand, mechanical, and prescribed fire treatments across a project area of roughly 3,059 acres,” CPW wrote in a summary of the project published on Friday.
The prescription also includes “approximately 548 acres of hand crew cutting treatments conveying habitat enhancements and benefits to approximately 1,200+ acres of bighorn range,” according to the plan.
Funding for the project includes state and local contributions. Colorado Parks and Wildlife applied to the state’s Auction Raffle Program for funding and ultimately received $300,000 toward the effort, while the town of Vail has committed an additional $100,000, which would be provided to Colorado Parks and Wildlife through the intergovernmental agreement if the council approves the resolution.
CPW has prepared a schedule for work, starting in May 2026 and finishing in June of 2027, which would break the project into nine different units for a total cost of nearly $400,000.
The project, according the plan, aims to improve the productivity and functionality of thousands of acres of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep habitat; restore shrublands, grasslands, aspen stands, and forest areas used by wildlife; increase visibility and sightlines for bighorn sheep to help them detect predators; improve wildlife movement corridors between seasonal ranges; reduce the potential for severe, landscape-level wildfires; and protect water resources in the Upper Gore Creek watershed from wildfire impacts.
The resolution is on the agenda for the Vail Town Council’s evening meeting on Tuesday, which is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.
