Vail Valley Mountain Trails Alliance: Let’s reset our relationship with wildlife
March is nearly complete and spring is in the air. It’s hard not to notice the elk and deer roaming our open spaces and neighborhoods in Eagle right now.
As a community, we have been doing our part to ensure these animals make it through the winter. This includes many seasonal trail closures and giving them their space. But we can always be better neighbors by respecting their winter habitat. To improve our community’s wildlife awareness, we’ve kicked off an educational initiative and we’re doing it with big prizes and a little flair.
We’re not asking you to stop getting outside. In fact, we encourage you to go hiking, biking, fat biking, Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, or on a walk with your dog. We believe that everyone needs to get outside to socialize, connect with nature, exercise, and improve your mental health.
Vail Valley Mountain Trails Alliance
So, what are we asking? To be wildlife aware. For all residents of Eagle and Eagle County to recreate responsibly by respecting seasonal trail closures, leashing your dog and giving wildlife the space they need to thrive.
These small actions can have a huge impact, especially on mothers and their young. In the winter months, deer and elk are in a consistent state of nutrient deprivation. Ordinary winters have been associated with up to a 20% loss of total body weight in mule deer, and elk commonly lose 1-1.5 pounds per day during the winter.
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Needless to say, they are hungry! If they are not searching for food, they are bedding down to conserve as much energy and calories as possible. Increased winter severity and human disturbance can exacerbate the loss of body weight in deer and elk, which decreases their chance of surviving the winter and spring.
No one likes being interrupted, and through this campaign we hope to portray wildlife in human situations, demonstrating that our actions can negatively impact wildlife in more ways than we realize. But it goes both ways. By abiding by these simple practices, we can help elk and deer more than you may realize. We hope you’ll join us and visit Respectthewild.com to learn more and take the Respect the Wild pledge.
Ernest Saeger is the executive director of the Vail Valley Mountain Trails Alliance, which has a mission to maintain, educate, advocate for, and build sustainable non-motorized soft surface trails while conserving the natural environment of Eagle County and our public lands. Learn more at VVMTA.org.
