Repurposed veterans’ wreaths give fish a habitat

BY NINA JOSS NJOSS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Walkers, cyclists and joggers enjoying the trails at South Platte Park on the afternoon of June 1 may have noticed a strong, unusual scent of pine in the air.

ose who followed their nose to the scent’s origin at Eaglewatch Lake saw something even more interesting.

On the southern edge of the lake, a small boat carried large structures made of holiday wreaths, PVC pipes and cinder blocks. When the boat’s sonar alerted the driver that he was at the edge of a dropo , he and his colleagues pushed the structures o the boat and into the water.

From shore, Bob Keyser watched the objects, which he had spent hours building a few days prior, descend into the water.

With other members of Littleton Elks Lodge and the Colorado Elks Association Veterans Committees, Keyser built the structures to recycle wreaths that had been used to decorate Veterans’ gravesites during the holiday season.

Instead of throwing them away, the Elks gave the wreaths a new life as sh habitats.

Why wreaths?

Every year in December, Elks lodges, scouts, churches and other organizations place wreaths on

Veteran grave sites at Fort Logan National Cemetery. ey do this as part of a program called Wreaths Across America, which coordinates wreathlaying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery and thousands of other locations.

Randy Taylor, a member of the Littleton Elks Lodge, said the wreath program is an important way to recognize fallen heroes and their families.

In December 2022, the groups placed about 20,000 wreaths at Fort Logan. After the holiday season, the groups returned to gather them.

“In the past, we would take all the wreaths … and we’d take them to a dumpster and throw them away,” Keyser said. “We found that to be not very green.”

Fish habitats

Inspired by the e orts of Troy Erickson, an Idaho Springs Elks Lodge member who created sh habitats from wreaths last year, Keyser reached out to Colorado Parks and Wildlife to see if his group could do the same thing in Littleton.

“Eaglewatch is an old gravel pit that’s filled with water, and so … it doesn’t have a lot of structure in it,” said Paul Winkle, aquatic biologist at Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

“It’s very flat-bottomed. And so by adding these structures, we add variability to the aquatic environment.” read it out loud before handing it to the person at our table that we were writing about. I will share with you that the person reading the note and receiving the compliments was usually in tears, happy tears. As it was Jill’s turn to be the center of attention, we all eagerly wrote our messages of love, a ection, and appreciation. And as we all read our note, the consistency was unreal; Jill was light, love, passionate, determined, a role model of success, bright, beautiful, and someone who exuded the desire to help others.

Winkle, who helped place the wreath structures in the lake on the day before his retirement, said Eaglewatch has several species of sh including largemouth bass, blue gill and crappie that would bene t from the structures. Smaller sh would use the wreaths to hide from predators and larger sh would use them to sneak up on prey, he said.

South Platte Park Manager Skot Latona said the structures would also create areas for sh to breed.

Over the years, wildlife and shing organizations have placed other human-made habitat structures in the lake, including log-cabin-like structures, Christmas trees, broken concrete pipes and tires chained together, Latona said. Putting tires in lakes is no longer an acceptable practice, he added, because the rubber degrades into the water.

Latona guessed that these other structures probably cover less than 2% of the bottom of the lake, making it a less sh-friendly environment than a natural lake.

“A natural lake is going to have a whole variety of trees and branches, vegetation, rocks and all that,” he said.

Adding more structures, he said, would help the sh and improve the quality of shing for those who use the lake for recreation.

After a couple of trips on the boat to test the structures’ sinking ability and after adding more cinderblocks to make them heavier, the group placed ve habitats in the lake.

By the time they left, there were already sh hanging out by the structures – successfully giving a second life to the veteran-honoring wreaths.

Why am I sharing this story? Sadly, Jill passed away suddenly last month. Her beautiful smile to never grace this earth again, but that will bless the halls of heaven for eternity. ose of us who knew her well, knew all sides of Jill as we had three plus years to share calls, Zoom calls, webinars, texts, and emails. Some of us got to see her and be with her since we graduated ZLC23. And there wasn’t any one of us who didn’t appreciate her e orts to worry more about us and how we were doing than how she was personally doing herself.

As the news hit our ZLC23 class, we reached out to one another for comfort and understanding; it’s one of the things that happen when you become

Ziglar certi ed and connect with your classmates, you graduate as di erence makers in the personal, professional, and spiritual lives of everyone you have the opportunity to meet. And Jill epitomized that mission and purpose, she changed us all. Even when she was going through life’s challenges herself, she was the rst one to respond to a prayer request, jump into a conversation, or ask a meaningful question during a podcast or webinar.

Jill was a di erence maker.

I write this column as a tribute to Jill, a true ZLC’er class of ‘23. I write this to remind us that we all have something to give to others regardless of how short or long our lives here on earth are. We can smile, be kind, show our passion, know our purpose, and simply care about the person sitting across from us in the moment, because that is who Jill was, a living example to us all.

Is there someone who you need to tell how awesome they are before they are gone? Did this tribute connect with you? I would love to hear your story at gotonorton@gmail.com, and when we can remember those who left their ngerprints of love and light on our lives, it really will be a better than good life.

Michael Norton is an author, a personal and professional coach, consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator of individuals and businesses, working with organizations and associations across multiple industries.

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Search-and-rescue dogs embody the mail carrier motto: “Neither snow, nor rain nor gloom of night” will keep these trusty canines from their appointed rounds — searching for people or items with single-minded purpose.

For the dogs and their trainers who are part of the Colorado branch of SARDUS — Search and Rescue Dogs of the United States — training is a weekly, if not daily, endeavor to prepare dogs to certify in an area of search and rescue or to keep the dog’s skills sharp after certi cation.

“ e training continues for life,” said Cathy Bryarly, a retired Boulder sheri ’s deputy who trains search-and-rescue dogs. “ is has to be part of your life. It goes way beyond a hobby, or it’s not going to work. It’s a calling.”

SARDUS members agree that it’s a labor a love based in their strong resolve to help others. Not only do the dogs and their handlers train multiple times a week, enlisting family and friends to hide, so the dogs have someone to search for, but handlers also attend seminars on a variety of topics and work together by laying trails for others to follow.

Trainers are always learning, so they can improve their canines’ ability to help in emergency situations.

Search-and-rescue dogs and their handlers are not paid; in fact, handlers spend a lot on the dogs, the equipment, the training and more. e goal is to be certi ed to go on missions, the term for helping law enforcement nd people, bodies or objects needed in an investigation.

Call the people trainers or handlers, but more importantly, they’re dog lovers who want to work as a team with their pets to help others.

The humility of training e trainers say it simply: Training their canines is humbling.

“Our dogs don’t make the mistakes,” Anjie Julseth-Crosby of Morrison said. “We do. ere’s so much to remember. e training is about me trying to understand what (the dogs) are saying. e human fails, not the dog.”

In fact, Julseth-Crosby, who started training her bloodhounds two years ago, has compiled a 19-page document called “ ings I wish I knew two years ago.”

Training involves having a dog follow a scent for several miles, helping the dog return to the SEE DOGS, P15 scent trail if needed and rewarding the dog when it nds the person or item it is directed to follow. food or toys. Once you gure that out, then trainers must convince the dog to do what they want the pup to do for the reward. It begins with what is called a puppy run-away, where you get the pup to run after a person, and when the pup nds the person, the pup gets a reward. at transitions to following a scent to nd a person.

Training can be messy as canines follow the scent wherever it takes them over all sorts of terrain in all kinds of weather.

“It’s just a matter of making it harder and harder to the point where a dog is searching 120 acres for one person or that trailing dog is following a 24-hour-old scent through a subdivision,” Bryarly said.

No matter what or who the dog is nding, it must go to it, stay there, lay down and point its nose, so the handler knows the dog is saying that the item or person is there.

Dogs cannot certify to be search-and-rescue dogs until they are at least 18 months old, but it usually takes two years or more for the rst certi cation, Bryarly said.

“Search-and-rescue dogs that are out in the public have to be just perfect,” Bryarly said. “ ey have to stay focused and not get distracted by other dogs, animals or people.”

Getting involved irty years ago, Julseth-Crosby made a pledge that she would own a bloodhound and train it to be a search-and-rescue dog. at’s because Ali Berelez, 6, who had been kidnapped and murdered in 1993, was found four days after her abduction by bloodhound Yogi. a multiple-day-a-week job.

Julseth, at that time a single parent with a 6-yearold, felt kinship with Ali’s family. However, as a full-time teacher, Julseth-Crosby decided to wait to train when she retired in 2021. True to her word, she began training her bloodhounds Bruno and Miley.

Niamh Coleman of Nederland was looking for something to do with her dogs, thinking it was a casual pastime. Now search-and-rescue dog training is closer to an obsession.

Jayne Zmijewski, who taught outdoor skills to rangers most of her life, said search-and-rescue dogs were a natural progression. She’s had four search-and-rescue dogs in the last 30 years, most recently her chocolate Labrador Kodi.

Teresa Verplanck of Bailey is training Lilo, a border collie mix, for wilderness searches. She called the SARDUS group she trains with wonderful, and trainers and dogs have become a big family.

Jake Udel, who lives near Rustic, Colorado, is a volunteer firefighter and medic, and he trains his dog, Java the Mutt, a Czech shepherd, “for the love of dogs, helping people and the activity.”

Julseth-Crosby said the number of hours can be whatever trainers can put in, but at a minimum eight hours a week, and some weeks, she trains or prepares for training as much as 40 hours a week.

The right breed

While just about any breed of dog can become a search-and-rescue dog, bloodhounds, shepherds and retrievers are the typical dogs people think of, but other breeds — if they have the nose for the work — can be certi ed.

“It works better to start with a breed that is bred to do this,” Bryarly said. “In fact, there are some breeders who breed speci cally search-and-rescue dogs. But sometimes you nd a dog that is good at this, and it’s a breed you never would have guessed could do this work.” e most important thing, Bryarly said, is the bond that the dog and handler have with each other.

“People have told me over the years that they are amazed at something their dog does,” she said. “People think they are the smart ones, but the dog is the smart one. We are just trying to keep up with them.”

Starting early

Training starts early — when pups are a few weeks old.

“Start with a dog who has a high drive,” Bryarly said. “A high-drive dog is always busy and always wanting something to do. If that energy is not channeled right away, the pup will tear your house apart.”

Most canines prefer one of two types of rewards:

Types Of Sardus Certifications

Melanie Weaver of Lafayette knew her dog, Lego,

Udel figures he’s been on 75 to 100 missions since he certified his first dog in 2005.

SARDUS a German shepherd, needed a job to have a ful lling life, and Weaver was looking for something practical. Little did she know that training Lego would be

SARDUS, one of several search-and-rescue dog organizations in the country, helps smaller organizations test and certify dogs. To get the trailing or air-scent certification, which is usually the first certification a dog earns, the canine must follow a 24-hour-old trail to find a person. SARDUS only works with law enforcement, so a person cannot request a search-andrescue dog.

Bryarly said about 30 dogs in Colorado are certified by SARDUS with most of them trailing dogs — the most of any organization in the country.

Membership in SARDUS is $25, and some people join who don’t own dogs, but they want to help in other ways such as creating tracking trails or hiding from dogs, Bryarly said.

Trainers must be physically fit since they follow their dogs through all sorts of terrain, plus they take classes such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s incident command courses, so they understand the structure of incidents and managing evidence.

For the SARDUS trainers, the work is definitely a passion.

• Trailing: Dogs who can find scents by putting their noses to the ground.

• Air scenting: Dogs who find scents by putting their noses into the air.

• Avalanche: Some dogs are good at smelling human scents through snow.

• Water: Some dogs are good at smelling human scents through water.

“If you think of it as work, you won’t do it for 20 years,” Udel explained. “You have to adopt the (search-and-rescue) lifestyle. It’s a life-anddeath commitment for some people — certainly the people we are looking for.”

• Disaster search: Dogs can smell through debris to find people.

• Human remains: Dogs can be certified to find human remains.

• Wilderness: A type of trailing in remote areas.