the aes
NEWSKIES Volume 2
May, 2024
Roaring Fork Safe Passages
Created by 4th grade Literacy Ascent Students
An Initiative to Protect the Animals in Our Valley from Car Collisions
Kenyon Keleher Have you ever seen a dead animal on the side of the road? Your first thoughts are probably, ew, disgusting! But what if I told you that there is this organization that is working to prevent that? This organization is called Roaring Fork Safe Passages. Roaring Fork Safe Passages is an organization that is working with the Watershed Biodiversity Initiative in Aspen to prevent increased animal death by car collision, specifically elk, deer, and bighorn sheep. Safe Passages started this because members of the organization noticed that the elk, deer, and bighorn sheep populations were decreasing by 20% to 75% from the years 2019 to 2021. The Aspen Elementry School third graders Kieran Keleher, Charlotte Pratolongo, Ruby Casper, AJ Glathar, Parker Sherman, Mason Fortier, Giada DelGrasso, Mika Jacobs, Colin Jordan and Hazel Daniels in Literacy Ascent are working with the Safe Passages representatives to help in our community and they have gone to a Pitkin County
Board of Commissioners meeting to present their ideas. I attended this meeting to better understand the Safe Passages project. They are planning to add Safe Passage’s bridges on Highway 82 by Emma Road, the airport to Woody Creek, North Cattle Creek, Catherine’s Store, Snowmass, and Highway 133 near Crystal River North. The next phase of this work will focus on developing and evaluating the benefits and costs of the strategies for improving safe passages for wildlife and reducing wildlife-vehicle conflict within these sections of roadway. Wildlife crossing structures combined with wildlife diversion fencing are known to be ineffective migration strategies resulting in 80% to 90% reductions of collisions with wildlife. This will allow deer, elk, and other species to move safely under or over a roadway. Where wildlife crossings are not feasible due to terrain constraints, cost, land use, and land management considerations other types of migration strategies may be warranted, alone, or in combination.
Photo by Kenyon Keleher 3rd grade literacy ascent students visiting the board of county commissioners.
The development of migration stations to prioritize highway segments will include a complete evaluation of the full range of wildlife-highway migration methods. If you want to learn more about this topic go to Virginia Leffler at the Aspen
Elementary front desk. She knows a lot about this topic and is able to connect you with more people and information. If you found this article interesting and you want to learn more a good site to go to is roaringforksafepassages.org.
The Possibility of No More Snow Days Due to Climate Change of the earth continues to rise, shortening global warming. Tullar says, “Global Do you ski, snowboard, or do any Since 1850 the temperature of the our winters and decreasing the amount warming is one of the most prevalent snowy sports? Well if you do then you’ll earth has increased by 2 degrees know that Aspen is getting less Fahrenheit. While that may not and less snow each year and seem like much, that means the it’s getting harder to do our whole globe (not just one place) snowy activities. Protect Our is getting warmer and will continWinters (POW) is an organiue to do so. You might be asking zation throughout Colorado why it is getting warmer- it’s to ensure that snowfall stays because of global warming. constant and heavy throughout Global warming is when greenthe winter so we can do the house gasses, like fossil fuels and snow sports that we love. nitrous oxide, are emitted to the One way AES students can Ozone layer from vehicles of all reduce global warming is to kinds, and factories that produce use less gas. For example, if electricity for us to use. Because you live close enough, you there are so many of these gasses should walk or bike to school. building up in the Ozone layer, If you live a bit farther you it is creating a very thick cloud could take a bus to reduce trapping all the heat from the sun the amount of gas from cars. inside the atmosphere. ACES About 80 kids can fit on a fullis helping with global warming sized school bus. If everyone’s because the entire ACES building parents drive them to school is run on solar power! Hooray! instead, it uses a LOT more Global warming is creating a gas. lot of problems around the world Global warming is leading to but also in Aspen.. I asked Evelyn a world with no snow days for Photo by Sabrina Sztykiel students! And that’s only one Van Arsdale, an AES 4th grader, Buttermilk Mountain in the Spring as the snow starts to quickly melt. how global warming affects her of the problems global warming life. She said, ”It affects my life because of snowfall, snow days will be no more. issues in our world and we as a commu- is causing. If you want to continue if it gets too hot it will reduce our I asked Elsa Tullar, a senior at Aspen nity need to take action to mitigate this having snow days and snow to ski\ school’s snow days!” If the temperature High School, what she knows about environmental disaster.” snowbourd on during our winters, we Sabrina Sztykiel