Ute Ulay Mine Reclamation

6/6/2013Colorado Art Ranch, Executive Director, Grant Pound.
At the Ute Ulay Silver Mine, Lake City, Co.

Before the gold and silver discoveries in 1860’s and the rush in the 1880’s, mountain landscapes had minimal threat to them and flourished in a most natural state. Many hard rock discoveries brought a diverse array of people into some of the most remote yet breathtaking landscapes which normally wouldn't be inhabited. Now outdoorsy folk spend countless weekends in towns like Lake City CO, hiking 14ers, fly fishing, backcountry skiing, or prospecting mining history from the locals in still standing false front saloons. The mining legacy in Lake City left an exuberant past of mixed heritage including folklore, exploration, and unfortunately an environmental concern teetering on the edge of catastrophe.

Three miles west of Lake City, the Ute Ulay mill site still stands respectfully along the tourist 4x4 favorite, The Alpine Loop Scenic Byway. Adjacent to the site is the city’s water supply, Henson Creek, nestled in some of the most stunning glaciated landscapes in the state.   The mill was hydroelectrically powered by Henson Creek until the dam burst in 1973, causing a metallic soup to wash downstream resulting in a complete kill of all macro invertebrates and fish 14 miles downstream. After this cataclysm, the people of Lake City became more environmentally aware of how these mines can impact their livelihood. Only to remind them of this fact in the winter of 2011 Grant Pound, Executive Director of Colorado Art Ranch stumbled upon an avalanche which plugged up Henson Creek just above the mill site.  The avalanche blocked the river creating an ice dam which held back water up stream 35ft deep.  Talk about an environmental disaster waiting to happen and an eye widening moment for the town of Lake City. This avalanche became an immediate reminder of the Mill Dam failure that happened in 1973. Frightened at what this could do to the town and environment, city officials scurried to plan on what to do with the people of Lake City, and contacted specialist for advice so another 1973 event didn’t happen again. At risk the already super saturated tailing ponds, (mine waste) sat uneasily below the ice wall as people thought of using TNT to deal with the avalanche that threatened Lake City. Thankfully the town’s water supply elegantly bored a hole through the ice mass, and slowly leaked 35 feet of water that was backed up into a normal flow and the town, macro invertebrates, and fish were at ease. This taught the city that you cannot always plan for uncertainties, and showed everyone personally what potentially could have happened .This type of uncertainty is exactly what got the EPA’s attention and resulted in an emergency response remediation of the site that started on June 5^th, 2013. The EPA hopes to be finished with remediation securing mine tailings by the end of summer 2013.

On June 6^th, 2013 Lake City held the ceremony “Diggin’ In at the Ute Ulay”.  The Diggin’ ceremony brought a diverse group of people together who were involved with the remediation and the future of the Ute Ulay mine site. After enjoying local coffee and donuts, Hinsdale County Commissioner Stan Whinnery gave a speech addressing the importance of the remedial action by the EPA, and the unique partnerships of local government, private (publically-held) mining company, non-profit organizations, and state and federal agencies, that worked together to secure the future of the mine and watershed. The EPA’s emergency response team became involved just in time when LKA Gold Incorporated donated the historic Ute-Ulay Town & Mill Sites to the County of Hinsdale. By transferring ownership of the 285 acre Ute Ulay allowed the county and town of Lake City to begin immediate restoration on Ute Ulay mining camps and initiated the EPA’s cleanup process involving the stabilization of the tailings ponds that are an extreme hazard to Henson Creek.

                
This type of complex remedial action  started with envisioning what the future uses for the Ute Ulay Mine and Town site could be, when Grant Pound and DIRT's Executive Director, Kristie Borchers began discussing how art and mining could possibly mesh about 5 years ago. In 2011 Colorado Art Ranch created a transdisciplinary collaboration that included 7 artists and 7 scientists that were selected for the Lake City Artposium & Artist Residency. This group of artists and scientists not only inspired the community of Lake City but gave them a sense of ownership for the future of the Ute Ulay mine. Since the Hardrock Revision, it seems the mine that made Lake City is on the road to recovery, and things are really moving along in a holistic manner.

More on Hardrock Revison  (http://coloradoartranch.org/hardrockrevision.htm)

My Monitoring Visit 6.26.13

Today I walked a property for the CB Land Trust and it was an absolutely amazing piece of land. A little over 200 acres, the monitoring visit took four hours, they usually take two. A lot of these preserved properties don’t have trails so it’s a lot of bush whacking. The under-story of this aspen forest was stunning made up of ferns, lupines, yarrow, sneeze-weed. grasses, and fallen trees. As we climbed higher in elevation the flora changed to sagebrush, Crimson paintbrush, lupine, sunflower, and other alpine flowers. We saw a herd of deer that looked like they frequented an open meadow, and why wouldn't they, people aren't supposed to hike this area. This habitat is rich, the scenery is stunning, and it wouldn't be there without the Land Trust. These nonprofits I can really get behind, support your local land trust.

Collateral

This weekend I spent 16 hours working two events for ORE. The first was the River Festival and the second was Alpenglow. I found that people really love free stuff and that usually they don’t really care what it is and who it represents. This is a problem because it’s called collateral for a reason. Your organization buys stuff, put its name on it, in hope for free marketing and inquiries. Now, I’m not sure if the 10 odd high school kids are going to go home and google Energy Smart or not, but hey its better than nothing I guess. It’s also frustrating because collateral isn’t usually a one time use or something that is thrown away, this frustrates me because I wanted to steal American Spirits idea where they have wildflower seeds on a compostable piece of cardboard that you put in the ground and plant. Genius idea I loved it. Perfect for a nonprofit environmental group, however, it was shut down because of the fear of spending money on something that people won’t remember or constantly be reminded of the person/group who gave it to them. Bummer, but there are always more genius ideas to steal to get your name out there.

Greenhouse Aquaponics

Many people have seen what happens above ground in an aquaponics unit, but a few get a glimpse of what is happening in the fish tank. Until now here is some footage of the 60 or so  fresh water tilapia that we have in our tank. They are still pretty small but they are bigger since the last time Kyle Brookens and I cleaned the tank. Over the next year or two they will get bigger and be ready to eat. Currently these fish are helping grow tomatoes, cucumbers and some tiny strawberries (see pictures below). The tomatoes and cucumbers are kicking butt and looking great. The strawberries are growing but slowly I am pretty sure it is from the lack of light from the upper table. Currently looking into restructuring these beds to allow for light without the use of a external light source. Overall it is amazing that these little fish are able to help fertilize and grow such amazing looking plants. 

Picture of cucumbers 

 This bed has some strawberries. The two small plants in the front 

These are our gorgeous tomatoes they are about to touch the ceiling

Steps to Acquiring Land for a Land Trust Property

Steps to Acquiring Land for a Land Trust Property

Land Trusts of every type usually do two things, they buy land and preserve it (this is called an Acquisition) and they monitor a conservation easement. Whether or not it’s one of these two things both must go through a series of documents to establish a property in the Land Trusts name. First, someone from the Land Trust does a site inspection and site inspection form. This information derived from the property is then present to the board members for approval. Once the board has approved, they then analyze if the property in question will benefit the public and fits the Land Trusts mission. This analysis is written in a project selection criteria document.  Once they've decided that the property is suitable for them they appraise it. If any mineral sightings or environmental issues of large caliber are found this is where an Environmental Impact Statement might have to be written. If there are no major environmental impacts to this land purchase then a Baseline Documentation Report can be written.

A Baseline Documentation Report includes the ins and outs of the property. Things like location, summary of the property’s conservation values, the physical characteristics of the property (geology, soil, hydrology, vegetation), current and historic land management practices, habitats that the land provides, agriculture resource, public benefit, and maps of all types. When this is completed, the Land Trust purchases the land or monitors the conservation easement from this point on.

WSCU Greenhouse

Hi everyone my name is Kyle Hill and I am an Intern with mountain roots who is taking care of the Western State Colorado University campus greenhouse. WSCU has been working incredibly hard in establishing an agricultural system here on campus. With the help of the university and the surrounding communities, many volunteers and interns are putting in a lot of hard work into to make these gardens to make them a success. 

It has been over a month since school has ended and the gardens are thriving in the summer sun. The first month after school had ended the greenhouse we had an explosion of lettuce. We had planted the lettuce for the ENVS Spring Symposium or the Gunnison Farm to Table Conference for the night of April 8th. After harvesting enough for the conference dinner there was enough for the Arbor Day Celebration on April 26th and the lettuce continued to grow. We finally harvested and cleared the main beds around May 20th, in the final harvest we pulled in around twenty pounds of lettuce. We delivered the lettuce to different people that are working this summer in Taylor and in the university center on campus.

The Greenhouse has had a lot more than lettuce we have habanero peppers, cayenne peppers, tiny red-hot Thai peppers, and tomatoes. The aquaponics unit has made tomatoes explode, the plants have almost touched the ceiling, and we finally have cucumbers growing on the aquaponics beds as well. I will soon post some pictures of what is growing in the greenhouse currently. 

Overall, I just wanted to introduce myself to the community and let everyone know that the Greenhouse is still up and running. I will be posting again here very soon with some pictures of the greenhouse currently.

5/29/2013

Today is our last day at the farm. We woke up and helped with the animals. We helped with the chickens today. We feed and cleaned the chickens. They have peeps, pullets and adult hens.  The chickens are all free range and run around the farm as they with.  Seeing the chickens on the farm had me relating how i raise my chickens and the differences and similarities that we have.  After morning chores we decided to do another culture activity since we were parting ways. We gathered dried mud from the river to make mud masks.  We proceeded to grate the mud and mix it with a bit of warm water, once we got the mixture to a thick mud we spread it on our faces. We left the mud masks on for 30 minutes and removed it. Next we applied fresh cut aloe on our faces and our skin felt AMAZING! this was a great way to end our adventure at the farm.