Fire Threatens Species, Disrupts Wildlife

A 90,000-acre wildfire raging in Colorado has likely destroyed the habitat for several threatened or endangered species and stirred up wildlife that could soon be heading down in the metro area, wildlife officials said.

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The fire and smoke no doubt has disrupted normal animal feeding and movement patterns, said Todd Malmsbury of the Department of Wildlife. The stress of the natural disasters could force animals to move to different places where you don't normally see them, such as in your yard, he said.

If you live in the outlying areas, and if you see wild animals -- leave them alone, don't chase, help or feed them. Even though may feel sorry for them, do not try to save baby wildlife, he warned.

Aquatic species will be most severely affected by the ash and soot of the fire, Malmsbury said. Ash and soot will impact aquatic life by killing fish. When it rains, the erosion will push sediment into streams and kill fish and hurt their reproduction.

He said most animal populations will survive, but many individual animals could die.

However, for endangered species, it's a different story.

A threatened butterfly species might have lost up to 30 percent of its habitat, and populations of the threatened Prebles meadow jumping mouse and Mexican spotted owl also might have lost ground to the fire.

"There's a good chance that an important communal winter eagle roost was destroyed too," said Leslie Ellwood, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist.

Despite the risks to rare wildlife, fire managers have been told that all endangered-species land protections have been lifted because of the fire.

"We want them to put the safety of their firefighters first," she said.

Biologists are most concerned about the Pawnee montane skipper, a yellow butterfly that lives only in a 23-mile by 5-mile stretch of river canyon woodlands in Jefferson, Douglas, Park and Teller counties.

"This is the only population," Ellwood said. "This is it."

Studies done during the environmental review of the Two Forks dam project in 1987 estimated 116,000 individual butterflies remained. Ellwood said their numbers probably remained stable through the late 1990s, when the area was hit with the first of a series of major wildfires.

State wildlife officials said most wildlife has evolved in tandem with fire, so while individuals may be affected, most species are in no long-term danger.