Corral Bluffs: the debate rages on
The following are excerpts of articles by Judith von Ahlfeldt of the Black Forest News and Judi Tobias

The Denver Basin contains Tertiary rocks which are rare along the Front Range to begin with. The Corral Bluffs escarpment, with its exceptional exposures of early Paleocene rocks 65.5-64 million years old is one of a kind in the county, and in the Denver Basin. According to Kirk Johnson, Chief Curator of the Denver Museum of Natural History, sites with good exposures of the K-T boundry are extremely rare worldwide.

Ecologically Corral Bluffs is known as a “scarp woodland”, examples of which are found sparsely throughout the Great Plains, with woody vegetation ranging from limber pine to ponderosa pine to pinyon pine and juniper, depending on the location.

Scarp woodlands are especially interesting for modern botanists because they often contain relictual vegetation, which has persisted though the climate change of the past 5,000- 7,000 years and escaped the ravages of fires, which removed woody vegetation from middle of the continent in the past 9,000 years.

Scarp woodlands occur on “badland” outcrops, such as Corral Bluffs, and many of the larger ones are protected such as Theodore Roosevelt National Monument in North Dakota, the Missouri Breaks in Montana, Pawnee Buttes, and similar topography on the Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands.

Corral Bluffs is, and has always been, in private ownership. The bluffs are not near main roads and have received little study by paleontologists, archaeologists or botanists. The steep topography and harsh, dry environment is home to adapted plants and animals in modern times.

At the time the landfill use was approved by El Paso County, little was known about the geology, archeology or paleontology of the area, and the steep relief and soft rocks were useful for a landfill operation.

Much more remains to be learned about earth’s history, and smaller, less well-known sites often contain valuable information.

The dearth of information about Corral Bluffs’ archeology, paleontology and ecology, as well as its role in biodiversity of El Paso County and questions as to appropriate land uses have come into sharp focus with the recent fast-track efforts of El Paso County to develop an Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Park on more than 500 acres of prime K-T boundary site.

BY JUDI TOBIAS
The quote below comes from El Paso County’s own Master Plan, published in 1997, which identified significant areas in the county that needed to be protected.

“Corral Bluffs: This distinctive land form extends along the eastern fringes of the urbanizing area of Colorado Springs. In places, the bluffs drop nearly 400 feet, marking an abrupt transition from the elevated plains on the east to the Fountain Creek drainage basin. Erosion along this front has exposed an interesting set of rock strata and created a series of gullies where more favorable moisture conditions support the establishment of isolated juniper, ponderosa pine and other woody species. The bluffs are generally more prominent north of State Highway 94 and taper off to the south.

The natural area encompasses an approximately one mile wide swath of land that includes the limestone outcrops for which the area is named, as well as some of the prairie at the base and along the top of the cliffs. It also includes important wildlife habitat.

Protection of this area would maintain the visual quality of this important landmark and could also provide an opportunity for a regional trail alignment along the base of the bluffs that would link Fountain Creek with the Jimmy Camp Creek Park proposed by Colorado Springs.

The bluffs also have important cultural resource values, including their use by early Native Americans as a buffalo jump. Cattlemen gave the bluffs their name back in the days of open range -- the steep cliffs served as a barrier where cattle could be corralled with relatively little fence construction.”

Why is this area now expendable? That is the question many in the community are asking. Included in this group is the Trails and Open Space Coalition, an organization that has been recognized by statewide and even nationwide for its work in preserving land throughout the Pikes Peak Area. TOSC is noted for its help in preserving the View Corridor in Teller County, working with local officials to preserve Red Rock Canyon and helped created a climate which fostered the passage of Colorado Springs TOPS funding.

TOSC’s executive director, Dan Cleveland, received the Golden Footprint Award from Colorado Walks, in recognition of his many achievements in the field of conservation.

The Trails and Open Space Coalition recently came out in opposition to the creation of an HOV park at the Corral Bluffs site. Their newsletter carefully explains that they do not oppose the creation of an HOV park, but that their Board of Directors does not think that Corral Bluffs is the appropriate place for a venue of that nature. One official said “This may open a Pandora’s Box regarding land preservation versus inappropriate uses.”

Two troubling questions about the grant request by the County are:

# Why was the request to study ONLY the Corral Bluffs area instead of to find an appropriate site?
# Why does the study encompass only 500 acres when the plan is for 900 acres?

There are also concerns about lack of public process and fasttracking the whole plan. There is no time to study the wildlife and flora through an entire yearly cycle.

Even County Commissioner Amy Lathen questions the process and recently said, “The BOCC needs to use due diligence in light of so much opposition.”

The next public meeting of the Corral Bluffs Master Planning Group is at 7pm on Tuesday,April 29. There will be an opportunity to hike Corral Bluffs at 10am on Saturday, April 19.

For more information on the hike call (719) 633-6884.

For more information on the land use issues, visit www.elpasoco.com and www.savecorralbluffs.com