October Update | 10.11.21

Awareness of Culture, History and the Land

This week numerous events in Boulder will be held to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, including a panel presentation we will host today which focuses on Centering Indigenous Perspectives on Environmental Stewardship. Indigenous People’s Day is an opportunity to celebrate Indigenous resilience, wisdom and persistence.  At the BWC our direct work with the land continually offers occasions to better understand settler colonialism and presents us with opportunities to better represent ourselves personally and professionally by recognizing the intersection of culture, history and the land. This is exemplified best through our mine reclamation work at Ingram Gulch in the Fourmile watershed.

Ingram Gulch is a 286 acre drainage between Sunshine Canyon and Fourmile Canyon feeding into Fourmile Creek, a tributary to Boulder Creek. Approximately 270 acres were severely burned in the 2010 Fourmile Fire. In 2011 there was flooding and debris flows, only to be eclipsed by the Colorado flood event in 2013. Compounding these natural disturbances, Ingram Gulch was the site of gold and other hard rock mining beginning in the late 1800s. The fire and flood events exposed previously vegetated mine waste which allowed contaminated sediment to be carried into streams with each rainfall and runoff event.  Mine waste often contains various heavy metals which can be toxic to aquatic and human health.

The goal of the Ingram Gulch project was to improve water quality by excavating and stabilizing the mine waste away from the main channel where it would not be in constant contact with flowing water. This work immediately improved downstream water quality evidenced by decreasing arsenic levels. Over the last couple of years we have seen increased diversity in vegetation offering pollinator and other riparian habitat to develop. We were able to improve the channel dimensions and floodplain connection, allowing increased flood flows to occur with less bank erosion. We consider the restoration project an ecological success and are proud of the work we and our project partners completed.

Through this project we learned a lot about local mining history.  The mining history throughout western Boulder County is filled with stories of perseverance and fortitude, and we are left with numerous old buildings and remnant railways that allow one to visualize another time in our history.  At the same time, that same period in history also ushered in genocide and the displacement of Indigenous people, along with the environmental complexities that still exist today.

At Ingram Gulch we learned that one of the primary mining claims, and likely the source of much of the mine waste, came from the Chivington Lode. John Chivington commanded the 3rd Colorado Cavalry of US volunteers which massacred a peaceful village of Cheyenne and Arapaho (mostly women and children) camped along Sand Creek in eastern Colorado on November 29, 1864. Cavalry “participants included some of the very founders of Boulder and Longmont (Daily Camera, 2014).” Discovering Chivington’s name on a map in our project area generated deeper learning and acknowledgement of the atrocities committed at Sand Creek and throughout Colorado. Although we’re grateful that it did catalyze learning, blatancy shouldn’t be what is required for us to take those next steps. Once there was a palpable connection between the land we were standing on and the history it represented, the environmental success of the project at Ingram Gulch took an on a different meaning. As the homeland of the Hinono’ei (Arapaho) people, as well as the Cheyenne and Ute, this connection exists everywhere in the Boulder Creek watershed and should be honored accordingly.

There is clearly much restorative justice work that needs to happen. In August of this year, Governor Jared Polis signed Executive Order B 2021 002, rescinding the 1864 proclamations by Territorial Governor John Evans warning that “all hostile Indians would be pursued and destroyed.” While these proclamations never became law, they were superseded by the Colorado Constitution, United States Constitution, and Colorado criminal code when Colorado became a state, they had remained on the books and had never been rescinded until 2021 (Sand Creek Massacre Foundation).

The Ingram Gulch project improved water quality and habitat, while also reconnecting to the floodplain, but the long-term success of this project may be less about the environmental improvements we implemented on the land. The long-term success of the project may be better embodied in the gifts the land gave us. The gifts of connection, insight, and motivation for the Boulder Watershed Collective to work toward learning about and acting to decolonize our systems, deepen our understanding of our shared history, and uphold our responsibility to reciprocal relationships with the land and our communities to build more equitable and sustainable futures. This year on Indigenous People’s Day, we invite you to do the same.

– Maya MacHamer, Director

To learn about what is happening with other mines in Colorado relating to the Infrastructure Bill and reclamation, listen to the Colorado Public Radio – Colorado Matter’s segment interviewing BWC and others experts!

WILDFIRE TIP OF THE MONTH

Your Home Ignition Zone

The Colorado State Forest Service released their 2021 ‘Home Ignition Zone’ guide to help homeowners prepare their homes and property for wildfire with the most up-to-date standards. Also explore the following Washington Post interactive article on how to protect your home.

In this guide, they highlight one-time and on-going strategies to prepare homes and properties for wildfire that can greatly improve the odds of your home’s survival during a wildfire. You will learn about new standards for the Home Ignition Zones 1-3 with specific check-lists to consider in each zone, including removing fall leaves from your roof, landscapes deck and gutters. Living with wildfire as a natural and often beneficial part of the ecosystem means being prepared – a responsibility that comes with living in these incredible places. 

Oct & Nov Events

STORIES & RESEARCH