Date: October 26, 2009
Contact: Kyle Patterson, 970-586-1363
Over the next five months, weather conditions permitting, fixed wing and helicopter flights will occur over Rocky Mountain National Park. These flights will assist with the survey procedures to estimate elk populations in the park. Park staff anticipate no more than three days of flights per month. The flights will not occur on holidays.
Both a fixed wing aircraft and a helicopter, flying at different altitudes, will be used. The main purpose of the paired flights will be to enhance the monitoring of the number and distribution of the elk population in Rocky Mountain National Park. This is a joint study with the National Park Service and United States Geological Survey (USGS).
For more information about Rocky Mountain National Park please call (970) 586-1206.
Did You Know?
If the current amount of total nitrogen deposition measured at the high-elevation monitoring site in Rocky Mountain National Park (4 kg/ha/yr) was the same throughout the park, the amount of airborne nitrogen entering the park would be equivalent to 943,000 twenty-pound bags of fertilizer.
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