Retired Colorado Parks and Wildlife manager Patt Dorsey spent 28 years protecting the wildlife of Southwest Colorado. Now, in honor of Colorado’s 150th birthday, she’s telling the region’s untold wildlife story — digging through old biological reports and vintage archives to uncover history that even surprised her. Her core message: wildlife needs people. Without public connection and care, species disappear from our landscapes forever. To read the full article, visit colorado150southwest.org.
The Power of Place Magazine is a special initiative of the Colorado 150 Southwest organizing committee, featuring 20 articles by professional historians and local writers exploring Southwest Colorado’s rich and complex heritage.
Watch the full series, Voices of the Past: Southwest Colorado.
This story is sponsored by Alpine Bank, Sky Ute Casino and Strater Hotel.
Transcript
I’ve always had a real interest in the history of wildlife and Southwest Colorado is so unique and so wild that it ha, it has a real interesting wildlife story that I’ve always wanted to tell. And so with the celebration of colorado’s hundred and 50th birthday, it was a perfect opportunity to marry the two. One of the things I did when I was researching for this article was I started going through actually boxes of information here in this office, and I found some old biological reports and I found old magazine articles and all that kind of stuff. There’s just some really interesting stuff out there I didn’t even know about. You know, I got so pumped up writing the article. I didn’t expect that if I had to, had to explain kind of where I came from. I would say I was always a nerd. I was always a wildlife lover, but I worked for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, which is now Colorado Parks and Wildlife for about 28 years before I retired and became and started working for the Turkey Federation. I have a real interest in wildlife, in wildlife viewing, wildlife photography. I hunt, I fish. I just love being outdoors. The reason I wrote this article is because I think wildlife is a part of this place and for people that are outdoors oriented, I think we connect to the world in multiple ways, and the wildlife story just needed to be told. The reason I think it’s important for people to connect with wildlife is it it wildlife need people, right? As a wildlife manager for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, for 28 years, people thought my job was really special because all I did was pet deer and kiss fish and stuff. But that’s not what we do at all. We work with people to save these beautiful creatures for future generations. If we don’t care, they won’t be here. And I, for one, would hate to see a single species disappear from this landscape. To read this story, visit Colorado one 50 southwest.org. Alpine Bank committed to Colorado and you.
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