Besides managing wildlife, overseeing hunting and fishing and providing recreational opportunities in 42 state parks and 350 state wildlife areas, Colorado Parks and Wildlife also provides habitat for animals.

If a forest is too dense, animals can’t move freely through it. Sunlight won’t reach the forest floor and grasses, forbs and shrubs won’t grow to provide food for wildlife. And a dense forest is at risk to a wildfire that burns intensely and moves rapidly through treetops that overlap.

The job of creating healthy forests and improving habitat falls to wildlife technicians and specialists like Casey Cooley, forest habitat coordinator for CPW, and Mike Smith, wildlife technician at the Spanish Peaks State Wildlife Area near Trinidad.

They are joining us today for this podcast because they just finished an exciting habitat improvement project at the Spanish Peaks State Wildlife Area 25 miles northwest of Trinidad.