{"id":2448082,"date":"2019-08-28T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=311841"},"modified":"2019-08-28T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T14:00:00","slug":"guided-hikes-highlight-town-wildlife-past-and-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/guided-hikes-highlight-town-wildlife-past-and-present\/","title":{"rendered":"Guided hikes highlight town wildlife \u2014 past and present"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.7303703703704\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-311841-61\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/aces-svs-082819-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/aces-svs-082819-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Maddie Vincent\/Snowmass Sun | Casts of Ice Age-era mammals displayed in the Snowmass Pavillion on the Village Mall. In 2010, more than 6,000 bones belonging to 10 large Ice Age mammals and over 30,000 bones from 42 small animals were discovered beneath the Zeigler Reservoir. Over the summer, ACES naturalists hike up with locals to an overlook of the reservoir and talk about the renowned fossil discovery.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"1.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"14\">\n<p><strong>Casts of Ice Age-era mammals displayed in the Snowmass Pavillion on the Village Mall. In 2010, more than 6,000 bones belonging to 10 large Ice Age mammals and over 30,000 bones from 42 small animals were discovered beneath the Zeigler Reservoir. Over the summer, ACES naturalists hike up with locals to an overlook of the reservoir and talk about the renowned fossil discovery.<\/strong><br \/>Maddie Vincent\/Snowmass Sun<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/aces-svs-082819-1.jpg\" alt=\"Casts of Ice Age-era mammals displayed in the Snowmass Pavillion on the Village Mall. In 2010, more than 6,000 bones belonging to 10 large Ice Age mammals and over 30,000 bones from 42 small animals were discovered beneath the Zeigler Reservoir. Over the summer, ACES naturalists hike up with locals to an overlook of the reservoir and talk about the renowned fossil discovery.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/aces-svs-082819-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/aces-svs-082819-1-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Maddie Vincent\/Snowmass Sun | A sign outside the Snowmass Pavillion on the mall advertising the ACES naturalist-guided hikes, offered daily until Labor Day. After the holiday weekend, the hikes will take place on weekends until the end of Sept.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"11\">\n<p><strong>A sign outside the Snowmass Pavillion on the mall advertising the ACES naturalist-guided hikes, offered daily until Labor Day. After the holiday weekend, the hikes will take place on weekends until the end of Sept.<\/strong><br \/>Maddie Vincent\/Snowmass Sun<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/aces-svs-082819-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"A sign outside the Snowmass Pavillion on the mall advertising the ACES naturalist-guided hikes, offered daily until Labor Day. After the holiday weekend, the hikes will take place on weekends until the end of Sept.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/snowmass\/guided-hikes-highlight-town-wildlife-past-and-present\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/snowmass\/guided-hikes-highlight-town-wildlife-past-and-present\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">On a recent summer morning, Jeb Hines made his way up the Discovery Trail with his Ray Bans on, backpack full of historical artifacts and one goal in mind: Find connections between the present Snowmass environment and its past.<\/p>\n<p>As Hines, a summer naturalist with the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, hiked up the trail\u2019s dirt switchbacks, he made these connections by stopping to point out things like service berry bushes, which bloom at the start of spring and were used by early Roaring Fork Valley settlers to signify when the ground was soft enough to bury the dead; and choke cherry bushes, which the Ute Native Americans used to make bow and arrows out of and ate the berries to treat gastrointestinal problems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Hines even had a choke cherry-wood bow crafted by his uncle, who lives in Aspen, to show as an example.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Since mid-June, Hines and 14 other summer naturalists with ACES have been leading Snowmass locals and tourists up the Discovery Trial two times a day to both view the seasonal flora and fauna and to talk about the multitude of Ice Age fossils discovered beneath the Zeigler Reservoir in 2010.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">According to Jim Kravitz, director of the ACES naturalist program, these guided hikes aren\u2019t new to ACES, but the nonprofit had to make some changes this year. Usually, Kravitz said naturalists lead a morning wildflower hike on the Nature Trail and an afternoon Ice Age hike on the Discovery Trail. This year, both guided hikes have been held on the Discovery Trail due to the closure of the Nature Trail after a section of it gave out last spring.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThis is the first year we\u2019ve had to switch the wildflower hike to the Discovery Trail, which is too bad,\u201d Kravitz said, noting that the Nature Trail guided hikes are longer, offer greater visibility of more wildflower species and have been held for over 30 years. \u201cWe definitely hope to be back on the Nature Trail next year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">ACES naturalists lead a variety of programmed hikes and guided nature walks over the summer in Aspen and Snowmass, but get their start on the Snowmass trails.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Kravitz explained that because the Snowmass area gets wildflowers in bloom in early June, it\u2019s where he holds the naturalist program\u2019s wildflower and botany crash course every year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Although Hines seemed to enjoy stopping to talk about flowers and plants he\u2019s learned about along the Discovery Trail on the recent morning hike, he said he\u2019s always most excited to talk about the Zeigler Reservoir Ice Age fossil discoveries, which included American mastodons, giant sloths, Columbian mammoths and more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Ever since Hines watched the \u201cWalking with Prehistoric Beasts\u201d documentary as a kid, he said he\u2019s loved learning about paleontology and how it relates to what\u2019s happening with today\u2019s ecosystems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThis is one of the highest paleontological sites in the world. You don\u2019t usually find fossils up this high,\u201d Hines said, looking out at the Zeigler Reservoir. \u201cTo conserve and protect our existing species, we need to understand what happened to the species like these that went extinct.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Hines said he\u2019s loved learning about the Snowmass-area wildlife and history and interacting with people on the guided hikes. A South Carolina native with a wildlife and fisheries biology degree, Hines said he came west to work for ACES this summer specifically for the opportunity to guide visitors and in hopes he\u2019d become enlightened about what career path would be best for him \u2014 which is exactly what Kravitz says the naturalist program is all about.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWhen (the ACES naturalists) lead these tours and interact with visitors, they find their voice, they find what interests them and what interests the public,\u201d Kravitz said. \u201cThey get good at communicating conservation, sustainability and environmental justice and start to realize the direction they want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But while Kravitz said the guided summer tours and nature programs are important in helping the ACES naturalists find their potential career paths, he also said they\u2019re important in helping visitors feel connected to the Aspen-Snowmass area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe realize visitors want to belong and knowing the local environment is the best way,\u201d Kravitz said. \u201cWhen people get out and start to understand the wildflowers, water, birds and trees, they feel a sense of belonging and investment in a place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/snowmass\/guided-hikes-highlight-town-wildlife-past-and-present\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Casts of Ice Age-era mammals displayed in the Snowmass Pavillion on the Village Mall. In 2010, more than 6,000 bones belonging to 10 large Ice Age mammals and over 30,000 bones from 42 small animals were discovered beneath the Zeigler Reservoir. Over the summer, ACES naturalists hike up with locals to an overlook of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2448082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 19:46:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}