With great delight we share the news that Great Horned Owls have returned to their Twin Lakes nesting site in north Boulder! The nesting site has been home to baby owls for more than thirty years. And you can come visit! Over the next week the young owls will continue learning to fly. Father and mother owl will be showing the young ones how to hunt in Owl Hunting Meadow just south of the nesting tree. All around the lakes you will hear the magical call of red winged black birds and perhaps see a great blue heron or even a bald eagle catching a fish. Over the next week or so, we encourage you to take a lovely walk at Twin Lakes and experience this wildlife miracle for yourself. Do bring friends and family who will also love walking the gentle trail to the owl tree. The paths around the lakes are level and suitable for all ages. Directions and Map below. Why Care? Last year Boulder County and the three county commissioners Deb Gardner, Elise Jones and Cindy Domenico sought to bulldoze and build 300 apartments on the Owl Hunting Meadow. In an incredible victory, volunteers with the Twin Lakes Owl Preserve and Twin Lakes Action Groups (TLAG) stopped the bulldozers when the honorable citizen members of the Boulder County Planning Commission chose to defy the commissioners and not approve the development. In retaliation, Boulder Country stripped the County Planning Commission of the ability to protect open space in the future. Now we need your help to permanently protect the Twin Lakes Owl Preserve. Can you take a minute to send an email like the one below to Boulder County and the City of Boulder? Send to: dgardner@bouldercounty.org, cdomenico@bouldercounty.org, jared.polis@mail.house.gov, sgarnett@bouldercounty.org, ejones@bouldercounty.org, joness@bouldercolorado.gov, council@bouldercolorado.gov, Sue.Sharkey@cu.edu, Patrick.ORourke@cu.edu, info@boulderowlpreserve.org Boulder Country Commissioners, It is an incredible gift that great horned owls have been nesting at Twin Lakes for more than 30 years. Rather than destroying the Owl Hunting Meadow south of Twin Lakes, we encourage you to immediately and permanently protect the proposed Twin Lakes Owl Preserve. Please visit the baby owls as they are learning to fly this week at the site of the proposed owl preserve and you will see why this area must be protected. I also ask you to protect the proposed Meadowlark Open Space just south of Boulder, where the University of Colorado is threatening to bulldoze meadow and wetland habitat to make way for an expansion campus and hundreds of apartments, not far from Eldorado Canyon State Park. The Meadowlark Open Space is a remarkable ecosystem that is home to nesting song birds and raptors like the red-tailed hawk and golden eagle. The meadows and wetlands habitat are feeding grounds for moose and black bears and a number of rare species. Wonderful walking and cycling recreational opportunities that nourish the spirit will also be protected with this land. The community wants to work cooperatively with CU and the City of Boulder to purchase this land for protection. We encourage CU to build new campus buildings, sporting facilities and apartments (with underground parking) on existing CU parking lots rather than on critical meadow and wetlands habitat. In closing, as our elected officials we ask you to please immediately protect the Twin Lakes Owl Preserve and the Meadowlark Open Space. Sincerely, (your name here) ============================================================= Thank you for adding additional thoughts to make the above note your own and sending it to Boulder County, City of Boulder and CU. All you need to do is copy and paste in the email addresses above. Learn more about the owls and watch the "Home of the Owls" mini-documentary (4 minutes long) at: http://boulderowlpreserve.org/ Lastly if you would like to donate to help protect the Twin Lakes Owl Preserve - your charitable donation will be really welcome at: http://www.tlag.org/support $5, $20 or $45 would all help to protect the Owl's Hunting Meadow from development. Stay in touch and enjoy great events and hikes by joining the Twin Lakes Owl Preserve Meetup and the Meadow Lark Open Space Meetup: Hike with us next Tuesday - May 15 - and experience this incredible proposed open space immediately south of Boulder https://www.meetup.com/MeadowLarkOpenSpace Hike with us to see the Owls this Tues evening - May 7 - 6pm! https://www.meetup.com/BoulderOwlPreserve To Visit the Owls: •Map to the Owl Nesting Tree: http://boulderowlpreserve.org/map/ •Go past Avery Brewing by two blocks and park at the end of Nautilus Court. •Walk the path between the two beautiful lakes and enjoy the mountain views. •Take the right branch of the path across the bridge then go 200 feet left and you will see the owl nesting tree - an old hollow tree on the other side of the stream. •Look for baby and parent owls in the trees around the Owl Nest or swooping over the Owl Hunting Meadow just south of the lakes! •Walk around the west lake to return and enjoy the magical songs of more than 100 nesting red winged black birds over the wetlands