Moose aren’t native to Colorado and the Roaring Fork Valley, but you’d never know it.

They’re the largest member of the deer family and found throughout the northern regions of North America, but historical records dating back to the 1850s indicate only the occasional, transient moose wandered into northern Colorado from Wyoming, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. They did not establish a breeding population.

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Birds. They may be the world’s most watchable, and listenable, wildlife. Even non-birders will turn their heads at the sight of a bald eagle perched over a river or strain to hear an owl’s hoot. And who doesn’t acknowledge the robin as a harbinger of spring?

Nationwide, 45 million people, or 14.5 percent of all Americans, call themselves bird watchers, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. What the rest of the population fails to recognize is that they are birders, too, seeing or hearing birds nearly every day. Birds are a ubiquitous connection to the natural world.

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Two Roots Farm is poised to become the first certified organic producer of agricultural products on a Pitkin County Open Space and Trails property – the latest milestone for a program that now has 13 agricultural lease areas and more on the way.

Two Roots was awarded a lease for two areas of Emma Open Space in early 2018. Growers Harper Kaufman and Christian La Bar produced roughly 30,000 pounds of vegetables at Emma last year after creating a fenced-in garden plot, installing a permanent irrigation system and erecting a hoop house. New this year, Two Roots has installed a second, larger hoop house and plans to expand the cultivated area within its outdoor garden plot. Kaufman and La Bar have also been working through the considerable paperwork required to be certified as an organic grower – an effort that requires documenting their ongoing use of all things organic, from compost and soil amendments to potting mix and even seeds. They hope to receive the USDA certification in June.

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