We had some fun animal stories, a community celebration and safer streets on this edition of Connected Colorado.

Hi everyone, I'm Gary Shapiro.

We're here at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

It is a pretty cool place, and we're gonna learn a lot more about it coming up.

But first, animals can play a big role in the healing process of humans.

Since 1984, there's been a great program in Aurora that has brought lots of joy to both patients and families at Children's Hospital, Colorado.

Yeah, she says hi.

She's praying for him.

He has a procedure.

Oh, yeah, she's sending you all the love.

No, this is her dream.

She literally loves you.

What's your name?

This is Fluffy.

Oh, I know.

Dogs come in with no preconceived notions, they have no judgments of any situation.

They just come in and are there to love and care and help that patient bring a sense of peace and calmness, and maybe they smile for the first time in two weeks.

What kind of dog is she?

She's a Pyrenees Anatolian Shepherd Max.

Hi, my name is Brooke, and this is my dog Fluffy, and we are part of the Children's Hospital prescription pet program.

We've been doing it for about a year now.

She's a love bug, so she loved saying hi to you.

Thank you.

The program is completely volunteer-based.

Hi.

And our job is to, you know, boost some morale.

Dogs are amazing therapy, and so just be able to provide that for anyone in the hospital.

Um is really special.

My daughter recently had a pretty hard procedure done, and she did have to be awake for it.

And the thing that got her through it is I said, you know what, we're gonna get to see a medical dog, and the whole time she's sitting there saying, I'm gonna be so brave so I can see Galaxy.

Galaxy is gonna be so proud of me.

And just watching this little four-year-old, you know, have that motivation to see this dog, and she knows that dog is gonna be proud of her, I mean, unbelievable.

And so it's really great to see both sides as a mom and having patience here and just see the magic that a dog can do to the caregivers, the parents, and the kids.

And then we get to come and pay that forward and do it to others, and it's truly the best thing in the world.

It's the best feeling, and we're so blessed that we're able to do that.

Are you trying to hold hands?

Okay.

We're here with Sarah Metzer, who's a park ranger here at the Wildlife Refuge.

There is a lot to see out there.

Would you give me a tour?

I would love to.

Let's do it.

Let's go.

All right.

So, Sarah, tell me about the refuge out here.

Yeah, so this is Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, officially established in 1992.

We're sitting on just under 16,000 acres here in almost the middle of Denver.

We've got mule deer, white-tailed deer, over 300 species of migratory birds that come through in different seasons.

And of course, we have the bison, which is one of the biggest attractors of folks to the refuge.

And then we also have North America's most critically endangered mammal, black footed ferrets are here too.

Yeah, and lots of birds.

I know I've seen birds out here.

Yes.

Yeah, all the different species that come through.

It's fun to be able to see them in different seasons as they're they're passing through on the flyways, going north or south.

You know what's really cool about this place is it's 10 minutes from Denver, and so people can come out and just be in the wild 10 minutes from Denver.

It's pretty wild.

It's amazing how close to Denver it is, and yet when you get into the interior, it does feel like you're somewhere else, far away.

The fact that the public has the ability to come out here and enjoy this is such an asset and such an incredible jewel for Denver.

So if somebody wants to come out here, you're open all year round, right?

We are.

The only times we're closed are Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's.

Open every other day, sunrise to sunset.

And you never know what you're gonna see.

Never do.

Every day's different out here.

Now over here we can see one of the bison right out the window.

Yes, and I can go back to him.

We also have two bald eagles that just happened to be right in that tree over there.

Oh, that's so cool.

And eagles are a particularly special species because it's one of the reasons why the arsenal was converted to a wildlife refuge.

At the time, the eagles were listed on the Endangered Species Act.

They are now delisted.

They have successfully recovered, but because of that listing, and because they discovered a bunch of them out at the First Creek area here on the refuge.

That was another one of those catalysts for being able to successfully convert this into a refuge post cleanup.

Alright, Eagles, we'll see if if they're still there on our way back.

But otherwise, we'll uh we will proceed this way.

Do a little bit more four-wheel drive.

More bison.

More bison.

I love that.

This guy's pretty close.

See if we can get him without disturbing him too much.

But I was gonna say it's probably a good thing we're in.

We're in the truck here.

Yes.

People shouldn't get too close, I'm guessing.

No.

Yeah, this is a handsome bowl right here.

Well, he's a big fellow, that's for sure.

Yes.

The males can get up to 2,000 pounds and stand, you know, six foot tall and and as slow as they and lumbering as they look, they when they want to, they can actually be quite agile.

I'll bet.

I'll bet they can.

It's gonna itch a little.

Those cottonwood trees are great scratching posts, as you can see.

That's awesome.

I love that.

Gonna come on the other side of the vehicle here.

Wander over that way, and the rest of the herd is out over there, so and you see the tails up.

That's a what you do, and that's kind of an alert, like and as soon as those tails kind of calm down, you know that they're just like, oh okay, it's you.

How long has the herd been out here?

Since 2007, there were 16 individuals that were transferred here from um National Bison Range.

And it's one of the younger herds that's been developed within the Department of Interior's kind of bison recovery program.

And so, because of that reason, our herd is one of the most genetically diverse herds in the country right now.

So, what we're seeing now is is what bison will do most of their day.

They spend up to 11 hours just grazing.

Oh, just eating.

Well, they're fun to watch.

They are, yeah.

Oh, we we've here we've got one that's rolling.

Getting a little dust bath there.

Oh, yeah, that helps kind of with it's a sunscreen, it's a bug protection, feels nice.

We have about two forty, two fifty right now.

Depends on if a couple more calves snuck in there.

That's that little wee one that um is a little bit more orange in color.

Okay.

That would be one that was born more recently.

Okay, so would have been born sometime this summer.

When they get to be about three months, they start to lose kind of that reddish color, the orange-reddish color, which gives them the name red dogs.

So, yeah, calves, the calves are called red dogs.

Right now they still have some remnants of their their summer coats, but they'll grow thicker coats for the winter.

Those are the prettiest coats.

They're really big, fuzzy.

You see them in a snowstorm covered in in snow, and they just don't mind.

They're just so perfectly adapted for being out here for our Colorado winters.

Of course, we're seeing some of the bird species that take advantage of the fact that they've got a great buffet of bugs.

So they've got a great kind of partnership with some of those birds to be able to get the bugs off their coats.

They are perfectly adapted to these short grass prairies.

Sounds like a great life.

Hanging around eating all day.

Eating all day.

So the history of this place is really interesting.

It didn't start out as a wildlife refuge.

No, it did not.

So the original stewards of this land, you had three different indigenous tribal nations were out here, and then, as European settlers came in, you had the homesteading era, and then ultimately, when the United States entered into World War II, this land became part of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal.

It was a true arsenal maintained by the war department.

They were getting the United States ready to enter into World War II.

And then later on, the Cold War era, so it truly has that military history as well.

But then once the era came where we no longer needed this particular facility to function in that matter, then it was discovered that you know we actually need to convert this land and restore it back to what it used to be, what it was previously.

And this site is actually one of the very first listed super fund sites.

And so the cleanup and the remedy that happened out here before the fish and wildlife took over was kind of one of the catalysts for being able to make it a wildlife refuge.

Yeah, you talked about the congressional approval.

I mean, the visitor center is named after pretty famous Colorado Congresswoman.

Absolutely.

Pat Schroeder was very involved with the effort not only to clean this space up, but to be able to see it become a wildlife refuge, understanding the asset that it would then be to the people of Denver and to the nation.

So the visitor center is open Wednesday through Sunday from 9 to 4, and we do encourage folks to stop on by, come on in.

There's an exhibit area that tells a little bit more of that history of the arsenal, as well as provides a little bit more information about some of the animals and the wildlife they might see.