Forest Asks Visitors To Wear GPS Units

In a turnabout in the use of radio collars to track wildlife, researchers from the U.S. Forest Service plan to use similar technology to follow two-legged recreationists. The Summit Daily News this week reported that Forest Service researchers are asking cross-country skiers and snowmobilers using the Vail Pass Winter Recreation Area to wear Global Positioning System units. Information from the human-carried Global Positioning System units will be compared with similar data collected from GPS units worn by lynx. The data may lead to some idea of how recreational use in the area is affecting lynx activity. One of Colorado’s most elusive mammals, lynx were thought to be extinct in Colorado by 1973. A total of 218 lynx have been reintroduced to the state during a program begun in 1999...read more