Broomfield Raptor Management Plan

Thank you for your message and sharing your concerns. The development that has taken place in the Simms area has been subject to environmental review and adherence to state and federal buffer zones for any nesting/breeding site for raptors. This review process will continue for any upcoming development in that area, and environmental letters will be submitted and reviewed by staff before construction would begin. In the specific case of the nearby FedEx facility, this property is located in Jefferson County and would have been subject to their review process.

Thank you very much for your question and interest in volunteering. We don't have a specific volunteer program for the raptor plan, but we do have some related volunteer opportunities. These volunteer opportunities include the Eagle Watch program, which provides monitoring of an active local bald eagle nest. Information on Eagle Watch and other volunteer opportunities can be found on our Open Space and Trails website. You can also contact Open Space and Trails staff directly by emailing openspace@broomfield.org.

The hawks and owls are pretty good at this already, although they can't always keep up with the rabbits! Hawks and owls both hunt primarily from above and use perches, so having trees and even rooftops with good sightlines helps. Also, the Broomfield Wildlife Masters have some good ideas and strategies to limit rabbits in lawns and gardens. They are local volunteers with lots of knowledge in answering backyard wildlife questions.

Thank you very much for this suggestion. We are discussing this with our project team and reviewing the ways that something like this can be accomplished. At this time we do have some elements of this in place, including mapping of many nesting sites, access to state mapping through Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and information provided by biologists that work on projects throughout our community. There is also a lot of information available on private online sites like eBird and iNaturalist (we do have our own page 'Broomfield Naturalists'). We are definitely interested in having 'citizen scientists' in Broomfield and increasing awareness and education around our local raptors. Two local opportunities that may be of interest are the Broomfield Bird Club, and the local Eagle Watch volunteer program.

Yes! We are working closely with the Birds of Prey Foundation on this project. We greatly value their input and have met with them about this plan (and we have delivered injured birds there ourselves). They are a key stakeholder in this process and we will continue to coordinate with their staff.

This plan will carefully review raptor habitat and buffer areas for nesting sites in Broomfield near development, but any legal constraints over future development is beyond the immediate scope of this plan, and would need to be coordinated within the framework of state and federal laws, zoning, and property development rights. The plan will assess habitat and attempt to identify the sources of conflict, injury, disease or general stress on raptors, and develop best management practices to reduce those conflicts and risks. Broomfield will also continue to seek to preserve or potentially acquire available land that offers quality raptor habitat areas when possible.

Yes, we have not seen screech owls nesting recently in Broomfield, but we certainly suspect that they do breed in the area and we do have sightings from time to time. The list here is definitely not inclusive of all raptors in Broomfield, but rather a list of the more common ones. We hope to see more screech owls, and that is a great question!

Turkey vultures do not build nests. They are opportunistic in their nesting sites, but they are almost always secluded from human activities. They will nest on cliffs and crevices, on abandoned buildings, in hollowed logs or animal burrows, as well as use abandoned nests from other birds. Turkey vultures are not one of the more common raptors in Broomfield, but we do see them from time to time.

Yes, raptors do compete with each other for resources like nesting sites and prey. They do sometimes kill other species as a part of those conflicts. Great-horned owls are especially known to predate on other raptors, and often steal nesting sites from hawks instead of building their own.

Thank you for your question! 

Right now the best way to get involved is to ask your questions here. As the plan progresses there will be opportunity for public comment on the draft plan and several other ways to get involved.