Scar reclaimed for forest

A quarry that marred the foothills above Garden of the Gods before a decade-long reclamation effort has been donated to the U.S. Forest Service.

The transformation of the former Queens Canyon Quarry from community eyesore to community asset was long in the making.

The 100-acre quarry once yielded rock and gravel used to build NORAD's installation in Cheyenne Mountain. After years of public outcry about the growing scar, the quarry was closed in 1990 by its owner, Castle Concrete, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Continental Materials Corp.

During the next decade or so, Castle joined with the nonprofit Colorado Mountain Reclamation Foundation to complete a mountain makeover hailed as a model of cooperation that exceeded anything required by state law.

With Castle's recent donation, the Forest Service receives 100 acres of steep hillside smoothed out with fertile dirt, covered by 6,200 thriving trees and native grasses and wildflowers and populated by a herd of 60 bighorn sheep.

The quarry last year was renamed the Greg Francis Bighorn Sheep Habitat in honor of the quarry's longtime manager of reclamation, who died in October 2002 at age 54.

"When Castle closed the quarry, it was due mainly to the community outcry," said Wanda Reaves, project manager for the reclamation foundation. "That's why this transfer of property is a really significant closure of an important community issue. I just want the community to know we've come full circle."

Jeff Hovermale, forestry technician with the Pikes Peak Ranger District of the Pike National Forest, said the quarry is a valuable addition to public lands in the region.

He said the quarry is next to a section of Pike National Forest being managed as bighorn sheep habitat, so the donation creates a nice block of land for the magnificent sheep and can be preserved.

"You're not going to see any homesites or other development up there," he said.

He said the Forest Service will manage the habitat at the quarry and the Colorado Division of Wildlife will continue to manage the herd of bighorn sheep.

Although the quarry is part of the national forest system and open for public use, the only access road is through private property. There are no legal motorized routes into the site.

Meanwhile, the reclamation foundation continues its work at two other area quarries.

Reaves said the foundation's volunteers are working at Pikeview Quarry, located farther north along the foothills. As Castle finishes mining an area of the quarry, volunteers, aided by Castle employees and equipment, add soil, native trees and grasses.

The project will be ongoing because Castle estimates it will mine the quarry another 10 years or so, Reaves said.

The foundation also has planted 2,500 trees at Snyder Quarry, a Castle Concrete property near the Cedar Heights subdivision north of Manitou Springs.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0197 or mckeown@gazette.com

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