North Park Wildlife Rehabilitation at 22 West

A series of county roads takes you west from Walden. Where the busier roads take visitors to Lake John and Delaney Lakes, a left fork in the road passes through old homestead ranches, access roads through private property, and eventually into the foothills at the base of the Park Range. Through rolling hills of sagebrush, green river bottoms, and past herds of grazing pronghorns, the dirt road takes you to a series of cabins. 

Names like Moose Haven, Wapiti, Red Tail, Eagles Nest and Whistle Pig embody a simpler life that people looking to get away from the cities crave. The cabins are only part of what is happening with 22 West Cabins. Underneath it all, they have been built to support a greater purpose, based around a small family’s compassion for wildlife rehabilitation.

World Class Vacation Rentals for the Adventurer in You

These cabins are part of a network of vacation rentals that rank in the top 10% of AirBnB’s around the world, all with the backdrop of the Park Range, Mount Zirkel, and the majestic Red Canyon. The west side of North Park has the benefit of more precipitation and higher snowpack throughout the year. In many places, this part of North Park is incredibly lush, with canyon bottoms and hiking trails alive with bracken, lily ponds, and old growth forests.

Four units comprise the cabins at 22 West, each varying in size and type of accommodation all year long. Summertime activities such as hiking, fishing in nearby creeks and lakes, and enjoying the outdoors gives visitors a full range of access to adventure sports in the winter months. Whether it is backpacking, bird watching, day hikes, cross-country skiing, or snowshoeing, access to Rainbow Lakes Trailhead is right at 22 West’s backdoor. Visitors also have access to Zirkel Wilderness as well as some of the most beautiful and remote areas of Routt National Forest.

North Park Wildlife Rehabilitation

One of the reasons people love to drive to North Park during the summertime is to see all the wildlife that are active in the area. When it comes to creating a remote habitat with public and private land serving as a buffer from development, you don’t get much better than this. Unfortunately, when the worlds of people and wildlife come into contact, it is usually the wildlife that loses.

Deb McLachlan has been a volunteer for wildlife rehabilitation for the last 30 years. She originally worked for Colorado State Parks and expanded her interests in helping to rehabilitate injured and orphaned animals in North Park and beyond. Her experience with government gave her connections as well as insight in dealing with policies, procedures–and unfortunately red tape–in helping wildlife whose habitat and lives have been disrupted by contact with human beings.

Her cabins and vacation rental business supports her true calling, which is to help wildlife. With the help of her sons, Patrick and Eli Drakulich, she has built something more than a compound to fund and facilitate rehabilitation. 

Building a Legacy for Wildlife

Over the years, McLachlan’s resources have evolved to better serve the needs of the wildlife she is rehabilitating, as well as meeting guidelines to allow her to be a licenced rehabilitator. North Park Wildlife Rehabilitation is accredited by both Colorado State and the US federal government. Her avian flight enclosure is capable of housing anything from recovering pigeons to injured golden eagles. Deb does not discriminate.

She has helped a wide variety of birds, from owlets that were found after the felling of a tree where they were nesting to a Canada goose that had been struck by a vehicle. In other units she has helped orphaned raccoons, elk and moose calves, and even a river otter. Many of the animals that come to her are a result of injuries from interactions with people. 

Her facility serves not only Jackson County, but also five other counties in the intermountain region of northern Colorado and the Western Slope. Deb also networks with other licensed rehabilitators as well as local veterinarians. CPW resources are often spread thin, and more often than not, euthanasia is the first response from the government, rather than rehabilitation.

Hazards to Wildlife

As the population of Colorado continues to grow, contact with wildlife often results in the injury or death of animals that come into contact with people. Disruption of habitat as well as interruption of age-old migratory patterns means that animals find themselves trying to live among people. This often results in their removal, injury, or destruction.

Vehicle strikes are high on that list, especially with raptors. Roadkill often attracts birds of prey which scavenge on gophers and prairie dog remains. Speeding cars often hit these birds as they are trying to lift off from the road. Other animals are also attracted to highways, often in the wintertime. Moose, deer, and elk are drawn to roads in winter because they are cleared of snow, but also because they are ingesting the road salt. These animals often panic and run into traffic, or are difficult to see at night.

Bears and Changing Policies

Recent changes in State wildlife management policies have been influenced by politics and budget requirements. Bears are no longer covered by a three-strikes-and-you’re-out rule. If they can’t be chased off, removing bears from private property becomes a death sentence. Dealing with “nuisance bears” used to be dealt with by removal and relocation. Now it is handled by euthanization.. This often leaves orphaned cubs to fend for themselves.

Changes in Habitat and Population

Animals are often orphaned by land development and the influx of people clearing land for housing and recreation. What’s more is changes in climate and habitat mean higher populated areas, such as Grand and Routt counties, often push animals over the mountains into North Park. Higher numbers of animals lead to more interactions with people, which contribute to increases in numbers of injured animals. 

Pushing animals from place to place can also spread diseases which weren’t endemic to new areas. Many foxes coming from Routt and Grand Counties over the mountains are affected with mange, which can result in their freezing to death during harsh North Park winters.

Campsites and food waste are also culprits of drawing wildlife into populated areas. Many animal attacks are often the result of feeding wildlife. Not only does it diminish the instinctive fear of people, but also causes predators to become aggressive when they aren’t being fed. Also what people are feeding wildlife can also make them sick.

Lead Poisoning

One of the most surprising reasons Deb says she gets injured animals is due to lead poisoning. Hunting and target practice are the biggest factors in causing heavy metals poisoning in raptors and other animals. Animals that had either been culled or harvested still retained lead shot and bullets, which were ingested by scavengers. A surprisingly tiny amount of lead is all that is needed to make an eagle, crow, or hawk sick from lead poisoning. More often than not, heavy metal poisoning in avians is fatal. Most birds with lead poisoning do not survive.

A Changing Ecosystem

Many factors go into disruption of the ecosystem. Habitats are changed not only from urban sprawl and construction, but also forest fires, higher numbers of re-introduced predators, and even light pollution. 90% of the mammals on earth are directly related to supporting humanity. Cattle, sheep, chickens, and other large mammals—along with people—make up most of the biomass of mammals on the planet. This doesn’t leave a lot of room for wildlife anymore. The balance is very much offset. One of the reasons people love to visit North Park is the ability to see deer, elk, beaver, raptors, coyotes, moose, big cats, and other wildlife in their natural environment. But those times are changing.

Doing the Work

Deb and her sons have been building rehab facilities for injured animals for years. Not only are their efforts supported by income from 22 West Cabins, but also through grants Deb seeks out to fund her cause. In the beginning, their avian facility was built from scratch, using scrap wood sourced from the Louisiana Pacific sawmill which was once an industry in Walden. Since then, grants have allowed her to replace and rebuild these structures to help more wildlife.

Deb partners with other centers as well as Colorado Parks and Wildlife. She often finds herself at the nexus of conflict between the government, local ranchers, and the wildlife themselves. Fortunately for Deb, she has found allies to help. Local veterinarians, and communication with ranchers have gone a long way to providing a mutually beneficial situation that helps everyone, including the animals.

A Continuing Legacy 

The work Deb and her sons put into wildlife rehabilitation is often misunderstood by industry, private citizens, and politicians alike. It can be lonely, thankless work. Resources are often limited, not only when it comes to funding, but also time. Injured and orphaned animals have only so long to live, and being one of a handful of rehabilitators in northern Colorado, North Park Wildlife Rehabilitation is often the only game in town when it comes to helping them. Sometimes even Deb’s efforts are too late.

Through education, promoting awareness, and working together as a community to support some of our greatest resources, the road is often difficult, but not impossible. Meeting with Deb proves the love she has for these animals and why she has made helping them her life’s work. 

What You Can Do to Help

North Park finds itself in a very unique situation. Our remoteness as well as our diverse environment makes Jackson County a haven for wildlife. Many of us take for granted the sounds of songbirds  or seeing eagles catching thermals on a warm summer day. We hear coyotes howling at night and more than a few of us have woken up to moose cropping leaves right off the trees in our front yards. To other places—especially the cities—seeing this kind of thing sounds like something out of a storybook.

It’s just another reason that visiting North Park is an unforgettable experience. The people here live in close proximity to wildlife every day, and generally have a respect for wild animals that is not common in most places. 

If you would like to learn more about Deb McLachlan’s work with North Park Wildlife Rehabilitation, as well as how to support the work she is doing, visit the 22 West Website or follow on Facebook.