COMMERCE CITY — Situated within the depths of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge is a nondescript warehouse packed with an unusual collection, more than a million parts and pieces (and entireties) of illegally trafficked wildlife artifacts.
The National Wildlife Property Repository (NWPR) measures in at 22,000 square feet, and works as a "receiving and storage facility" for wildlife contraband that has either been seized by the United States Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) or donated by the general public.
According to Elisa Dahlberg, lead biologist and collections manager for the NWPR, "[These items] are either species that are not allowed in the trade or they were involved in some other violation of the law."
No live wildlife is stored at the facility, but there are roughly 1.4 million items in inventory including fashion items, medicinal products, and mounted specimens representing species from around the world. Despite our large inventory, the items represented at the Repository amount to only a fraction of the volume of items involved in the illegal wildlife trade.
Represented among the numerous shelves of this strange collection are pieces, products, or mounts of rhinos, tigers, jaguars, cobras, wolves, bears, zebras, sea turtles, butterflies, sharks, seahorses and many other species.
Once in storage, items are utilized for a variety of purposes:
- For loans and donations to a variety of government departments as well as educational organizations (universities, museums, zoos, etc.) with the purpose of furthering education regarding illegal wildlife trade, sustainability, and endangered species
- For loans and donations to "scientific and research institutions" for use in conservation efforts and research
- To assist in future and ongoing law enforcement investigations
The work of the National Wildlife Property Repository supports efforts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and partners to combat wildlife trafficking and facilitate legal, sustainable wildlife trade.
While the NWPR has been situated in Colorado since 1995, the facility got its start at a USFWS forensics laboratory in Ashland, Oregon.
According to Dahlberg, "They were putting items aside to use as education and outreach materials and that collection quickly grew beyond what they could store in their facility, so the hunt was on to find a place where they could actually grow that collection."
This eventually led to the transportation of the "then-thousands of [wildlife] property items" to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.
Since initially setting up shop, the NWPR has moved buildings once and undergone significant renovations that will help to preserve the collection among other things.
The facility, when staffing allows, has also acted as an educational center for groups hoping to learn more regarding endangered or protected species and the impacts of wildlife trafficking; however, currently tours are unavailable until further notice. CLICK HERE for more information.
For more information on the NWPR, CLICK HERE.
_____
Colorado Governor Jared Polis raises the Canadian National Flag at the state capitol
In a release from Saturday morning, Governor Jared Polis announced that the Canadian National Flag will be raised at the State Capitol to celebrate March 15 as Colorado Canada Friendship Day.
_____
Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.
