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Tom Blickensderfer is devoted to helping endangered species

DU alumnus Tom Blickensderfer is the endangered species program director for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. Photo courtesy of Tom Blickensderfer

There are likely only a handful of people who’ve been lucky enough to see a wild lynx, considering that the animal is listed on the endangered species list. Even fewer have had an opportunity to actually hold one. Tom Blickensderfer, JD ’88, has done both.

“It took two shots to sedate it and it still started to wake up in my arms,” says Blickensderfer, referring to the 45-pound lynx he helped release into the wild last April.

Blickensderfer is the endangered species program director for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. Before landing the job, Blickensderfer spent some time at the Association of Mountain States Legal Foundation, which provided him with a good background in the intricacies of the Endangered Species Act. From there, he headed to the Colorado House of Representatives and was a state senator from 1992 until 2001, when Colorado Gov. Bill Owens asked him to take on the newly created endangered species position.

“This is such a wonderful opportunity because I am creating my job responsibilities as I go along,” Blickensderfer explains. “I took a concept and ran with it.”

During the last few years, Blickensderfer has been working on how to make the Endangered Species Act more efficient, as well as directing Colorado’s resources, both human and financial, toward species of most critical concern. In addition to the lynx rerelease program, he has dealt with drought and dams, the West Nile virus, Gunnison sage grouse, mountain plovers and the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse.

But for Blickensderfer, one of his greatest accomplishments to date includes making Colorado a model for how states can take the lead in endangered species issues.

“I get in front of an issue and then get creative,” Blickensderfer says. “It’s the coolest thing on the planet to wake up every day and just jump right in.”

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