A photo of the trees changing color near Lake Mary at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. On October 15, US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Hew Wolfe representing the US Army Assistant Secretary for Environment Safety and Occupational Health signed a document officially transferring the final 2,500 acres of land from the Army to the US Fish and Wildlife Service for the refuge. The refuge now contains more than 15,000 acres, and is home to black-tailed prairie dogs, hawks, coyotes, bald eagles and deer. In 2007, 16 bison were introduced to the refuge; the herd has now grown to 48.

The Arsenal became a Superfund site in 1987, and the EPA declared it among the most polluted sites in the country. In 1992 Congress passed legislation that it be turned into a national wildlife refuge. Over the past several years, parts of the refuge came off the Superfund list as Shell, the Army and contractors worked on cleanup and restoration.

For more information on the Refuge, go to http://www.fws.gov/rockymountainarsenal/