AWARDS

Game-thief investigator is officer of year

Criminal investigator Glenn Smith has been chosen Colorado's John D. Hart Wildlife Officer of the Year. Smith coordinated and showcased the state's Operation Game Thief Program, one of the nation's leading poacher-reporting programs.

He also helped develop CrimIntel, a computerized intelligence program that aids wildlife investigations.

He started his career as a wildlife officer in Meeker in 1973. He also worked in Colorado Springs and as an investigator in Montrose in 1982.

Smith's investigations have led to the arrests of some of the most notorious poachers in Colorado and other states. The award honors John D. Hart, a wildlife officer who served with the division from 1919 to 1959.

HIKING

Rocky Mtn. National feted for wheelchair trail

A nonprofit group that supports national parks has included Rocky Mountain National Park among its "Best of the Parks" picks because of its Bear Lake wheelchair accessible trail.

The National Park Foundation included the park on its 2004 Proud Partner list for "wheelchair accessible hiking in the heart of the country's most rugged mountain range."

The group has raised more than $88 million to help preserve and protect national parks through public-private partnership. A potpourri of parks adventures are on the list, from historic sites to short hikes and overnight stays.

FISHING

Vallecito Reservoir gives up big brown trout

Vallecito Reservoir, down and nearly out since the fires of 2002, demonstrated it has rebounded by giving an angler from Pagosa Springs what might be the catch of his life.

On May 8, John Hostetter used a Rattlin' Rogue to catch a 22-pound brown trout that was 37 inches long, more than one-half inch longer than the state record and 1 inch shorter than the released-brown record.

Hostetter's fish, which he kept to have mounted, will earn him a Master Angler Award. But it falls 8 ½ pounds short of the state record for a kept brown trout. Kept fish are ranked by weight, not length. The state-record brown trout, caught in 1988 at Roaring Judy Ponds in Gunnison County, weighed 30 ½ pounds and was 36.4 inches long.