This Colorado rancher sees a world where conservation can turn a profit

JEFFERSON — Their hoofprints fan out in four directions but the elk that overwinter here have scattered. The snow is changing to ice and a brisk wind scours the ground. Maybe the gusts chased them off. Or a memory, stored deep in their DNA, of an elk caught in a barbed wire fence with a coyote eating it. That’s a slow, horrifying death, even though it’s just nature at work. Except it isn’t, says Dave Gottenborg, because of the fence. Dave and his wife, Jean, bought the 3,000-acre Eagle Rock...