Colorado Springs has successfully removed a mountainside scar before.

In 1995, roughly five years after the Queens Canyon Quarry closed, the Colorado Mountain Reclamation Foundation — aided by hundreds of volunteers, civic-minded companies and Castle Concrete — embarked on an ambitious effort to rehabilitate the 82-acre quarry beyond what the state then required.

During the next seven years, the steep quarry face was reshaped to hold soil and prevent erosion. Tons of topsoil were donated and hauled in by local builders. Native grass seed was spread, and 6,000 piñon and juniper trees were planted.

In the 1980s and 1990s, a battle that pitted environmentalists against the mining industry was dubbed “Scar Wars.”

Queens Canyon Quarry as seen from the southeast Wednesday, May 18, 2005. Photo by Christian Murdock/The Gazette

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Local and state officials faced increasing public pressure to impose measures that minimized the environmental and aesthetic impacts of future mines.

“It was very much a focus in the attention of the community,” said Wanda Reaves, who was project manager for the Colorado Mountain Reclamation Foundation, formed in 1992 to improve the aesthetics of the scars.

State reclamation standards have been bolstered since then, according to Russ Means, minerals program director for the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety.

Public interest has dwindled, though.

“People are more concerned about having the road to Denver fixed than whether we have a scar on the mountain or not,” Reaves said.

The foundation had started reclamation work on Pikeview Quarry in the 2000s but had to quit amid stability concerns.

All but 11 acres of reclaimed land was wiped out by the massive December 2008 limestone slide at the quarry.

Colorado Springs City Council President Richard Skorman wonders who will now carry the torch on Pikeview’s reclamation, now that the foundation is essentially defunct.

“Queens was obviously very high profile,” Skorman said. “It’s a lot better than it would have been if we hadn’t put so much effort into it.”

But Castle Aggregate President Jerry Schnabel, operator of Pikeview, promises that Castle will cover the reclamation effort, adding that the trees, grasses and shrubbery are “fully funded” by the proposal.

In the meantime, Colorado Springs lives with the Pikeview scar.

Big Horn Sheep graze on the rocky slopes of Castle Concrete’s Queen’s Canyon Quarry in this Gazette file photo.