County inventories biodiversity

By Barbara Maynard
Correspondent

As rapid development continues to spread throughout the Front Range, open lands programs work to protect natural space for future generations of both people and wildlife. Within a few months, local land managers and planners will have a new tool to guide their conservation efforts.

The Colorado Natural Heritage Program spent the past summer examining lands in Larimer County for the presence of locally rare plants and animals. The effort was a collaboration with the county and the cities of Loveland and Fort Collins, who together with CNHP acquired a Great Outdoors Colorado grant of $50,000 to help fund the study.

Rather than taking inventory of all types of flora and fauna, CNHP focuses on organisms that aren't necessarily endangered or threatened, but that could be especially susceptible to any changes in their habitat. For example, the Hops Azure is a little blue butterfly found only along the Colorado Front Range. Its caterpillars feed on native hops vines - the same plant used to brew beer - which grow in foothills canyons. Its limited range makes the Hops Azure vulnerable to disturbance.

Another local rare species is Larimer aletes, a small plant with a spray of yellow flowers, which grows out of granite outcrops. While granite is common in Colorado, Larimer aletes has been found in only a handful of locations. Another plant, Bell's twinpod, only occurs on shale slopes along the northern Front Range.

"We're always interested in finding any of the really cool plants, for lack of a better word, like Bell's twinpod or Larimer aletes," said Kerri Rollins, fund development and outreach specialist for Larimer County Parks and Open Lands. Over 80 species of concern are found in Larimer County.

Before heading outside to look for rare plants and animals, CNHP staff spend months poring over maps and talking to local experts to predict where they might expect to find each of the target species. Those are the areas where they spend valuable field time, evaluating the habitat and recording any sightings.

Knowing where rare species are found will help to focus acquisition efforts on properties with distinct ecological value. Guided by the survey results, open lands programs "are not just buying pretty land but they're buying land with conservation value as well," said Michael Menefee of CNHP.

"We know you can't maintain everything in a pure state, but we can choose to protect areas with functioning systems and healthy biodiversity," said CNHP director Renee Rondeau.

In addition to targeting potential areas for acquisition, the information will also help natural areas professionals to best manage the lands they already own. "Say we identify a site with a real unique combination of shrubs and trees that are associated with a rare butterfly," explained Mark Sears, Fort Collins Natural Areas manager. "If we put a trail or public access on that site, then we will try to buffer that habitat to make sure to not put people right through it."

Other management strategies that could be used to protect sensitive species include closing a trail or an area during eagle nesting or elk calving, conducting prescribed burns or implementing a specific grazing regime.

Once the field season wraps up in early October, CNHP staff will evaluate the information gathered to develop a list of potential conservation areas. "These aren't regulatory areas, they are the biologists' best estimates of the area needed to maintain the species of concern," Rondeau said. "Within those potential conservation areas, we'll talk about best management practices that can help assist the county in future management plans."

At the end of the project, the cities and the county will receive a written report as well as computerized maps of the potential conservation areas. The data will also be incorporated into CNHP's statewide database on rare species, which is used by developers, government entities, research scientists and others.

In disseminating data, CNHP always protects the privacy rights of private landowners. They get permission before entering a property for fieldwork, and they do not provide the specific information gathered from any property without the owner's permission. Overall, the organization has had a positive response.

"We've had very good success with the landowners in Larimer County," Rondeau said. "They've been really interested in what we find on their property."

The partnership with CNHP helps to stretch open lands dollars. "CNHP is good at identifying unique species and habitats," Sears said. "That's an expertise that we don't necessarily have on staff, and one that would be hard to staff up for. It's very cost effective for us."

With the field season not quite over, Rondeau wasn't ready to discuss results yet. However, she said, her crews have found several previously unknown locations of Bell's twinpod.