Photo from Wikipedia Commons
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Latest on the Gross Reservoir and Dam Expansion
On Friday, July 17, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a license to Denver Water to enlarge the hydropower component of Gross Dam by raising the dam by 131 feet. However, this final federal approval does not mean Denver Water now can proceed with the expansion of the Gross Reservoir and Dam. Colorado Statute 1041 gives Boulder County the authority to review this project and to deny it if appropriate. Denver Water has already lost one court case fighting the 1041 regulation but has appealed that decision. Hopefully, the Boulder County Commissioners will keep fighting to exercise their right to review this project. This is the largest and most environmentally damaging project in County history.
BCNA,
with other concerned organizations
, will support Boulder County in its ongoing legal fight against Denver Water. If you want to join the fight to protect the Boulder County environment and the Fraser River, write the Boulder County Commissioners and encourage them to stay the course in compelling Denver Water to go through the 1041 process. The commissioner's emails are:
You could also write the newspapers, the governor and your representatives.
Latest on Boulder County Oil & Gas Development
The extension was necessary to allow the County to complete its revisions of its draft oil and gas regulations. However, the County can not complete its revisions until the Colorado Oil & Gas Control Commission has completed its revision of its regulations based on Senate Bill 19-181. This Senate Bill changed the Oil & Gas Commission's mission, which is now to regulate development and production in a manner that protects public health, safety, welfare, the environment and wildlife resources (
https://cogcc.state.co.us/sb19181.html#/overview
).
BCNA wholeheartedly favors the transitions from fossil fuels to renewables. We recognize that oil and gas development adversely impacts our air, water, and public health, and degrades our open space. We also support the County's rule-making process, described above, designed to protect our environment and public health. This past winter BCNA carefully reviewed draft revisions of the County regulations and was very pleased with the improvements made. More improvements will be made before the end of the year. In addition, BCNA will continue to advocate that BCPOS and Boulder City officials and their advisory groups prohibit drilling on open space properties.
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A MESSAGE TO OUR MEMBERS
from BCNA President Sue Cass
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As we as a community, a nation and a global congregation of diverse cultures continue to struggle with COVID-19 and its ever-evolving trespasses on our now fraught and fragile human sense of normalcy, we understandably gravitate to familiar, comforting pastimes as a means of escape and renewal and, boy, does "nature" fill that void! The fact that we live where the Great Plains rise to meet the Continental Divide, "nature" on a grand and glorious scale, cannot and does not diminish the joy of a backyard bird or a Giant
Ichneumon
Wasp sheltering in a flowerbed, a recent experience..., one of many..., that raised my spirits and tugged at the corners of my mouth in my very own little wildlife sanctuary! May we all safely and responsibly seek solace in nature during this dark time and reap the social and medicinal benefits of safe, calm, therapeutic, and enlightening diversion!
For the first time since BCNA's founding in 1982, we were placed in the regrettable position, along with every other organization, of canceling our 2020 Ecology Field Classes which was reluctantly and responsibly executed over a period of several weeks as the "pandemic" continued to grow. Thankfully, all of our instructors have indicated a willingness to move forward during the summer of 2021 if conditions allow, for which we are grateful and excited. The 2020 schedule was put together by former BCNA Education Committee leader Mary Stuber who has graciously agreed to provide training and counsel to her successor, to which we say, "Please support this existential element of BCNA's mission to educate, inform and inspire...," and, the only good thing to come out of 2020 in this regard..., the 2021 schedule is in place. Reach out if you would like to know more about serving BCNA in this worthy and rewarding capacity! Thank you!
As many of you know, because you are staunch supporters and allies and have been for decades, BCNA sponsors several important long-running, open-ended research projects related to conservation in Boulder County and on the Front Range. We want to draw your attention to a recent Periodic Report update by Project Leader Dave Hallock to the Indian Peaks Bird Count, continuously active since BCNA's founding in 1982 and now an important and reliable source of information for researchers in the region and worldwide. Thank you to all who have contributed. Please see Dave's report below.
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BOULDER COUNTY OPEN SPACE:
CHALLENGES FROM COVID
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We would like to share with you the letter BCNA received from Eric Lane, Director of Boulder County Parks and Open Space (BCPOS), when we asked how Boulder County was responding to the increased usage of open space lands this summer:
Local land managers are working to address the i
mpacts of the unprecedented and sudden high use of parks and open spaces.
I know that City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) is working hard to address these new challenges. And they are collecting data about where visitors are coming from, coordinating with other land management agencies like BCPOS and Jefferson County Open Space, etc. But they are also working with a system that has hundreds of access points, a reduced municipal budget where seasonal hiring was one of the first things to go, etc. They are certainly being asked to do more with less, as are most.
Fortunately, Boulder County is not experiencing much trail widening or trail damage. Certainly, there is some, but not much and nothing that can’t be repaired or will heal with a little time and reduced pressure in the future. We are seeing more trash, particularly near trailheads or fishing areas. It’s probably attributable to many new users coming to open space who aren’t as familiar or well-trained in Leave No Trace principles. We also see far too few people wearing a mask despite the ongoing and repeated campaign to educate users. BCPOS has put out press releases to raise public awareness specifically around the requirement to bring a mask and wear it whenever social distancing isn’t possible at the trailhead or on the trail. I have gotten a nasty email from as far away as Lexington KY deploring this decision by “an unelected bureaucrat” – me! So, it’s a challenge but we’re working hard and in coordination with OSMP, U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), and other county/municipal programs to message, change parking restrictions, deploy more staff to trailheads to engage the public, change some trail loops to one way directional,
increase the frequency of restroom cleanings and trash/recycling pickups,
etc.
Right now, I’d say that hot summer weather is finally helping clear out parks midday on the weekends and giving everyone, especially our staff, a bit of breathing room from what was a day-long crush of people when we had cooler temperatures.
We haven’t developed an action plan per se. Rather, I meet with my staff every week to discuss how the weekend went (when we experience the most challenges) and identify any changes we can make to improve the situation. The county also convenes a weekly meeting with several of our departments (like Public Works, Sheriff’s Office), OSMP, USFS, CPW, Longmont open space, etc. We review all of the trouble spots and determine how we can improve the situation for the following weekend. We’ve been doing this for a few months now and it’s been pretty successful in addressing many of the challenges.
Hope this helps give some of my perspective from BCPOS’ vantage point. OSMP has been great to work with. But I don’t think people appreciate just how challenging their permeable system is to manage. We have a much less permeable system and we still have resource limitations that make it difficult for us to be everywhere at all times. Toss in a search-and-rescue to deal with a broken ankle or snake bite and things can get pretty crazy.
Thanks again for your concern and support – we can use every bit of it as we manage the pandemic’s impact on open spaces.
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To find out about classes, programs, challenges and what’s going on in the natural world of Boulder County and beyond, sign up for Nature-Net, BCNA’s and Boulder County Audubon’s email forum. To subscribe, send a blank message to
nature-net-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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The Indian Peaks Bird Counts started in 1982 in order to inventory the avifauna of western Boulder and northwestern Gilpin counties in Colorado. These counts provide information about species presence and relative abundance as well as documenting trends and composition changes occurring in the mountain landscape. Data is available on the BCNA website at
http://bcna.org/IPBC.html.
The counts are a long-term project commonly accepted to be an initiative of the Boulder County Nature Association with help from Boulder County Audubon Society. Conceived by Dave Alles, Mike Figgs, and Dave Hallock, the count began as an Audubon Christmas Bird Count on January 1, 1982, and then evolved into a four-season bird count the following summer. The format evolved in the fall of 1991 when instead of a specific count day, a count period was used to give participants more flexibility and diminish the influence of bad weather that can plague a single count day. The spring count was discontinued in 2012. The winter, breeding, and fall counts are now in their 39th year.
The area covered by the count follows the format of Christmas Bird Counts - a 7.5-mile radius circle that is centered near Rainbow Lakes. The count circle runs east to just below Peewink Mountain off of Sugarloaf Road, west just over the Continental Divide into Grand County, south to Rollinsville, and north to Beaver Reservoir. Elevations range from 7,500 feet in Boulder Canyon to over 13,400 feet along the Continental Divide. Life zones include upper montane, subalpine, and alpine. The count circle is roughly half upper montane and half subalpine/alpine and is divided into 25 count areas.
The count originated using recruits from local bird-focused organizations, primarily from BCNA and Boulder County Audubon Society, but also Foothills Audubon Club, Colorado Field Ornithologists, and Denver Field Ornithologists. Other participants were recruited from local mountain communities, including Eldora, Nederland, and the Sugarloaf area. Nearly 300 people have taken part in the count. But generally, a core group of 20 to 35 individuals have "adopted" count areas and take part in each count; some since its inception in 1982. The long-term participants get very familiar with their areas, which helps with the continuity of bird sightings from count-to-count and year-to-year. Generally, between 12 and 24 count areas are covered each count, with greatest participation in the summer and fall counts.
There are several trends and cycles that we are seeing over the 38-year period of the count. First, there has been a steady increase in the numbers of corvids (jays, crows, magpies and the like). Winter count numbers appear driven by the relative presence or absence of tree-cone seed eaters (particularly Clark's nutcrackers, red-breasted nuthatches, and red crossbills). But most winter counts are dominated by mountain chickadees, which generally comprise 25% of all birds seen.
We are particularly interested in changes to the breeding bird community. Besides corvids, several neotropical migrants have been increasing in number, including cliff swallow, yellow warbler, MacGillivray's warbler, and black-headed grosbeak. American three-toed and hairy woodpeckers are resident species that have exhibited a numeric increase, likely in response to several pine beetle infestations in the coniferous forests. A number of species that were not found during the early decades of the count are now becoming regular finds, though generally at low numbers, including double-crested cormorant, wild turkey, bald eagle, black-chinned hummingbird, Eurasian collared-dove, and orange-crowned warbler. Species that appear to be declining on the count include green-winged teal, killdeer, pine siskin, evening grosbeak, Brewer's blackbird, and brown-headed cowbird.
The Indian Peaks Bird Counts create a rather robust data point. We invite researchers to use the information generated by the Indian Peaks Bird Counts in their work. This was recently done for a paper that looked at "100-Year Breeding Bird Population Change in the Coniferous Forests of the Colorado Front Range" by Chase, Cruz, Swanson, and Vinton (in preparation).
We wish to thank the following individuals who have been the heart and "sole" of the count over the past 30+ years: Linda Andes-Georges, Diane Andrews, Linda Bailey, Bev Baker, Suzanne Bhatt, Maureen Blackford, Barbara Bolton, Earl Bolton, Maggie Boswell, John Brockelhurst, Alex Brown, Diane Brown, Gillian Brown, Peter Burke, Diane Carter, George Coffee, Bob Cohen, Jack Coss, Andy Cowell, Tony Delany, Todd Deininger, Don Dick, Marty Dick, David Dowell, Michelle Durant, Libby Ellis, Kayla Evans, Lee Evans, Virginia Evans, Mike Figgs, Laura Fisher, Ted Floyd, Maryanne Flynn, Fern Ford, Joyce Gellhorn, Peter Gent, Beverly Gholson, Doug Gibney, Kathy Gibson, Randy Gietzen, Jean-Pierre Georges, Audrey Godell, Maddy Goldhawk, Dave Hallock, Paula Hansley, Susan Harris, Dave Hill, Elaine Hill, Jim Holitza, Lynn Hoffmann, Jodie Hovorka, Edie Isreal, Steve Jones, Bill Kaempfer, Carol Kampert, Dave Kampert, Elena Klaver, Steve Koral, Joe Krieg, Dawn Kummli, Steve Larson, Sandra Laursen, Nan Lederer, Cherie Long, Cat Luna, Petrea Mah, Mary Makepeace, Topi Martinez, Greg Massey, Gary Mathews, Cindy Maynard, Eric Maxfield, Eliza Maxfield, Holden Maxfield, Mary Maxfield, Lisa McCoy, Carron Meaney, Loren Merrill, Merle Miller, Sally Miller, Naseem Munshi, Carol Newman-Holitza, Christian Nunes, George Oetzel, Pam Piombino, Mark Pscheid, Jeannie Reynolds, Joe Roller, Bill Schmoker, Caryl Sheilds, Susan Spaulding, Cara Stiles, Jan Stogsdill, Lucy Stroock, Joel Such, Marcel Such, Walter Szeliga, Connie Takamine, Joyce Takamine, Richard Trinkner, Mike Tupper, John Vanderpoel, Tom VanZandt, Dave Waltman, Susan Wagner, Tom Wilberding, Maribel Williams, Marty Wolf, George Young, Patricia Zishka, and Eric Zorawowicz.
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BCNA’s
Butterflies of the Colorado Front Range
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The brand new second edition of
Butterflies of the Colorado Front Range: A Photographic Guide to 100 Species
by Jan Chu and Steve Jones is now available in both eBook and print format!
The
eBook
is available for $5.99 from Amazon, Apple Books, and kobo.com.
The
print version
of the second edition is available from Amazon and locally at the Front Range Birding Company, 5360 Arapahoe Ave, Boulder and 10146 W. San Juan Way, Littleton, and at Wild Birds Unlimited, 2720 S. Wadsworth, Denver and 7370 W. 88th Ave., Arvada.
The eBook has the same great pictures and information that is in the new print book. It also has links that make it easy to compare similar butterflies and to go quickly to the page you want to read. And, of course, it is easily portable on your mobile devices such as iPhones or Android phones, iPads or Android tablets. You can also read it on laptops or desktops. Please give us a review!
REMINDER:
If you are a Supporter, Founder, or a Life member in BCNA and you have not already received your copy of this Butterfly field guide, you may pick up your own FREE copy from a member of the BCNA Publications Committee before the end of July. The Publication committee members are: Lysa Wegman-French, Jan Chu, Steve Jones, Sue Cass, and Paul Shultz. If you plan to pick up a copy from a committee member, please let that person know so they can have one ready for you wrapped in plastic at their front door.
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SUPPORT BOULDER COUNTY NATURE ASSOCIATION
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A big thank you to all who currently support BCNA! Without your assistance, we would not be able to accomplish all that we do for our community and for the natural world around us. Memberships for the calendar year renew in November and December, but you can renew for next year any time.
Please consider renewing today if you have not already done so.
New members are always welcome!
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