ECOLOGICAL Survay of the CITY of BOULDER, COLORADO MOUNTAIN PARKS ECOLOGICAL SURVEY of the CITY of BOULDER, COLORADO MOUNTAIN PARKS
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City of Boulder, C 749 t 1 .-* ,A- . ,.. ECOLOGICAL SURVaY OF THE CITY OF BOULDER, COLORADO MOUNTAIN PARKS ECOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE CITY OF BOULDER, COLORADO MOUNTAIN PARKS David J. Cooper, Editor Spring 1984 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .David J . Cooper ........................................ 1 VEGETATION OF THE MOUNTAIN PARKS .David J . Cooper ....................... 5 FLORA OF THE MOUNTAIN PARKS .David J . Cooper ............................ 13 Introduction ........................................................... 13 Catalog of the Vascular Plants of the Boulder Mountain Parks . W.A. Weber ............................................................... 14 Additions to the Flora of Boulder Mountain Parks - Ron Wittman ......... 30 MAMMALS OF THE BOULDER MOUNTAIN PARKS .David M . Armstrong and Jerry Freeman. Editors ....................................................... 34 Introduction ........................................................... 35 Methods ................................................................ 36 Acknowledgements ....................................................... 40 Results and Discussion ................................................. 41 Conclusions ............................................................ 52 Recommendations ........................................................ 53 Accounts of Species .................................................... 55 Marsupials ......................................................... 56 Insectivores ....................................................... 57 Bats ............................................................... 63 Lagomorphs ......................................................... 72 Rodents ............................................................ 78 Carnivores .......................................................... 116 Artiodactyls ....................................................... 139 Appendix I ............................................................. 144 Literature ............................................................. 154 BIRDS OF THE MOUNTAIN PARKS .David J . Cooper ............................ 169 FREQUENCY OF SIGHTINGS OF BIRDS AT SOUTHEND OF THE MESA TRAIL . Joe Krieg .............................................................. 170 BIRD POPULATION STUDIES ON THE ENCHANTED MESA .Louise ~erin~............ 176 BIRD LIFE IN BOULDER CITY PARKS. OPENSPACES. AND SAWHILL PONDS . Freeman Hall ........................................................... 178 ECOLOGICAL SUXVEY OF THE CITY OF BOULDER, COLORADO MOUNTAIN PARKS INTRODUCTION David J. Cooper Research Associate, Dept. EPO Biology, University of Colorado The mountains, foothills and plains surrounding the city of Soulder, Colorado are spectacularly scenic, ecologically diverse and esthetically vital to the people of the region. A large portion of this land is owned and managed by the city of Boulder as mountain parks which truly are a public treasure. The parks provide a broad expanse of landscape at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in which city dwellers can find the freedom and subject for spiritual, recreational and educational pursuits. There is room to wander. Hiking trails, bicycle paths and roadways provide access to natural systems as diverse as grasslands, forests, mountain and plains streams and ponds, talus slo~es, rock slabs, cliffs, boulders, and mountain summits. Even though a major metropolitan area borders and surrounds much of the mountain parks many areas are undisturbed and represent some of the best remaining examples of pre-settlement ecosystems to be found along the entire Colorado Front Range. The juxtaposition of the parks and growing cities makes the parks even more important and potentially endangered by overuse and improper management. Several topographical factors interact to make the ecology of the Boulder area unique and diverse. The Xocky Mountains are at their most easterly point along the Colorado Front Range, and, at Boulder the Rockies have their most abrupt rise from the 2 plains. Both Green Mountain and Bear Peak rise about 3,880 vertical ft. from the plains. Boulder Creek and South Boulder Creek exit from the mountains on the edges of these peaks and provide wet stream courses adjacent to the high peaks, The Fountain formation is competent in this area and forms the "flatirons" which have weathered into talus, the major source of rock for debris flows onto the basal plains. Rocky terrain at the foot of the mountains in the form of pediments, present day fl6odplains, and bedrock hogbacks is abundant. Deep and steep walled north-facing canyons occur in many areas at low elevation adjacent to the plains. Also importantly the Front Range is an arc opening toward the plains with Boulder at the western-most edge. Upslope storms that encounter the Front Range are funnelled into the Boulder area and precipitation is significantly greater than areas to the north, south and east. A cloud veil frequently forms on Green Mountain and Bear Peak creating locally humid environments. Many eastern species have used the streams and rivers which cross the arid Great Plains to reach the Rocky Nountains during the wetter and cooler Pleistocene. These species formed ecosystems in the Colorado foothills and plains closely related to those of the eastern forests and plains. After the Pleistocene ended the climate dried up and the connection with the east was severed. However many species and ecosystems persist as relicts here because the moisture situation of floodplains, cool canyons and rocky slopes are so favorable, These ecosystems occur as islands separated from their principal present day range 3 farther east and north. True tall grass prairie in both its upland and lowland aspects occurs in several locations along floodplains and rocky areas of mesa rims. Species of the eastern deciduous forest and other mesic biomes occur in the cool north- facing canyons. Flany species of orchids and ferns are of primary concern. The Daltota and other hogbacks provide continuous and xeric habitats in a north-south orientation along the base of the mountains. Chihuauan species have used this habitat as their path for migration north into the Boulder area from regions far 9 to the south. The result of all these processes and interactions is a tremendously complex and remarkable posaic of ecosystems with species of eastern, northern, southern and Rocky Mountain affinities occurring adjacent to or mixed with each other. It is an area truly worth knowing and preserving. The purpose of the present inventory was to begin to assemble existing information and to collect new information where none previosuly existed on the flora, fauna and ecosystems of the region. Included in this study is land under the management of the city of Boulder Parks and Recreation Department. The effort was divided into three groups, botanists, mammalogists, and ornithologists. Since there was no funding for the project all efforts were by individuals interested in using their expertise to help identify and preserve the ecological diversity of the area. The botany portion of this report includes a discussion of the areas vegetation and a list of and notes on the taxa known to occur in the area. The vegetation units are not the product of rigorous quantitative analysis. They are subjective and broad, meant prinarily to give a framework from which future more detailed studies could radiate and into which information on bird and mammal distribution could be integrated. The list of plants was assembled from records of s2ecies documented by collections in the herbarium of the University of Colorado. In addition to this notes on other species which are known to occur but are not documented by collections are given. The study of ~namrnals was conducted by a class in mammalogy at the University of Colorado. All their data was collected during the course of the present study. The data on birds is presented from records of birds kept by local ornithologists in their studies of the area. Their data is thus a summary of many years' observations. It should be kept in mind that this survey is only a first step toward the goal of more completely documenting the ecosystems and biota of this region. Because the Mountain Parks do contain many ecosystems which are truly unique this survey should continue in years to come,and information be addedtothe body of information and the synthesis presented here. The wise management of any resource first requires an adequate inventory of the resource. It is toward the fulfillment of that requirement that the present inventory was initiated. VEGETATION OF THE MOUNTAIld PARKS David J. Cooper Ten general categories of vegetation were established primarily to provide a framework for mammalogists and ornithologists to use in their work. Each category is described here and the diversity of vegetation types to be found in each is expanded upon. 1.PONDS AND REEDS. This category includes lakes and ponds found on the plains, most of which are reclaimed gravel mining pits. Sawhill ponds is the largest of the pond areas. Vegetation is controlled by high water table which remains high all summer. The primary plants are emergent species including cattails, arrowhead, and submerged species of algae. This type of habitat is vital for all waterfowl and shorebirds. While these habitats are heavily used for recreation, much of the area surrounding these ponds was disturbed by the mining operations and still remains in a weedy state. 2.GRASSLANDS. This is a very