Mountain Area Land Trust adds Gilpin County

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By Steve Knapp

If the Mountain Area Land Trust recently decided to extend its energies and expertise into Gilpin County, it’s because Gilpin’s wealth of ecological and historic gifts make it a natural choice. Conserving mountain-area jewels since 1992 across 3,096 square miles of Clear Creek, Jefferson and Park Counties, MALT has more than 20,000 acres of pristine forests, sylvan meadows and timeless views already to its credit. As it happened, the hard-working nonprofit’s standing invitation to Gilpin County landowners was inspired by Gilpin County landowners.

‘We were receiving phone calls from people in Gilpin asking who they should contact about getting conservation easements,” says MALT director Jeanne Beaudry. “We found out that a lot of Gilpin County was very rural. The Clear Creek Land Conservancy works in Gilpin, but its main focus is on the Clear Creek watershed. There’s a statewide land trust that could do it, but there was no local trust that serviced Gilpin County.”

“We were receiving phone calls from people in Gilpin asking who they should contact about getting conservation easements,” says MALT director Jeanne Beaudry. “We found out that a lot of Gilpin County was very rural. The Clear Creek Land Conservancy works in Gilpin, but its main focus is on the Clear Creek watershed. There’s a statewide land trust that could do it, but there was no local trust that serviced Gilpin County.”

With more than half of Gilpin’s 98,500 acres bound up in Golden Gate Canyon State Park to the east, and the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests to the west, MALT’s focus will be on the broad central corridor along State Highway 119. Its first job will be simply to let the good citizens of Gilpin County know that MALT is at their service.

‘We want to let them know how trusts can help preserve the wild character of their communities, and preserve their scenic vistas, open space and wildlife habitats,” Beaudry says. “We’re here to answer their questions, listen to their ideas, and help them set up conservation easements.” While most folks will look favorably on a legal instrument that helps to preserve a unique and treasured quality of life for generations to come, not everybody understands exactly how that instrument works, or how MALT is able to craft conservation easements that suit individual wishes and goals. Explaining the natural, cultural and financial benefits of private land conservation is all in a day’s work for MALT’s land conservation specialist, Matt Ashley. “An easement is really a very flexible mechanism,” Ashley says. “One of the neater things about them is that they can be customized to fit each landowner’s specific needs.”

MALT’s core values emphasize protecting scenic views and wildlife habitat, preserving recreational opportunities and traditional land uses like ranching, and providing links between other open space areas. But MALT can just as easily help landowners craft easements to protect places of historical significance, relieve tax burdens, create buffer zones against development, or ensure water quality factors.

“There’s a common misconception that conservation easements have to allow public access, and that’s not the case,” Ashley says. “Each easement is an agreement a landowner reaches with us, and the landowner can put all kinds of stuff into it. They don’t have to allow public access if they don’t want to.”

Whichever better angel it is that motivates a property owner to seek a conservation easement, and whatever form that easement may take, Gilpin County residents can be certain that a call to the Mountain Area Land Trust is the best first step toward making a tangible impact on their cherished mountain fastness that will inspire and delight long into the future.

“We’re really excited to welcome Gilpin County into our service area,” Beaudry says. “It just makes sense for everybody.”

To learn more, call 303-679-0950, or visit planjeffco.org. 

JCOS Master Plan 2013

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Jefferson County Open Space updates their Master Plan every five years. The last Master Plan was adopted in 2008, see Open Space Master Plans.

The process for the 2013 update started with a series of public meetings in May at which time comments from the public were solicited. June 6, at the OSAC retreat, staff presented philosophy that was being used to develop the master plan. This philosophy was for the plan to be brief and it would cover all four divisions (Fairgrounds, Boettcher Mansion, CSU Extension, and Open Space) within the Parks Department. A number of OSAC members expressed concern that the missions of the four divisions were different enough that it would be difficult to write a statement that was meaningful. Good points were that metrics were included for Open Space objectives in the next five years.

Between June 6 and the August 1 OSAC meeting, staff decided to develop a separate master plan for Open Space. A brief outline of a Master Plan was presented at the OSAC meeting. Again a number of the OSAC members expressed concern that the outlined plan did not focus on the main roles of open space, but on social issues.

An expanded draft Master Plan was posted on the web August 8 see https://www.planjeffco.org/open-spaceoversight_ open-space-master-plans.html. Public meetings were held during the weeks of August 19 and 26. Comments on the plan were being received by Open Space through September 6. PLAN Jeffco submitted a long series of comments, feeling that the draft plan did not include many items that should be in a comprehensive master plan includes information that was not shown to be relevant to the plan. It is expected that additional information will be provided to OSAC prior to their September 19 meeting. If available, we will post this information on planjeffco.org under Open Space Involvement. This will be the regular September meeting. If there is another draft that will be open for public comment after September 19, we will post notice on planjeffco.org under Open Space Involvement.

Damnation Toadflax, Or How Pretty Plants become Problem Pests

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Even a plant-lover, and I do consider myself such, can be challenged by some species, and the mellowest of us can be pressed into trophy hunting when circumstances are right. Summer is the season for bagging the biggest baddest trophies in our neck of the woods. Each year I’ve been going after my limit, but of course, you never run out of this bad boy. Its beauties, and I’ll grant there are some, are only petal-deep.

The object of my disaffection and prejudice this season, as in years past, is Dalmatian Toadflax (variously Linaria dalmatica, Linaria genistifolia ssp. dalmatica, etc.) This gorgeous yellow snapdragon is fast becoming one of the dominant foothills wildflowers of early summer. Its cousin, Linaria vulgaris (usually known as butter-and-eggs) is less robust in stature but equally Toadflaxcapable of taking over property. It seems to prefer moist areas, while Dalmatian toadflax is doing just fine, thank you, on drier foothills slopes. According to Colorado State University, the two together occupy about 75,000 acres in Colorado, and “Toadflax invasion is favored by disturbance and they invade degraded areas such as roadsides, abandoned lots and fields, gravel pits, clearings, and overgrazed rangeland. In Colorado, these weed species are found at elevations from 5,000 feet to over 10,000 feet.” [Biology and Management of the Toadflaxes, by K.G. Beck]

How did it get here in the first place, you may ask. Remember its good looks. Like many of our noxious weeds, this Mediterranean native was introduced as an ornamental, as early as 1874 here in the western U.S. We can only hope we’re learning to be a little more cautious about those pretty faces we bring home from the greenhouse or nursery… be on the lookout!Toadflax Map

That this Eurasian species has taken over most of the United States is documented here, by the USDA Plants database (plants.usda.gov). Grey color indicates its non-native status in the U.S. In Colorado, I suspect it occurs in many more counties than shown in the USDA map. Toadflax is sneaky, competitive, prolific, and adaptable. Heaven help our native flora! [Map source: plants.usda.gov]

Controlling toadflax

Although experts often say “don’t pull it—it just makes it come back stronger,” that never made sense to me. First, if one can get some of the underground parts, repeated pulling has to, in time, exhaust the plant’s energy. The key is “repeated.” Pulling must continue for 5-6 years to remove root fragments, and lateral roots also need to be followed and removed. Not a task for the faint of heart. Most land managers find “one-shot” spraying easier, as it avoids that constant responsibility. Second, if you can prevent the plant from setting seed, it seems that could also help; after all, one healthy mature Dalmatian toadflax plant can produce 500,000 seeds, some of which can remain present in dead stalks for up to two years.

So I started an experiment in my own neighborhood, ruthlessly attacking every sprig I could find while out walking around the block, especially after rain. Pulling weeds is so satisfying when the ground is wet, and you really feel like you’re getting results! When it’s dry, and stems snap off at ground level, you have to suspect your efforts are futile.

Hypothesis: Control of Dalmatian toadflax can be achieved by repeated, diligent hand-pulling.

Methods: Repeated diligent hand-pulling, wherever, whenever, but especially in the immediate home territory.

Goal: A reduction in the local population, or (at the least) a drastic decline in recruitment of new individuals by seed. If one can only keep them from flowering, that has to help, right?

Results: Bags of garbage, at least the inflorescences of which have to be treated like the hazardous waste they are, and the opportunity to have roadsides free of these yellow snapdragons! And, I truly believe, considerable success in knocking local populations back and preventing their expansion.Toadflax

Thus the “bagging” of trophies is literal here, and like any good hunter, I felt compelled to document my success—so here’s the traditional shot of selections from my daily limit. (No, I resisted the impulse to have my picture taken holding them by the roots…)

Of course, you could also spray, and several options are available for that (consult an expert for advice on this option). As another approach, at least eight different insects have been introduced for biological control; many of these are available from the Colorado Department of Agriculture, which operates an insectary in Palisade. These include beetles that feed on shoots and flowers, reducing seed production, defoliating moth, and stem- and root-boring weevils and moths. Every little bit helps. But remember, you too can be a biological control agent at home, where you can keep an eye out and attack stragglers.Toadflax

So this spring, I ventured out again, attracted by a few sprigs of yellow that had survived my earlier treatments. With soil freshly wet by rain, I was ready to pull—but in the end I stayed my hand. The plants I was about to pull had problems already; they were mere shadows of the robust weeds I expected. Weak, spindly, and browning, they were already under attack. Knowing that weevils and moths had been introduced nearby in previous years, I opted to leave the offending plants in hopes that the insects would triumph! I returned to check in mid-August, to find plants that, despite recent rains, looked nothing like their former selves. Seed pods, if present, were tiny, and one plant would be hard pressed to muster 50 seeds if it produced any. Suddenly, I’m encouraged! Maybe the spread of these damnation toadflaxes can be checked after all.

Copyright © 2013 Sally L. White