HISTORICAL versus CONTEMPORARY WILDFIRES

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Wildfires in the mountain west have become less frequent but more intense.

Recently, the Denver Gazette published a short article on current research comparing historical versus contemporary wildfires in the America Southwest, with (to this reader) some rather surprising results.

The areas investigated in this study were primarily dry conifer forests dominated by Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir, very similar to our own forests in the Jeffco Front Range. Prior to 1880, wildfires used to sweep through these forests every 10 to 12 years. These were almost entirely low-to-moderate intensity fires that cleared out undergrowth and forest duff, burning off the lower limbs of the trees, but not devastating enough to kill the trees themselves. Typically, these low-intensity burns involved smaller areas, 5 to 250 acres. Despite the small size of these wildfires, the frequency and style of these fires were able to maintain forest health, even during prolonged periods of drought, when fires were started by lightning strikes and/or Indigenous forest stewardship events. Read more

Poison Hemlock thumbnail

The Invasives – Poison Hemlock & Cow Parsley

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Poison Hemlock thumbnailIt’s time for a change of pace. Today we’re going to talk about two invasive plants that look so similar but which have drastically different consequences. Both can be found in our Open Space parks.

Poison Hemlock v. Cow Parsley — can you tell the difference?  Here’s an article written for Foothills Living Magazine; we’ve been given permission to post as a public service.

Poison Hemlock_Cow Parsley_Aug24 18

Why be concerned about this, or any other invasive plant? They’re called invasives because they’ve moved into an ecosystem within which they did not evolve, usually with help from human activity. When this happens, when an invasive finds a new environment within which it can thrive, it’s usually without the lifestyle controls with which it evolved. Without these restraints, the invasive not only thrives, it takes over and overwhelms indigenous plants, sometimes to extinction. The plant-eating critters that evolved with the indigenous plants may not be able to tolerate the invasives, and they, too, fail to thrive. The carnivores who feed on the plant-eaters begin to fail…and so it goes, like a stack of dominoes. That’s why invasives — the plants — need to be controlled and in the worst cases, eliminated.

For more information from Jeffco Open Space on invasive plant species, go to https://www.jeffco.us/2007/Noxious-Weed-Identification

So when you’re trekking in the Jeffco Open Space Parks, keep your eyes peeled for these lovely but, in some cases, deadly invasives — and don’t touch!

Miss Mountain Manners-PLAN Jeffco

 

 

 

Michelle with Rocky Mtn Glow maple tree 2024-04-20

Earth Day 2024 Fun at Crown Hill

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Cathi, Michelle, Courtney at Crown Hill registration 2024-04-20

Your PLAN Jeffco Board members (left to right) Cathi Schramm, Michelle Poolet, and Courtney App, get ready to head out into Crown Hill Park to plant trees and shrubs.

What were you doing on the Saturday before Earth Day, 2024?  Three of your PLAN Jeffco Board members joined 124 other Jeffco Open Space volunteers to plant more than 350 (some say as many as 600?) native trees, shrubs and forbs (grass plugs) at Crown Hill Open Space Park, along with multiple patches of native wildflowers.

Crown Hill on Earth Day 2024-04-20

The day was dark and gloomy, but the planting crew trudged on through the snow and mud…

Despite the cold and snow, 127 conservation enthusiasts weathered the chilly temperatures, including 50  Columbine High School students.  Traipsing through the snow and mud, lead by JCOS Natural Resource and Trails staffers, we got the job done before the snowfall resumed in the early afternoon.

Michelle with Rocky Mtn Glow maple tree 2024-04-20

One more Rocky Mountain Glow maple tree planted — hurray!

Initial success was measured by the feeling of accomplishment as a tree – in this case, a Rocky Mountain Glow maple – went into the ground. With luck and average annual rainfall (the trees on the east end of the park will not get any supplimental water), this maple will grow 20 to 30 feet tall, and will bear reddish-gold leaves in the fall. The chokecherry, wax current, rabbit brush and potentilla will grace the park with their flowers and fruit, while providing food and shelter for the smaller native inhabitants of the park.

The morning’s wet and cold and muddy activities wound up with a hot lunch buffet, catered by Illegal Pete’s and served by staffers from the JCOS Communications Team. The food was delicious – roasted meats, rice and beans, and Pete’s famous fajita and primavera veggies were top of the line, with plenty to go around.  To top off the meal, the chocolate chip cookies were baked to the chewy stage, so good that they begged you to have another one.

It might be safe to say that, despite the inclement conditions, everyone at the Earth Day event had a good time.

Our thanks to JCOS and the Natural Resource, Trails and Communications teams for organizing and executing this 2024 Earth Day activity, and for upholding the meaning and intent of Earth Day.

From National Geographic Education encyclopedia: “Earth Day is an annual celebration that honors the achievements of the environmental movement and raises awareness of the need to protect Earth’s natural resources for future generations. Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 in the United States and on either April 22 or the day the spring equinox occurs throughout the rest of the world.”

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/earth-day/

Miss Mountain Manners-PLAN Jeffco

Miss Mountain Manners says: “This coming summer, when you’re strolling around Crown Hill Open Space park, look for native wildflowers on the north side, along 32nd Avenue, across from Wheat Ridge High School — but don’t pick the flowers! In the fall, as you walk the trails on the southeast side of the park, please stop and admire the red-gold leaves of the young maple trees and the brushy golden flowers of the rabbitbrush. Be proud of being a part of Jeffco Open Space.”

Fred Naess, Volunteer Park Patroller

A Volunteer Park Patroller’s Perspective

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Fred Naess, Volunteer Park Patroller

Fred Naess, 30-year Volunteer Park Patroller & PLAN Jeffco Board Member

What’s it like to be a Volunteer Park Patroller with Jeffco Open Space?

With over two dozen parks, more than 270 miles of trails and nearly 60,000 acres in the system, a Volunteer Park Patroller has many options. Once you’ve been vetted and trained as a Park Patroller, you can sign up for a specific date and time at a park of your choice, but there’s no rule that says you can’t spontaneously “stop by” a park on the way home from work. It’s unlikely you’ll see another Volunteer Patroller, except perhaps on a busy summer weekend, but if you do, there are plenty of other alternative parks to visit for a patrol, none of them very far away.

The range of park experiences is huge. Read more

Empty pillar where interpretive sign once stood.

Founders Sign Removed from Open Space Park

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Empty pillar where interpretive sign once stood.By Vicky Gits and Bette Seeland, Nov 26, 2023

Early this year Jefferson County Open Space quietly removed without replacing an interpretive sign that had stood for about 20 years as a tribute to the visionaries whose genius and hard work launched PLAN Jeffco and created the Open Space Park system.

Now that the sign is gone, it is probably gone for good, according to Matt Robbins of the Open Space department.  Positioned in Elk Meadow Open Space in Evergreen, the sign was removed because it had fallen into disrepair after weathering outdoors for so long.

Evergreen resident Joe Mackey brought the missing sign to the attention of the Open Space Advisory Commission in October at a regular meeting. A former member of OSAC in the ‘70s, Mackey thinks the sign should be preserved. Read more

Jeffco Trails Plan cover photo

Trails Partnership Program Awards 2024

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Jeffco Trails Plan cover photo

One of the many components of Jeffco Open Space is the Trails Partnership Program. The TPP is a grant program that provides supplemental funding to assist partners in implementing their priority trail projects within Jefferson County. These grants are awarded on an annual basis, provided that funding is available.

At the November 2nd (2023) Open Space Advisory Committee meeting, Open Space staff presented to OSAC an overview of the TPP applications and proposed funding amounts for 2024. Resolution #23-12, which includes the following projects, was approved that evening: Read more

CROWN HILL OPEN SPACE PARK – A BRIEF HISTORY

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What we know today as Crown Hill Open Space Park wasn’t always a public venue. One year before the end of the American Civil War, in 1864, a young man named Henry Lee sojourned west from Iowa to join his brother, William, who had a farm east of Golden, on the south side of Clear Creek.

The land was rich, fertile enough to support wheat fields (Wheat Ridge), fruit orchards (Fruitdale) and further to the north, the farms that would one day become the city of Arvada.

While William worked the farm, Henry traveled on the narrow gauge railroad up Clear Creek Canyon to the mining camps in Gilpin, Clear Creek, and Park counties, selling vegetables to the residents.

In less than 10 years from the time of his arrival, Henry had met and married Jennie Paul, another Iowa ex-pat, and settled down to a married and family life on land that Henry was now farming.  Read more

ALD map park closure 2023

Alderfer/Three Sisters Forest Health 2023-2024

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Alderfer3Sisters Open Space ParkIf you’ve recently been out to Alderfer/Three Sisters Park recently, you’ll notice that there’s a lot of forestry activity happening, especially in the eastern one-third of the park.

Managing and maintaining forest health is incredibly important to the safety of everyone and everything, and so, after 100+ years of the forest overgrowth, JCOS is able to start work on this park.

Starting in August 2023, the JCOS Forest Management Team will remove seedlings, saplings, and even some larger trees – mostly Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir – so that the density of the forest will be reduced. Eventually some 240 acres throughout the entire park will be mitigated. This will result in a healthier ecosystem that will be far more resilient to wildfire than what is currently in place. Read more

Mount Tom is Conserved!

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On Tuesday, April 11th, 2023, a joint effort between Jeffco Open Space, The Conservation Fund, Colorado Parks & Wildlife, and Great Outdoors Colorado came to fruition with the conservation of some 2,000 acres within the Mount Tom Conservation Corridor area. This swath of land is located adjacent to the Ralston Creek State Wildlife Area, northwest of Denver and Golden.

The Mount Tom Conservation Corridor is comprised of fee-owned and conservation easements. It connects to other previously conserved areas, extending in a landscape-wide manner the natural resources for wildlife and Colorado communities while protecting floral and faunal species of special concern, as well as endangered species that live in this area, plus a critical watershed, the headwaters of Van Bibber Creek, a tributary of the South Platte River. The area is not yet open to the public, but following intensive monitoring, investigation and inventory of the future preserve, access for outdoor recreation for the publicly-owned sections are planned.

To read the entire press release, go to the JCOS News Flash here.

Another success for land acquisition!  Let’s hear it for this quorum of conservation organizations — many thanks to all the fine folk who worked so long and so hard to make this happen.

Miss Mountain Manners-PLAN Jeffco

Volunteer celebrating after a successful National Public Lands Day 2022

Open Space Update – October 2022

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Autumn – the leaves are turning gold and red and brown and falling to the ground. In some of the higher altitude parks the snows are accumulating, while the critters are getting ready for their long winter’s nap.

Let’s take a look and see what’s been going on at Jeffco Open Space these last two months…

NATIONAL PUBLIC LANDS DAY 2022 – A WHOPPING SUCCESS

Volunteer celebrating after a successful National Public Lands Day 2022

The Clear Creek Trail Open Space Park got a thorough scrubbing on Saturday, September 24th, National Public Lands Day, when nearly 700 volunteers from Jeffco Open Space, the City of Golden and the City of Wheat Ridge cleaned up a 22-mile stretch of the Peaks to Plains Trail. Read more