Colorado Mountain College
OP-10: Biodiversity

White River National Forest: The White River National Forest is a world-renowned recreation destination home to iconic destinations such as Maroon Bells and Hanging Lake, 11 ski resorts, 10 peaks over 14,000 feet, and eight wilderness areas that cover more than a third of its acreage. Traveling through its five ranger districts, you can explore the classic Colorado Rocky Mountains of the Gore, Tenmile, Sawatch and Elk Ranges as well as the distinctly unique Flat Tops. Included in this space is the conservation area of the Upper Fryingpan Valley, home to federally-recognized threatened species such as the Canadian lynx (Lynx canadensis). This also includes the Blue River watershed, which is currently under conservation management by The Blue River Watershed Group (BRWG). BRWG was founded in 2004 by a group of local community members who were passionate about protecting and preserving the health of the Blue River Basin. Their mission is to promote, protect, and restore a healthy Blue River watershed through cooperative community education, stewardship, and resource management. They focus on the entire watershed, which drains an area of about 680 square miles covering all of Summit County and portions of Grand and Lake Counties.

Bureau of Land Management Areas

SWAP Areas: Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) currently operates a State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP). Within the SWAP, a prioritized Tier 1 Species of 'Greatest Conservation Need' has been identified. Roughly a dozen vascular plants and natural communities found within this section are under this category, and currently under a state management plan.

Rhithrogena flavianula: A Mayfly (Imperiled)
Anaxyrus boreas: Boreal Toad [Southern Rocky Mountain Population] (Critically imperiled)
Grus americana: Whooping Crane (Critically imperiled)
Lynx canadensis: Canadian lynx (Critically imperiled)

Acer negundo - Populus angustifolia / Cornus sericea: Narrowleaf Cottonwood Riparian Forests (Imperiled)
Artemisia cana ssp. viscidula / Festuca thurberi Shrubland: Western Slope Sagebrush Shrublands (Imperiled)
Crataegus rivularis: Foothills Riparian Shrubland (Imperiled)
Danthonia intermedia: Montane Grasslands (Imperiled)
Festuca idahoensis - Festuca thurberi: Montane Grasslands (Vulnerable)
Populus tremuloides / Ceanothus velutinus: Aspen Forests (Imperiled)
Pseudotsuga menziesii / Paxistima myrsinites: Lower Montane Forests (Imperiled)

Astragalus debequaeus: DeBeque Milkvetch (Imperiled)
Eriogonum brandegeei: Brandegee Wild Buckwheat (Imperiled)
Eutrema penlandii: Mosquito Range Mustard (Imperiled)
Iliamna crandallii: Crandall's Wild-hollyhock (Imperiled)
Lepidium crenatum: Alkaline Pepperwort (Imperiled)
Lepidium huberi: Huber's Pepperweed (Imperiled)
Mentzelia densa: Royal Gorge blazingstar (Imperiled)
Physaria vicina: Montrose Bladderpod (Imperiled)
Ptilagrostis porteri: Porter Feathergrass (Imperiled)
Spiranthes diluvialis: Ute Ladies' Tresses (Imperiled)
Sullivantia hapemanii / Aquilegia barnebyi: Sullivantia Hanging Gardens (Imperiled)

Both the Aspen and the Vail Valley at Edwards campuses are located within the Upper Fryingpan, which is a recognized area of conservation with the Colorado Natural Heritage Program (CNHP). The Breckenridge and Dillon campuses are also located within the Blue River area that is under consideration for conservation status with the State of Colorado, and is under management by the Blue River Watershed Group.

Breckenridge, Carbondale, Central Services, Dillon, Glenwood Springs, Rifle, Salida, and Spring Valley campuses are all within the observation and survey range of species under protections through SWAP.

Notes by Korey Wetherell (STARS Researcher)

In order to complete a biodiversity assessment of the entire CMC campus network, I decided my best approach would be to first find areas of conservation that are within the CMC network. After creating a map of this data, I could then approach creating a map of protected species that overlap the CMC network. After mapping both of these data sets, I would then be able to figure out which campus locations served both conservation areas and protected species. I then could create policy proposals based on my data, while also providing a foundational baseline for other studies of similar nature moving forward.

I decided to use the data sets provided by CNHP as they are the most comprehensive and easily accessible of records for the state, and have been verified as having been used for at least two other institutions within Colorado completing a STARS report that have scored a 2.0/2.0 on the OP-10: Biodiversity section of their report (CSU and CC). These data sets include both locations of conservation importance as well as the range of protected species, identifying both categories based on global and state status levels. For the identification system, conservation and protection importance is ranked on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the most important or endangered, and 5 denoting a high commonality of the species. Additional, identification of species or areas of global importance are designated with a (G), while state or regional rankings are designated with a (S). To that end, I decided to focus on species with a (G) or (S) ranking of at least (2) or higher, and only looked at areas with current conservation goals. Managed lands such as the White River National Forest are not included in the mapping results for this study, but should be included in future efforts as they are inclusive to the standards set for this report.

For this research I utilized arcGIS, one of the most used mapping programs on the market, created by ESRI. This is the primary mapping application used by CMC GIS students, and the program used by CNHP to develop the analyses created for CSU and CC; IUs analysis also used this program. To start, I found a basemap of the State of Colorado with county boundaries. After creating a new project in arcGIS, I added this basemap, and then created a new manual data set of points that identified the locations of each CMC campus, along with Central Services. Each point was geo-tagged to the location of the CMC campus associated, and I created identifying markers that were meant to be reflective of CMC as an HEI, and had a palette layout designed to match the school colors. With this new shapefile I was able to not only identify each CMC campus location, but I was able to create a base-file that I could use to help build out the buffer zones of CMC with conservation areas and protected species. It was at this point that I was able to use the data sets provided by CNHP to start truly assessing the biodiversity of CMCs campuses.

The Colorado Natural Heritage Program (CNHP) provides a variety of data sets that focus on multiple areas of biodiversity importance; to that end, I needed to find the sets that would work with the guidelines set by AASHE for this section of the report. I therefore used one data set highlighting the conservation areas of Colorado to create one map, and then used the data sets highlighting protected species and locations of observations to create another. Because each map and data set allows for us to visualize different types of data, each map's end result needs to make sure to highlight proper correlations for this analysis. This resulted in me needing to use the data of conservation areas to find any campus that was in proximity to said areas, and then required me to use the other data on protected species to find any campus that had an observation noted within the proximity of campus. Because of this, I decided to set the buffer zone of the campus locations to 3.3km or roughly 2 miles. After applying the points I created of campus locations to each of these separate maps and data files, I could then run processing tools to find the intersection of protected areas OR species within the buffer zone of the campuses . After creating these maps, I realized that protected plant communities could also be included given the intersecting data points found. To that end, I created a map that highlighted not just the conservation areas and campus locations, but also showed the range of three different natural plant communities that overlapped campus locations.

Example 1:  While designing a trail system at the Spring Valley campus, CMC procured a planning grant from Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW), with which we paid for an environmental study and biodiversity assessment from Colorado Natural Heritage Program (CNHP) with recommendations for the area in question. CNHP and CPW both noted that the area serves as critical elk habitat during the winter, and as a result of their recommendation, we close the trails each winter while the elk are present. See elk habitat signage.

Example 2:  CMC's Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) courses equip students to address ecological degradation on campus by designing, building and maintaining systems aimed at reversing that degradation. The Steamboat campus' Bear Park Permaculture Center and the Spring Valley campus' Jungle work to restore biodiversity on campus by fostering the conditions for life to emerge and complexify into patterns of environmental accumulation rather than disaccumulation. PDC students have also worked with Facilities staff at Spring Valley to create an Integrated Weed Management Plan designed to protect native plant communities from "invasive" weeds AND from the herbicides commonly used to manage them, both of which threaten the native species mentioned above.