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State Plans Colorado
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Southern Rocky Mountains
(Area - 12,669,000 ha)
Description - Central Colorado makes up the bulk of the
Southern Rockies, which extend into northern New Mexico and southern Wyoming. Steep,
rugged mountains cover this region, and vegetation varies greatly on the basis of
elevation and aspect. Alpine tundra gives way to various coniferous forests often with
aspen intermixed. Ponderosa pine is at lower elevations, pinyon-juniper below that, and
grasslands in the lowest areas. Because of topography, weather, avalanches, fire, insect
outbreaks, and disease, forests in the Southern Rocky Mountains tend to be patchier than
in many other areas. The landscape is thus a complex mosaic of open meadows and forest
stands of varying age and species composition.
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Conservation recommendations and needs - Alpine tundra is a fragile habitat type potentially affected by native grazers such as elk, mining, and recreation. Protection from further disturbance may allow maintenance of current population levels of White-tailed Ptarmigan and other tundra species.
Aspen can dominate an area for many decades after stand-replacement fires, but fire suppression has reduced development of many new stands during the past 75 years. In many places, large populations of elk prevent recruitment of aspen by browsing of shoots. The area currently dominated by aspen is likely to decline in the future with possible negative consequences for Red-naped Sapsuckers, Broad-tailed Hummingbirds, and other species most common in this habitat.
In this physiographic area, a greatly reduced understory vegetation layer caused by domestic livestock is the biggest threat to riparian habitat. Grazing systems that allow dense understory development and recruitment of overstory trees should be employed. Timber harvest and destructive recreational activities in riparian zones should also be discouraged.
Mountain shrub is a habitat type that does not get much conservation attention, and as a result the status of key birds there, including Virginia’s Warblers, is poorly known. Grazing has reduced perennial grasses, increased shrub coverage, increased bare ground and has fostered increasing dominance by invasive non-native grasses and forbs. Economic development (suburbanization, recreation) in this and the next system threatens much remaining habitat.
Ponderosa pine systems are fire-adapted, and both timber harvest practices and fire suppression have greatly altered them in the last century. Improving conditions for Flammulated Owl and other pine birds will require an intensive forest management effort including harvest of other species and regular low-intensity fire to maintain ponderosa pine dominance. There should be a reduction in salvage logging in this and other coniferous systems since this activity removes snags needed by many cavity-nesting birds.
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