mhughes26's Journal

Spent Labor Day weekend camping with my fiancé and some friends at Lake Owen in the Medicine Bow mountains of Southern Wyoming.

Back in 2020, Southern Wyoming and Northern Colorado were bombarded with wildfires (the Cameron Peak fire in Colorado; the Mullen Fire in Wyoming). At the time, I was driving along Snowy Range Road towards Encampment and the Sierra Madres while the Mullen Fire was raging. I took this photo back in 2020 of the fire, which was burning in the same area around Lake Owen.

Four years later, you can see the damage clearly. What were once green stands of lodgepole pine, spruce, and fir trees are now charred in many places. While the conifer forests in the Intermountain West have evolved with fire, years of fire suppression coupled with a changing climate have created conditions where fires burn hotter than they otherwise would, thereby scorching the soils to a degree that makes recovery difficult and long. The areas also become prone to mudslides as this burnt soil is also very hydrophobic.

And yet, biodiversity is still present. Though we did not see them directly, evidence of moose (tracks), beaver (a beaver lodge), rodents (lots of piles of seeds and other evidence of feeding) was present all around. We also saw a tiny boreal chorus frog, and fuzzy orange and black caterpillars (spotted tussock moth larva evidently, Lophocampa maculata).

The beaver lodge is exciting because these massive rodents are being increasingly seen as a helpful solution to mitigating wildfires in the west. Research has shown that beavers can potentially mitigate fire damage by increasing and restoring wetland and riparian zones, and thereby reducing intensity of fires [1-2]. See my references below to find a link to PBS Terra's video on using beavers and their dam building skills to help combat drought and wildfires.

Bird life was also present around the lake, including a sighting of a bald eagle gliding overhead (unfortunately I did not get a chance to capture this as an observation).

For me the highlight of this region of Wyoming is the changing of the aspens. Though not close to their full peak of fall foliage color, there were plenty of yellow, orange, and red leaves to go around. Some of the aspens that we saw had an unusual purple color on their leaves, and this did not look like healthy leaf change. We saw it on one grove in particular, and since aspens are clones (I've written about this in a previous journal post), we wondered if maybe the entire clone had been infected, and if something in the underground root system was causing this.

Fall is a great time for camping. Here's the thing: camping, especially in an area pretty far away from any major civilization (Wyoming is a good place for this) is a good way to appreciate the cyclical nature of everything. Of course we are aware of the changing seasons. But camping also helps you appreciate the cycles of temperature throughout the day. In September in these parts, it is still pretty warm (sometimes even hot) during the day, but you absolutely need a jacket or at least long sleeves at night because the temperatures chill significantly. And when you are far enough away from major cities to see a sky relatively free of light pollution, you can actually appreciate the cycles of light and dark.

And, just like everything else, fire is a cycle too. Many of the evergreen trees in the western United States depend on the cycle of fire to release their cones - without fire there could be no new trees. Human intervention and climate change has disrupted these cycles which is why the fires now are so much more devastating. Hopefully we can continue to use science and research to understand ways to best live with fire, because in this part of the country it is not going away.

References

1. Weirich III, Joseph John. "Beaver moderated fire resistance in the north cascades and potential for climate change adaptation." (2021).
2. PBS Terra. (2021, November 18). Want to Solve Wildfires and Drought? Leave it to BEAVERS! [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lT5W32xRN4

The Snowy Range is the northernmost extent of the Medicine Bow Mountains which run from Northern Colorado (starting in State Forest State Park) to Southern Wyoming. Medicine Bow Peak itself is in the Snowy Range. This entire area is located west of Laramie, and so students from the University of Wyoming often go here for camping and hiking excursions (as a graduate of University of Wyoming, this is how I first became acquainted with the place).

One of the defining characteristics of the Snowies is the white color of the peaks rising above the conifer groves, meadows, and lakes. The white is of course from snow, but also from large amounts of quartzite. In fact, there are beautiful quartzite boulders all over these peaks, and in the surrounding meadows.

Another defining characteristic of the Snowies (and the Medicine Bow Mountains in general) is the presence of many moose! My fiancé and some of our friends spent this past Labor Day weekend camping in the Snowies and saw more moose than I've seen in a very long time. It's possible that we were really just seeing the same handful of moose multiple times in a row, but in total I'd estimate we saw at least 5 different individuals, all of which appeared to be bull moose.

In addition to moose, a plethora of mountain wildflowers greeted us on our hikes. Pink elephant heads, harebells, arnica, fireweed and many purple asters were abundant along the trails. So, happy Labor Day from Wyoming's beautiful Snowy Range!

Over the last week I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to the other side of the country and experience a very different kind of place: the temperate broadleaf forests of New England, specifically New Hampshire.

First a little background on temperate broadleaf forests. These types of forests grow mainly in Eastern North America, Europe, and East Asia, although parts of Australia, New Zealand, and southern South America also have this biome type [1]. When you think of temperate broadleaf forests, at least in North America think beech, maple, oak, etc. with evergreen conifers (pines and firs) mixed in [1].

Especially in New England, these forests are well known for the way they change throughout the year. The broadleaf trees in these forests are deciduous and lose their leaves in the winter to conserve energy and prevent water loss [1]. This loss of leaves is preceded by dramatic color change as the leaves lose their green chlorophyll, leaving behind carotenoids - yellow, orange, and red pigments in the leaves. In the springtime, increased heat and light triggers new leaves to bud out, and some trees like redbuds and dogwoods sprout beautiful pink, purple, and white blossoms. Summers give way to dense forest canopies.

At the time of my arrival, the summer canopy in New Hampshire's forests was completely leafed out, although I did notice leaves beginning to turn on a noticeable number of trees. Back home in Colorado, leaves have also started changing here and there, so I wonder if the timing of leaf change is similar between the Colorado and this section of New England. Being a rural state, the drive through New Hampshire was mainly forested, and the trees here create a tunnel effect with the canopy hanging over. This was mainly broken up by relatively small plots of farmland and small towns with picturesque churches and historic downtowns.

This part of New Hampshire is home to black bears, moose, and white-tailed deer, but I didn't see any megafauna on this trip. Instead, I saw lots of fungi, amphibians, and plants that I rarely see back home; ferns, mosses, beech, and maple trees. An area I ended spending a lot of time in was Pillsbury State Park, near the small town of Washington, New Hampshire. The park consisted of several lakes of various sizes, and some small elevated peaks - this area is transected by the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway.

Bird life in New Hampshire included species like blue jays that I was familiar with from back home but there were plenty of new birds as well. On my first night, I heard the eerie call of a loon on the lake. The sound is mysterious and haunting in the same way that the bugle of an elk is back in Colorado.

The forest canopy is so dense in some parts of this park that it actually feels significantly darker. This was a huge change for me coming from Colorado where the sunshine is so intense. The forest floor stays cool and shaded, and is blanked by ferns, mosses, and plenty of mushrooms.

Just like in the Rocky Mountains, the vegetation here changes with elevation. As I got higher up on the trail, the beech and maple trees gave way to more conifers. I'm unfamiliar with the trees in this area, but my guess is pines and firs.

While hiking, the one concern I had was for ticks, especially since there were areas of this trail where the grass and brush were very dense and encroaching, making it impossible to walk past without it grazing your legs. New Hampshire is square in the epicenter of Lyme disease distribution in the United States and this was not something I was keen on contracting. Fortunately I didn't find any ticks despite numerous tick checks before and after the hike, and some of the friends I was visiting mentioned that late July through August seems to be a lull period in tick activity in this area, before ramping up again in the fall.

My time in New Hampshire concluded with a hike up to the top of Pitcher Mountain, which had nice views of the surrounding hills. There is a fire tower at the top, but it was currently under renovations. New Hampshire is known as the Granite State, and there were definitely large granite slabs visible from the top of the peak.

I have to say, I was sad to leave. I was only here for three days, but there is something about this state that really made me want to stay. I hope to be back, and hopefully later in the year to experience the colors of fall foliage on display. Until next time!

References

1.Harvey, D. Habitats: Discover earth’s precious wild places. (DK Publishing, 2023).

It may have been questionable to be outside today. Temperatures were pretty hot. In fact, there were heat advisories earlier this week about a heat wave this weekend. Air quality in the Denver metro has also been poor; these hot sunny days really aid the development of ozone pollution.

Never the less, the Lavender Days festival at the SheGrows farm in Arvada, Colorado occurred to celebrate the cultivation of lavender. And because lavender grows in hot sunny climates like Provence, France I'd say this was a fitting day to attend.

iNaturalist is a place to document flora and fauna in the wild, but I learned a lot about lavender cultivation at this event, and to be honest it is pretty interesting! The genus for lavender is Lavandula, and the two species at the farm were Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender), and Lavandula x intermedia (French lavender - although according to Google this is also called Portuguese lavender...so who knows).

But the real reason I felt this journal post was worthy for iNaturalist is because the lavender farm created such great habitat for pollinating insects and other forms of biodiversity. A woman at the farm explained to a crowd of lavender enthusiasts that right now the lavender oils are all in the flowers and buds and so for this reason honey bees and bumble bees are feeding in droves. According to her there were no bees in sight two weeks ago, and today they were everywhere.

In addition to bees, there were at least three butterfly species that I observed at the farm: skippers, swallowtails, and cabbage whites. I love these charismatic pollinators. And to be clear, there were actually many other flowers at the farm: sunflowers, pea flowers, cosmos, peonies, and roses. The owners of this farm take pride in their status as a pollinator habitat hub as was evidenced by their proud display of a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat plaque.

Events like these are a great reminder that our man-made ecosystems (farms, orchards, gardens) are still habitat for various forms of biodiversity. And celebrating the different colors throughout the year (in this case purple for July) is also a fun way to mark time.

With the arrival of warmer weather towards the end of June, it was time to get back up to the high country. This post's hike and observations happened in June, but I didn't get around to writing about it until today, July 4.

Went to Guanella Pass early Sunday morning of June 30, 2024 and started out on the Square Top Mountain trailhead, which is near Mt. Bierstadt (we had great views of Mt. Bierstadt during this hike). Mt. Bierstadt is a fourteener (14er), while Square Top falls just short at 13,794 feet in elevation (making it a thirteener (13er)), which is still impressive.

What was most immediately noticeable on this hike was the abundance of wildflowers along the trail. Some of these wildflowers are familiar to me from lower elevations (like paintbrushes, bluebells, penstemons, and fleabanes), although once you get into alpine ecosystems some of them tend to look a little different. For example, I've only ever seen Whipple's penstemon (Penstemon whippleanus), which has a dark Burgundy color (almost black in some cases), at higher elevations such as near Blue Lake in the Poudre Canyon near State Forest State Park. The paintbrushes at higher elevations also look a little different - Rhexia-leaf Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja rhexiifolia) seems to be more dominant up here, and usually has a more pink-maroon shading compared to the oranger looking paintbrushes at lower elevations and on the plains. Having that said, the paintbrushes on this trail were not very pink, so I'm not positive they were Rhexia. Among others, we also saw plenty of American bistort (Bistorta bistortoides), blue columbine (Aguilegia coerulea), beardtongues, silky phacelia (Phacelia sericea), and moss campion (Silene acaualis).

We also saw two moose in the distance. Moose were introduced to Colorado in North Park starting in 1978 from moose populations that were already established in Utah and Wyoming [1]. Since then, due to migration and several other introduction programs they have spread across the state and their numbers are growing in Colorado. I still don't have a great camera, so the photo I took was using my phone through a binocular lens.

In the end, we didn't get all the way to the summit of Square Top because we'd gotten a late start for the morning and a storm was brewing. That's the thing about Colorado in June, you have to expect that there will be lightening, thunder, and rain in the afternoons so it's important to get any big hiking goals finished early in the morning.

Still, the alpine tundra and subalpine forests in early summer are a beautiful place to be outdoors.

References

1. Living With Wildlife in Moose Country. Colorado Parks and Wildlife file:///Users/_mlhughes/Zotero/storage/LDF6I545/LivingwithWildlifeMoose.html.

I love the Great Plains. I grew up on them in rural Elbert County, southeast of the Denver metro area where the ponderosa pines mark the transition between the Rocky Mountains and the prairie. Then I continued to live in them as a student in Laramie, Wyoming where I studied biology and environmental science. And then after graduation my first ecology related job was as a field technician in North Dakota, dragging for ticks, collecting mosquitos, and documenting plant diversity in the mixed grass prairies around Bismarck-Mandan and the Chase Lake Prairie Refuge.

People describe the beauty of the prairie and the plains as subtle, but I'm not sure I agree. Nothing feels as vast or open to me as a wide open grassland, especially at sunset when color explodes across the sky, unbroken by mountains, forest, or buildings.

So it felt right to mark a new phase in life with my girlfriend by road tripping through Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming. We first arrived in Nebraska at Chimney Rock, which is now managed as a state historical site. While there, we immediately noticed certain birds that may or may not live in our home state of Colorado, including a lark sparrow. We also heard familiar prairie birds like meadowlarks.

The big excitement at Chimney Rock was a heard of bighorn sheep. They were too far in the distance to get a really good look, and my phone has a terrible lens for zooming in, but they appeared to be all rams.

From Chimney Rock we travelled on to Rapid City, South Dakota and spent the next day exploring Badlands National Park. Badlands NP is an incredible place if you are interested in paleontology. At one point the area it now occupies was the ocean floor of the inland sea, followed by period where it was a hot and humid swampland, before eventually becoming grasslands. Prehistoric small horses, rhino-like animals, and other types of creatures also lived here.

In addition to more prairie wildflowers, we spotted prairie dogs, more bighorn sheep, and bison. The entire area seems to have gotten a lot of rain lately because the grass between the formations was extremely verdant. All across the park there was a lot of sweet clover, which is an invasive species that was introduced to the area by Europeans. Having that said, it was still beautiful, especially set against the tan, orange, and red of the Badland's formations.

From Badlands National Park, we journeyed to the Black Hills and camped in Custer State Park. It was late at night, and just when we entered the park we almost had a collision with a gigantic bison that was in the middle of the road. If I had thought of it, I would have tried to take a picture and make an iNaturalist observation out of the encounter, but it was more important to make it to the campsite in one piece.

In contrast to the landscapes of Chimney Rock and the Badlands, this area was heavily forested with ponderosa pines (very similar to where I grew up in Colorado), although much greener. I think the climate is slightly wetter in South Dakota's Black Hills than in Colorado. There were also a lot of oak trees, which we do not have as much of in Colorado, with the exception of scrub oak.

Wildlife sightings here included white-tailed deer, Canada geese, and various birds. Many of the wildflowers here were familiar to ones I had seen back at home, including iris and thermopsis.

Finally, we made it to North Dakota. Theodore Roosevelt National Park was our main destination for this leg of the journey and we saw by far the most wildlife here. Before we even got to the trail we had picked for our hike we saw a pronghorn, a herd of bison, prairie dogs, and several mustangs that were traversing the bluffs.

Once we set out on our hike we realized that the North Dakota prairie was in full bloom. This was a mixed bag as it also triggered our seasonal allergies. But the beauty of the blooms was undeniable. Prairie rose, sunflowers, milkwort, and bee blossom were all around. On a hillside covered in prairie smoke I got down on one knee and asked my girlfriend to marry me. She is now my fiancé.

After getting engaged, the animals seemed to appear as if to congratulate us. We saw two pairs of wild horses, and a whole herd of bison.

The last day of our trip was through the eastern edges of Montana and Wyoming, going south. This area reminded me of the exact ecosystem where I grew up: rolling grasslands with ponderosa pines on the crests of hills. We stopped briefly at Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming and marveled at how familiar and different it felt from Colorado. We noticed a lot of oak trees in this area, the same oak trees we had seen in the Black Hills. At Devils Tower we also saw signs that indicated falcons were roosting on the giant rock. We didn't see any, but we did look for patches of white to indicate bird poop under a nest or a roost.

In any case, that was our trip. I think these photos and descriptions show that the Great Plains is far from a boring ecosystem, and that a tremendous diversity of landscapes and wildlife can be found in this region. Grasslands are some of the least protected ecosystems and it is high time they received the appreciation they deserve!

Had the day off from work so I went to Castlewood Canyon State Park. This may be the one outdoor place that I know better than any other. Like the back of my hand you could say. Growing up it was always the closest state park, so I would come here with family, school, and later with friends or just by myself.

This time I went by myself and hiked around the rim of the canyon, a round trip hike that takes me roughly 2-3 hours.

There were lots of wildlife and wildflower sightings this entire hike. The rain we have been getting lately is evident in the greenery that has taken over the entire park. Wildflowers I saw included bluebells, Larkspur, arnica, golden pea (or bean, according to iNaturalist taxonomic definitions), strawberries and raspberries, penstemon, cinquefoils, and skullcaps.

The trees in Castlewood Canyon are mostly gymnosperms - Ponderosa pine, juniper, etc. But there are also willows by the creek, cottonwood trees, and in at least on portion of the canyon, a grove of aspen trees.

Animals are also very active in the park right now. In addition to wild turkeys and mule deer, I saw several prairie lizards. Looking back through past observations, it looks like my prairie lizard sightings are all between April and August, although I did see a dead one in Fort Collins in January a few years ago - maybe came above ground too early and froze to death?

Lots and lots of birds as well. I saw many spotted towhees (they flew away too fast for me to get any good pictures), turkey vultures, and ravens. And a gnatcatcher, I think. At least that's what the audio recording leads me and another iNatter to believe.

I might start recording all my visits to Castlewood Canyon SP in journal posts so that I can start building a journal record of the plants and animals I see throughout the year and over many years. And also things like how green the park appears to be throughout the year, and how the water level in Cherry Creek looks.

These huge cumulous clouds caught my attention this evening, so I decided to get out to take some photos of them. My apartment complex is backed up against some bluffs where lots of scrub oak grow and create great habitat for birds, mule deer, rabbits, and other wildlife. We are approaching the part of the year where the Front Range will experience thunderstorms and rain most afternoons. These usually begin with dramatic cloudscapes such as this, with anvil shaped thunder heads. Then the sky gets very dark, there is typically a lot of lightening and thunder, and if it ends before sunset, the sunset will be very dramatic with the residual clouds leftover from the storm.

Now that we have been getting some rain, the area is greening up: leaves are sprouting out on the scrub oak, the grass is getting taller, and wildflowers are sprouting out. Prairie pasqueflowers seem to be some of the first wildflowers to show themselves in the springtime, although I haven't actually seen any myself this year so far (although I've noticed plenty of sightings of these flowers from others on iNaturalist this spring).

One of the things I enjoy about iNaturalist is that I've been able to use it to slowly learn the different types of wildflowers around the state. And although I think that the photo recognition software that iNaturalist uses is very cool, I think it's still an important skill to learn how to identify without an algorithm. One way I like to learn the flowers is by taking photos of the wildflowers on iNaturalist, then going back with a guidebook to identify them. Doing this - actively looking images up in a physical guidebook, seems to help me remember the different species better. Wildflowers of Colorado Field Guide by Don Mammoser with Stan Tekiela is the guidebook that I like to use because it organizes by color, which is what I notice first about these wildflowers.

When you start to learn the different types of plants in an area, you suddenly see differences in plants everywhere, even if you don't know the names of the species you are looking at. You begin to notice things like leaf shape and arrangement, color, flower type, etc. These photos are living proof of the sheer diversity of angiosperms, and this is only in a small area of central Colorado.

And then you get flowers like this (below): members of the genus Erigeron. There are so many of them, and they all look so similar, that I don't usually bother trying to differentiate. When I was a field tech, identifying Erigeron flowers was the bane of our existence because it was sometimes near impossible to differentiate between species. They all just look like daisies.

The transition from winter to more balmy weather has been underway in the Front Range, and this weekend made this very evident. The deciduous trees still look bare for the most part, but closer inspection reveals that buds are bursting on many of them. Some trees that are further along in this process even have a faint light green shimmer.

Of course, where you are in the Front Range has a big impact on the progress of this spring greening. I've noticed that where I live in Castle Rock, things are further behind season wise, probably due to the increased elevation on the Palmer Divide. The Denver metro area in contrast, is further along - probably due to a lower elevation and the urban heat island.

My favorite thing about spring though is seeing blossoms on trees and flowers. Colorado doesn't have the same grandiose springtime that exists in the Midwestern and Eastern United States. In my early 20s I moved for work to North Dakota and then Virginia where I saw the dogwoods, cherries, and redbuds in their shades of white, pink, and purple. Recently I was in northern Texas where blue bonnets, along with some bright red flowers dotted the medians and roadsides on the highway between Amarillo and Dallas.

Still, my home state does spring in its own special way. Typically, the mountain peaks of the Front Range are still white with snow while the plains slowly green up. Pasqueflowers are among some of the first wildflowers to start blooming (I have not seen any as of this journal post). And there are actually a lot of fruit trees (some ornamental, some in orchards) in Colorado like cherries and apples (the picture above is an ornamental cherry that my girlfriend and I found in Littleton this past Saturday). Speaking of apples, Colorado used to be an apple capital of the United States before Washington State developed the Red Delicious and Colorado suffered a drought that wiped out the industry (1). Both apples and cherries have gorgeous blossoms and as long as a late spring snow storm or frost doesn't kill them, they really brighten Colorado neighborhoods, orchards, and ranches.

Spring seems to be later in Colorado than other parts of the country, but the trend everywhere is that our changing climate is causing springtime to start earlier and cause certain phenological and ecological trends to fall out of sync. Song birds, according to a recent report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences are having smaller broods of chicks in years when they are out of sync with leaf out (2).

All of this is concerning, but I do enjoy the warmer weather. With temperatures in the 70s this past weekend we went for a walk around Crown Hill Park around Wheat Ridge (a favorite spot) and saw blossoms on wild plum (Prunus americana) as well as cottonwoods and willows budding out. We also saw a family of turtles sunning themselves on a log in a wetland (and they immediately dove into the water when we got close, so I did not get a picture for iNaturalist).

References

1. Uncovering A Colorado Apple Mystery. Science Friday https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/colorado-apple-mystery/.
2. Wildlife Science: Urban Moths, Water Features, Spring Songbirds. National Wildlife Federation https://www.nwf.org/Home/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2024/Spring/Animals/Urban-Months-Water-Features.

Springtime in Colorado is a tricky thing to pin down because March and April are months where we can still see a lot of snow. In fact, we got quite a bit of snow this past March, including several days where work was remote because roads were either hazardous or just completely impassable.

Never the less, there are still four seasons in the Rocky Mountains and the Front Range. This past weekend seemed to usher in some familiar signs of springtime. Greenery is still sparse in the Denver area, but here and there we've seen blossoms on some of the ornamental trees planted around the city. We even saw a few trees with budding leaves, though certainly not the majority.

My girlfriend and I like to go for walks on the weekends around Crown Hill Park in Wheat Ridge and noticed a lot of red-wing blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) in the tall stalks near the water. We don't seem to remember hearing them very often from previous walks we took through the winter so it's tempting to think that their arrival is a sign of spring seasonal change, but Colorado is technically within the year round range of the birds, and southern and some western populations do not migrate (1). Also, according to ornithologists at the Cornell Lab for Ornithology, males and females make their calls all year round (2). Regardless, it's a great sound and it had been some time since our ears had heard it.

A more definitive springtime sound that we heard was that of the many chorus frogs (Boreal chorus frog, Pseudacris maculata) that were in the partially submerged grassy areas and ditches around the park. Once the snow and ice have melted and created wetland habitat in flooded meadows, drainage ditches, and small temporary ponds, the males begin to call to females to come lay their eggs (3). This can start as early in March and marks the beginning of the mating season which will continue until May (3).

References

1. Red-winged Blackbird Range Map, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-winged_Blackbird/maps-range.
2. Red-winged Blackbird Sounds, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-winged_Blackbird/sounds.
3. Boreal Chorus Frog | Horticulture, Landscape, and Environmental Systems | Nebraska. https://hles.unl.edu/boreal-chorus-frog.