Here in Colorado I have been in the office working on a revised monitoring scheme for Phacelia formosula and critiquing the details of the initial monitoring scheme for Corispemum navicula. Phacelia formosula monitoring will be coming up in August sometime with the Corispermum sp. monitoring to follow shortly thereafter. We went up to the North Park area to do some preliminary surveys of the Phacelia sp around Walden and Cowdrey.  We met up with the Kremmling Field office Wildlife Biologist who is also responsible for T&E species, Darren Long, and discussed future plans for the Corispermum sp. and Phacelia sp. in the area. We also tested out the software on the Juno to help with the monitoring of the Corispermum sp. Darren Long gave me a big binder full of past years data and reports for the Phacelia sp. dating back to to the 80’s.

Once I returned to my office the next week, my task was to comb through the binder and try and utilize the information to create a data history of the Phacelia sp.  Unfortunately, as things look right now this is not going to happen because of the type of data collected and the process in which it was collected. The data collection method was not consistent nor was the party collecting the data. So as of right now our historical data and trend information for the Phacelia sp. is spotty at best. The hopes of comparing it to any of the data that was collected by the CO state office botanist are minimal. In addition to the monitoring of the existing plots of Phacelia sp. an overall assessment of Phacelia sp. population presences needs to be coordinated through extensive surveying of the habitat.

In the coming weeks we will be heading up to the Kremmling, CO area to monitor Astragalus osterhoutii and Penstemon penlandii. Heading up Vail to coordinate with the Betty Ford Alpine Garden to get a SOS team established and help them with a collection and familiarize their staff with SOS protocol. Then the following weeks we will be in Fariplay monitoring the alpine endemic Eutrema penlandii for a week and then on to Meeker, CO to monitor a couple of Physaria sp. in the Piceance basin for a week.

Fun filled travels to come here in Colorado.

Regards,

Nathan Redecker

Lakewood, CO

BLM Colorado State Office