June 28 - June 29.
This week, I was out sick Monday and Tuesday. However, the rest of the week we worked alongside the Botany crew as well as the Aquatic Wildlife and Fisheries crew at the Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests & Pawnee Grassland (USFS, ARP).
On Wednesday, we went out with the botany crew to survey rare plants. Specifically, we were keeping an eye out for Potentilla rupincula. A common name for this plant is rock-loving cinquefoil, which aligns with where it is commonly found: in rocky, arid-soils! Potentilla rupincula has been described by one of our own, Dave Anderson with CNHP, as a member of the rose family. He also adds that it is a low-growing perennial with compound leaves, toothed on the upper halves with little to no hair. The flower of the plant is yellow, although the species we observed at the time (late June) near Red Feather were not flowering.
Source: Anderson, D.G. (2004, September 28). Potentilla rupincola Osterhout (rock cinquefoil): a technical conservation
assessment. [Online]. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region. Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/
projects/scp/assessments/potentillarupincola.pdf [4 July 2023].
Photo of Potentilla rupincula taken by Jennifer Singer.
Photo displaying a typical and favored habitat of Potentilla rupincula (dry and rocky) taken by Jennifer Singer.
On Thursday, we went out with the Rachel Geiger from Aquatic Wildlife and Fisheries. Early in the day, we attended her presentation at Arrowhead Lodge in Poudre Canyon regarding her work on the Poudre Headwaters Project (PHP). We learned about the reintroduction of Greenback Cutthroat Trout and the importance of this initiative. Not only that, but by learning background information, we were taught methods in order to share this knowledge with the public in a meaningful way.
The Poudre Headwaters Project (PHP) logo.
After that, we embarked on a hike up Roaring Creek in Poudre Canyon. Along with the beautiful views along the way, we were met with a lot of water breaks and moments to catch our breath... this one was tough! From beginning to end, I clocked just around 6 miles with over 1000ft of elevation on the ascent.
Photo of the view (left) and myself on the hike (right) taken by Jennifer Singer and Mena Sherer, respectively.
Our primary reason for going up the creek was to meet up with Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) to conduct chorus frog surveys. However, once we reached the destination, we were informed by CPW that they have not had any luck with their search for chorus frogs, and that they were wrapping up for the day. So instead, we explored the area, identified some plants, and enjoyed some time speaking with the CPW crew.
Photo of Abrāo Pereira once we got to our destination (left) and a Blue Columbine (Aquilegia coerulea) - Colorado's state flower (right), taken by Jennifer Singer.
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