September 16-18, 2022

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER 

Longmont Museum
400 Quail Road, Longmont 80501

CLICK HERE TO SPONSOR OR DONATE

        Friday,  September 16, 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM – Rare Plant Symposium – REGISTER HERE
        Saturday,  September 17,  9:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Conference
        Sunday,  September 18,  Field Trips- times will vary

The Boulder Chapter invites you to enjoy this year’s event held at the beautiful Longmont Museum.  We will hear from speakers with a wide breadth of experience in studying the complexities of biological diversity and the influence of disturbance in our wildlands. A variety of ecosystems along the Colorado Front Range and beyond will be showcased by experts who have been working in these landscapes for decades. Boulder County, the conference setting, is itself an ecologically diverse place, containing every life zone found in Colorado from 5,000ft to 14,000ft. There will also be a silent auction and a photo contest and you will have the opportunity to shop from the entire CoNPS Bookstore onsite.

Preview of the Silent Auction here

Submit to the Photo Contest here

Review Lodging and Camping Opportunities here

Conference Agenda: Click for Speaker Bios

9:00   Introductions

9:15    Christian Nunes: Disturbance, plants, and the butterflies that love them

9:55   Nancy Emery – Alpine plant responses to changing climate: Long-term trends and
experimental insights from the Niwot Ridge LTER

10:35  Break

10:55   Tom Veblen – The Challenge of Shifting from the Forest Restoration Narrative to an
Evidence-Based Climate Adaptation Paradigm in Colorado

11:35    Isabel da Silva – Willow water use in highly browsed, nearly beaver-less riparian systems in Rocky Mountain National Park

12:15     Lifetime achievement award to Linda Smith

12:30 – 2:00  Lunch

2:00     Julie Larson (virtual presentation_ – Mechanisms of change: How disturbance and drought shape current (and future) plant communities in diverse Front Range grasslands

2:40      Sara Marshall & Laurie Gilligan – Wetland Biodiversity from the Peaks to the Plains

3:20      Break

3:40      Megan Matonis – Shifting composition: Short-term impacts of the Calwood Fire on  native, and non-native plant species

4:20   Ava Hamilton- The Cycles of Life – Everything is Related

5:00      Adjourn

Field Trips: Click for expanded field trip descriptions

White Rocks Preserve   9am to noon (limit 15 participants)

Harlequin’s Gardens Nursery    9 to 11 am (can pair with Rocky Mtn Botanical Garden) (limit 25 participants)

Rocky Mountain Botanical Garden     1 to 2 pm (can pair with Harlequin’s) (limit 25 participants)

Tallgrass prairie in Boulder area    1:30 to 4:30 pm (limit 15 participants)

Esoterra Culinary Farm/Garden Tour    9:30 to  10:30 am (limit 25 participants) with optional self-guided walk on
nearby White Rocks trail

Golden Gate State Park   Panorama Point loop     9 am to 1 pm (limit 12 participants)

Heil Valley Ranch post-fire recovery    8:30 am to 11:30 am (limit 20 participants)

Rabbit Mountain  9 am to 1:30 pm (limit 15 participants)

Invasive Tall Oatgrass, Shanahan Ridge   1:30 to 3:30 pm (limit 10 participants)

Donate to the Silent Auction

The Silent Auction has many exciting items, but it needs your personal touch! So far, we have donations of books, landscape consulting, artwork, and classes. What can you donate? The Silent Auction is a fundraiser for CoNPS! Please contact Sue Dingwell to advance your silent auction item: sageblue892@gmail.com

The Rare Plant Symposium on Friday and the Conference on Saturday will be held at the beautiful
Longmont Museum in Longmont, 400 Quail Road. Plenty of close-by parking! See you there!