Research Grant Reports
The UN Decade of Restoration – Are You Helping?
A multitude of insects will be feeding on this native plant, Yucca glauca, in spring, just in time for the Western Meadowlark to feed them to its nest of chicks. The majority of songbird babies must have a high-protein, easily eaten, and digestible diet of...
CoNPS Comments on Beardtongue Draft Recovery Plan
February 11, 2022 Ms. Ann Timberman – Western Slope Field Superviso Department of the Interior – Fish and Wildlife Service – Western Colorado Field Office|45 West Gunnison Avenue, #240Grand Junction, Colorado 81501 RE: Draft Recovery Plan for Parachute...
Hall Ranch
Hall Ranch was calling this afternoon, and I had to go. As the scenery spread out before me, buildings, signs, and overhead wires giving place to brown fields dotted with the occasional ponderosa, I found myself filled suddenly with gratitude for the fact that Hall...
Get A Little Moonwort Madness
“I have moonwort madness,” explains Steve Popovich, “Botrychulosis. It’s an incurable disease caused by a passion for moonworts.” After listening to his interview on a recent 'In Defense of Plants' podcast, it was easy to understand what that passion was all about....
A New-for-Colorado Bryophyte Species by Stacey Anderson
Plagiobryoides renauldii, an acrocarpous moss not previously known from Colorado, was found at Unaweep Seep State Natural Area in Mesa County. A bryophyte survey of the natural area was conducted on April 11, 2021, by a group of bryologists, including myself, Paula...
CoNPS Comments on Grand Mesa, Uncompagre, Gunnison Forest Plan
On November 7, 2021 CoNPS posted their comments on the Grand Mesa, Uncompagre and Gunnision National Forest Plan. Two of our outstanding members Gay Austin, a former employee of the Bureau of Land Management, and Peggy Lyon who worked for the Colorado Natural...
Mason Bees: Pollinator Heroes
Mason bees, in the genus Osmia and the family Megachilidae, are extremely efficient pollinators. They are known to be one of the most important and effective pollinators for the genus Penstemon. The photo on the left below shows a mason bee on Penstemon scariosus var....
Spring 2021 Mission Grant Award Winners
Spring 2021 Mission Grants Awarded to Mary Menz, C. J. Bradford, John Giordanengo & Ashley Bruner Spring 2021: The CoNPS Mission Grant committee awarded $310.00 to Mary Menz and CJ Brafford of the Ute Indian Museum to support herbarium collections documenting...
The Bouncy Butterfly Proboscis!
Butterfly pollination and some amazing facts: About three decades ago, I sat in an ecology class while the professor, Dr. Cheesman, went on about the amazing elasticity of the proboscis on a butterfly. I sat wide-eyed and amazed as he explained the tissues that assist...
Big and Little Bluestems Not So Blue in Fall
Perhaps you missed the flowers, they’re pretty tiny, but during the rich light of a late sunny afternoon, you can’t miss the brilliant shine of the seed heads of our two native grasses, Big bluestem and Little bluestem. So alike, yet so different, and each is from a...