Research Grant Reports
Ground Nesting Bees
While hiking near Bonanza, Colorado we found a large nest of ground nesting native bees. This is always a very exciting thing to observe. They fly so fast and dive into the holes they have dug. Some are still digging, some are stuffing pollen and nectar...
Hummingbirds Love Penstemons!
Several species of hummingbirds migrate from Mexico and South America to Colorado in the spring each year. They are especially attracted to red flowers. Adding red penstemon to your garden such as Penstemon barbatus is essential for hummingbirds! Penstemon...
Pollination Biology of the Yucca!
Pollination Biology of the Yucca! An Amazing Story to learn about. Have you noticed? The Yucca plants are in bloom! In Colorado there are approximately six species of Yucca which occur in the Agave or Agavaceae Family. Each species of Yucca has its own species of...
2021 Alice Eastwood Scholarship Awarded
2021 Alice Eastwood Scholarship Recipient: Tiffany Gentry (Integrative Biology, University of Colorado Denver). $950. Tiffany moved to Colorado in 2010 and quickly became obsessed with the landscape of the Southern Rocky Mountains, which led her to pursue...
2021 John Marr Grant Award Winners
Marr Grant Recipients: Valerie Martin, $1000 for “Microbial Facilitation of Floral Exploitation in a Subalpine Pollination Mutualism,” Justin Yow, $1000 for “Understanding how climate variability within the Colorado Rocky Mountains affects fuel load dynamics in...
Native Gooseberry Brings in the Pollinators
Early this week the native gooseberry began to bloom. Immediately the shrubs were filled with pollinators including native bees (Osmia spp., and Anthophora spp.), syrphid flies, flies, and butterflies (thicket hairstreak, Milbert's tortoiseshell, hoary comma). Also, I...
Travel Blog to the Purgatoire River
Why not? With a fresh dump of snow smothering the wildflowers nearby, and no family obligations for the weekend, why not run down to the ominously named Purgatoire River and discover its mysteries for myself? A check on the weather cam revealed bare ground in La Junta...
Habitat for Native Pollinators
A native bee heavy enough to lower the keel of a Golden banner flower, (Thermopsis divaricarpa) and receive the pollen reward. ©Carol EnglishProviding foraging habitat for native pollinators with diverse needs! Depending on where you live in Colorado, we are...
2021 Myrna Steinkamp Grant Award Winners
Steinkamp Grant Recipients: Ross McCauley & Aurea Cortés-Palomec, $1550 for "Conservation genetic analysis of the rare Chapin Mesa Milkvetch (Astragalus schmolliae) from lands of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe" Alexandra Seglias, $1025 for "How does increased...
Funding for the Endangered Species Act
On February 24, 2021, the Conservation Committee signed on, along with 140 other organizations, to a community letter written by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Defenders of Wildlife, to be sent to House and Senate appropriators to significantly increase...