Reviving the Uncompahgre Plateau - Western Colorado Alliance for Community Action

Seven WCC members attended an overnight field trip hosted by the Uncompahgre Plateau (UP) Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project on June 15-16, 2012. They camped at the 25 Mesa Ranger Station, participated in scientific monitoring projects and enjoyed guitar around the campfire.

Penny Heuscher, WCC Vice President, says the weekend experience “exceeded [her] expectations,” and she will definitely do it again. “The field trip presented me with a rich opportunity to enhance my knowledge of the ecology of forest management,” Penny added.

Penny found it exceedingly meaningful that the data she collected would help assess if the forest had been lynx habitat in the past. Volunteers identified and measured “Heritage Trees,” tall old Ponderosa pines that represent a natural forest ecosystem preferred by lynx. Over the decades, these old growth stands have become rare because of decades of fire suppression efforts.

On the second day, volunteers assessed which areas qualified for controlled burns by measuring soil depth and cataloguing all tree types present.

Colorado State University forest ecology professor Dan Binkley has been working closely with the Grand Mesa Uncompahgre Gunnison (GMUG) Forest Service and the UP Project. The idea is to return the forest to its original condition. Ponderosa forests have evolved to co-exist with numerous low intensity fires. Carefully crafted prescription burns may be done in future treatments on the Uncompahgre Plateau in order to establish a resiliency over the long term.

WCC has collaborated for years with the UP Project.

“This collaboration for data collection presented a ‘hands on’ mechanism not only to learn of forest management but also to personally contribute to good forest management,” said Penny.

About the author

Brenda Bafus-Williams

After working for our Alliance for 32 years, Brenda retired in 2018 and took a two-year hiatus before rejoining the fold as a board member. She is a treasure trove of little known facts about the organization after managing everything from the membership database to our communications. Her other interests include dabbling in a number of artforms, hiking, botany (her college major), t'ai chi and chi gung, and swing dancing. With roots in western Washington state, she has lived in Montrose with her husband Kevin since 1984.