July 3: Changing Environment on South Mountain, VCNP

Two years ago I stumbled on a few Bunchberry plants (Cornus canadensis) on South Mountain on the Valles Caldera National Preserve. Today's goal was to find that colony and collect a few for the VCNP herbarium. The route was the trail around La Jara from the staging area in the Valle Grande, then cut over to South Mountain and follow approximately the same route from years ago.

Last year there was a small, productive fire on the north flanks of South Mountain. It scorched the understory, torched in a few trees. Apparently the fuel management team on the preserve took advantage of the lightning fire and used the area to reduce fuels by piling and burning dead and down trees in the area. As we retraced the route up the flanks of the mountain today, the elk trails were familiar--until we reach the burned area. Burn pile scars--ash pits left by the intense flames of a constructed pile of wood and kindling purposefully ignited under safe burning conditions--were everywhere. The elk trails weren't obvious, and the environment of the area was totally transformed. The lightning fire had taken away the shade that provided the moist environment in years past, and the burn piles scorched the even moister ground on the north side of boulders. Rather than cool, moist Bunchberry habit, all there was left was open canopy, ash piles near the boulders, and exposed, dry forest plants like Golden Smoke, Strawberry Blite, and Cutleaf Senecio. Liverworts, that once were a co-inhabitant with the Bunchberry, were shriveled and dried. Using the dead liverworts as clues, we scoured the area with not luck.

That mountain slope was never ideal habitat for Bunchberry, which prefers moister, riparian habitats, but the transformation from wildfire and fuel reduction activities has probably eliminated the population there. It's a trade-off: I'm sure the Bunchberry will come back as the shady forest canopy returns over the next hundred years. The benefits of natural fire and fuel reduction activities will reap benefits for the larger ecosystem, and I support those efforts and know how difficult it is to implement them. The Bunchberry is likely elsewhere on the Preserve, and perhaps we'll stumble across another population someday.

Stars of the Day (photos and links to better photos below): I think we should call the VCNP the Rydberg Penstemon Capitol of the World! The attractive, shapely penstemon is found everywhere. And the Leafy Arnica patch south of La Jara was the best I've seen, with dozens of plants on the wet ground.

Genus Species JMP common name
Agoseris aurantiaca orange-flowered mountain dandelion
Agoseris glauca pale mountain dandelion
Allium cernuum nodding onion
Aquilegia coerulea Colorado blue columbine
Aquilegia elegantula little red columbine
Arnica chamissonis leafy arnica
Boechera stricta Drummond's rockcress
Campanula parryi Parry's bellflower
Campanula rotundifolia harebell
Chenopodium capitatum strawberry blight
Corallorhiza maculata spotted coralroot
Corydalis aurea golden smoke
Dasiphora fruticosa shrub potentilla
Descurainia incisa mountain tansymustard
Draba aurea golden draba
Dracocephalum parviflorum dragonhead
Eremogone fendleri Fendler's sandwort
Erigeron flagellaris trailing fleabane
Erysimum capitatum western wallflower
Fragaria vesca wild strawberry
Galium aparine goosegrass
Galium boreale northern bedstraw
Geranium caespitosum purple geranium
Geranium richardsonii Richardson's geranium
Geum triflorum old man's whiskers
Heterotheca villosa hairy golden aster
Heuchera parvifolia alumroot
Iris missouriensis wild iris
Lappula occidentalis flatspine stickseed
Lithospermum multiflorum many-flowered puccoon
Mertensia lanceolata chimingbells
Packera dimorphophylla splitleaf groundsel
Packera neomexicana New Mexico groundsel
Penstemon barbatus scarlet bugler penstemon
Penstemon rydbergii Rydberg's penstemon
Polemonium foliosissimum leafy Jacob's ladder
Potentilla anserina silverweed cinquefoil
Potentilla hippiana woolly cinquefoil
Potentilla norvegica Norwegian cinquefoil
Potentilla pensylvanica Pennsylvania cinquefoil
Pseudocymopterus montanus mountain parsley
Ranunculus inamoenus homely buttercup
Rubus idaeus wild raspberry
Ranunculus cardiophyllus heartleaf buttercup
Senecio eremophilus cutleaf groundsel
Sisyrinchium montanum mountain blue-eyed grass
Spergulastrum lanuginosa spreading sandwort
Stellaria longifolia longleaf starwort
Taraxacum officinale common dandelion
Thalictrum fendleri Fendler's meadowrue
Thermopsis montana big golden pea
Trifolium repens white clover
Urtica dioica stinging nettle
Valeriana edulis tobacco root
Synthyris plantaginea kittentails
Vicia americana American vetch
Viola canadensis Canada violet
Cerastium nutans nodding chickweed