The Chalk Bluffs is a barren chalk escarpment in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Colorado, stretching from the Wyoming border east of I-25 to near the South Platte River in Logan County and Weld County. [1]
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Magazine Mountain Shagreen Snail
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Pawnee Buttes - In A Colorado Minute (Week 184)
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Nueces River at State Highway 55
Transcription
We have to dig through the leaf litter trying to find all the snails we can. It's a dirty job. You get down you are in the poison ivy and your in the rocks and you just scoop the leaf litter away and your just looking for the snails. A couple years, there was 2 or 3 years where we didn't find any. Magazine Mountain shagreen is an endemic terrestrial snail which means that Magazine Mountain is the only place in the world that it occurs here in Arkansas. They like to live in the leaf litter and vegetation adjacent to those sloping rock. In 1994 the USFWS developed a recovery plan for the species. Being able to recover a species is something that you know, its a goal you work towards. It shows that the Endangered Species Act does work it shows that the power partnerships have in the US Forest Service, the Department of Parks and Tourism, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and USFWS working together that we can recover species.
Geology
The Chalk Bluffs exposes the Ogallala, Fox Hills and Arikaree Formations. Miocene, Eocene and Paleocene vertebrate fossils are found. [1]
Ecology
Most of the escarpment lies within the Pawnee National Grasslands.
As the bluffs are primarily barren and protected from fire. However trees normally found in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains are found there, including: Ponderosa pine, Rocky Mountain juniper, limber pine, and mountain mahogany.
Numerous raptors nest on the cliffs including Swainson's hawks, ferruginous hawks, golden eagles, and prairie falcons. The bluffs are a favorite site for birdwatching. It has been recognized by the National Audubon Society as a site of "global importance".
Chalk Bluffs Natural Area
A 640-acre (2.6 km2) portion of the Chalk Bluffs in Weld County were set aside in September 2001 by the Colorado State Parks Natural Areas Program as the Chalk Bluffs Natural Area.[1]
Wind farm
The bluffs are adjacent to the Cedar Creek Wind Farm.
References
36°28′46″N 90°09′45″W / 36.47952°N 90.16252°W
This page was last edited on 12 June 2024, at 22:06