To teach people about the largest ecosystem in the West, the Mancos Conservation District has set aside the better part of two days coming up to explore the ecology, threats and adaptation of piñon-juniper landscapes.
Those interested can attend a free field trip to Mesa Verde National Park the afternoon of Friday, April 11, or they can pay $15 to sit in on an all-day speaker series on Saturday in Mancos.
Or, they might just attend both.
As the largest ecosystem in the West, “there’s no one standard for piñon-juniper management,” said Amorina Lee-Martinez, the program assistant at the Dolores Watersheds Collaborative.
A lot of private landowners live in piñon-juniper forests, too.
That’s why learning about the local ecosystem is important: It “can inform best management practices … to mitigate for wildfire and to support local biodiversity,” said Lee-Martinez.
Attendees will learn pertinent information on thinning and fire mitigation, what such efforts look like after a decade’s time and how fire impacts piñon-juniper ecosystems more generally.
On April 11, field trippers are asked to meet at Mesa Verde’s visitor center parking lot at 1 p.m. with water and wearing hiking shoes.
“From there, we will first visit a private property at Cedar Ridge to learn from a landowner’s fire mitigation work and what that looks like,” said Lee-Martinez.
Afterward, participants will head into the park, where two researchers will teach them about piñon-juniper conditions “within a burn scar and outside a burn scar, and lessons learned about fire recovery of species that live with piñon-juniper,” said Lee-Martinez.
The speaker series at the Mancos Community Center on April 12 starts at 8:30 a.m. and wraps up just before 4 p.m.
The $15 entry fee helps cover morning coffee from Fahrenheit Coffee Roasters and a catered lunch from Esmeralda’s in Cortez.
Eight experts are lined up to speak throughout the day on everything from the history of piñon-juniper landscapes to tribal perspectives on the ecosystem and fire. Conversation will also cover soil, ecological change and restoration.
To secure a spot, sign up online at bit.ly/3E41lmE.
