FORT COLLINS, Colo. — For scientists hoping to protect Colorado’s most imperiled species, the first challenge is finding them.
“When you talk about rare plants, most people haven't seen them. That's because they're so rare. And a lot of them are really difficult to identify,” said David Anderson, the chief scientist and director of the Colorado Natural Heritage Program.
Anderson’s office is plastered with maps. He sports high-traction hiking shoes and a mallard ringtone. Despite the difficulties for researchers in locating rare plants and animals, Anderson believes that by studying these species and understanding where they live, we stand a much better chance of being able to protect them from extinction.
“When we're empowered with this kind of information we can make great decisions. We can do the things we need to do to save nature,” he said.
Starting this summer, the Colorado Natural Heritage Program — which specializes in tracking species, wetlands and other natural resources— will embark on the state’s first comprehensive biodiversity survey.
The study will provide detailed data on plant and animal populations in every Colorado county. The survey, which is expected to take five years, will equip communities, governments and conservation organizations with data to make more sustainable decisions and protect imperiled species, such as the Gunnison Sage Grouse, Greenback Cutthroat Trout and the Black-Footed Ferret.
Gaps in the data
The idea for such a survey emerged when Anderson began working with NOCO Places — a regional partnership between Larimer, Boulder, Clear Creek, Gilpin, and Jefferson counties to address mutual challenges around land management and outdoor recreation in Northern Colorado.
While Larimer, Boulder and Jefferson Counties — some of the most affluent counties in the state — had terrific data to inform recreation and conservation decisions, Clear Creek and Gilpin counties had little to no data.
Using what little data did exist, Anderson created a model of Clear Creek and Gilpin counties’ natural resources. By stacking spatial data layers on top of one another, he hoped to better understand the distribution of natural heritage resources.
“Clear Creek and Gilpin counties had some white spots in there, where there were no stacked up resources,” said Anderson. “And so those two counties were like, this doesn't look right to us.”
Anderson agreed. It was impossible to tell which spots on a map had an actual lack of natural heritage resources, versus merely a lack of data.
Sensing that this problem extended beyond Northern Colorado, Anderson’s team brought a proposal to Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO), which uses revenue from the Colorado Lottery to support outdoor initiatives. Anderson devised a strategy for a statewide biodiversity survey that would prioritize counties with the least existing data. He estimated such a study would take ten years.
GOCO liked the idea. So much so that they asked if he could do it in five years. In March 2024, GOCO provided a $7.8 million grant to CNHP to carry out the research.
For Anderson, equity remains at the heart of the project.
“Many counties are not empowered with conservation data, and they're underserved in that way. There’s a pattern of some of our least affluent counties having the least amount of conservation data and so they're not empowered to come to the table with other counties,” he said.
This data can help communities and organizations make better decisions for the future.
For example, if town planners need help deciding which property to conserve for a local open-space area, they can weigh the relative merits of different properties and give each location a conservation rank. Conservationists looking for the most bang for their buck could fast-track properties with high biodiversity, wetland areas, rare species or other conservation assets.
In addition to helping people understand what’s happening at a species level, biodiversity data equips communities with tools to tap into the massive outdoor recreation market and seize state funding through programs like the Colorado Outdoor Regional Partnerships Funding Program.
“We're going to empower everyone in Colorado to come up with a sustainable future for recreation and raise the affluence of their counties,” said Anderson.
What is natural heritage?
The Colorado Natural Heritage Program (CNHP) was founded in 1979 with support from the Nature Conservancy. Today, it functions as a non-academic department at Colorado State University.
Despite the importance of data CNHP provides, not everyone understands what the natural heritage even is.
“Our name is long. People can’t remember it,” said Anderson. “Most people don’t know what natural heritage is.”
The term “natural heritage” dates back to the early-years of the American Environmental movement when Lyndon B. Johnson coined the term in a 1966 address to Congress.
Jimmy Carter then adopted the phrase when he created the Georgia Heritage Trust as Governor of Georgia..
“In those years, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act were all getting signed and people were so environmentally aware,” Anderson said.“But now, I don't know. The term isn't on people's tongues the way it used to be. So one of my missions is to bring it back.”
Anderson developed his own bond with the natural world as a child.
“I would help my dad, who was a biology teacher, collect samples for his high school biology classes,” he said. We would go out and collect plant samples and frogs and things like that.”
He solidified his interest in botany as a student at University of Colorado, Boulder where Anderson spent his free time hiking in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. During a summer class at the Niwot Ridge Research Center he learned to identify the species he encountered on summer hiking trips.
David Anderson is the director and chief scientist of the Colorado Natural Heritage Program.
Photo: Cormac McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain PBS
Following college, Anderson spent two years working for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska. In graduate school, he conducted research on Devon Island, the largest uninhabited island in the world, located in the Canadian Arctic.
Today, Anderson spends less time in far-flung field outposts and more time in the office herding a network of volunteers, staff biologists, and partner organizations.
He anticipates a variety of challenges to complete the survey, from droughts — that can make species harder to observe — to wildfires and heat waves. But the biggest challenge is bringing together all of the people needed to complete such a gargantuan study.
“It’s the classic example of building the airplane while it's flying,” he said, describing the logistical challenges he anticipates.
In order to pull off such a feat, Anderson is relying on everyone from professional botanists, to student interns and amateur naturalists.
Tyler Lovato, a CNHP Siegele Intern who is now a staff herpetologist, found this longnose snake last summer on the Comanche National Grassland. CNHP hires students to help with fieldwork every summer; 25 interns will assist this summer with the statewide survey. Photo: Brad Lambert, Colorado Natural Heritage Program
A network of scientists
Ernie Marx is an amateur botanist from Fort Collins, Colorado who is helping with the field work. Marx worked as a soil scientist but now spends his retirement identifying plants. By working with naturalists like Marx, CNHP is able to access hard-to-reach areas and stretch its resources.
Marx is currently gearing up for a six-week trip to the Colorado Plateau near Grand Junction, where he will identify and catalog rare plant species. Marx plans to camp for four to five days at a time, during which he will visit field sites and periodically return to town to resupply and log his findings.
“They send me out to locations where nobody has visited for at least 20 years,” said Marx.
Locations are kept top-secret in order to prevent people removing plants or trampling sensitive vegetation.
For Marx, the challenge of locating the plants he studies is part of the fun.
“Rare plants often grow in challenging habitats. That's why they're rare. They've somehow managed to survive in a place where other plants couldn't survive,” he said.
“Before I started doing this, I had no idea that there were expanses of land left in the state that are just so wide open and empty.”
Despite rapid population growth in Colorado, much of the state’s development remains clustered in urban areas along the Front Range.
