243
vulnerable,” 68 of these are actually endemic to Colorado.
7
Moreover, some 500
Colorado plant species are listed as being of “Special Concern.” When you look
through the dozens of “Imperiled” species (“G2”) face to face on the Colorado Rare
Plant Guide List,
8
their beauty, out of all those hundreds of thousands of plant species worldwide, goes instantly to your heart. Their endangerment is transposed to
ourselves. Their fate is our fate. The gorgeous Fisher Towers milkvetch, or Golden
blazing star, among them. But no plant species was more glorious than Colorado’s
state flower, the Rocky Mountain Columbine (Aquilegia coerulea), unanimously
hailed in 1899.
By 1925, there was so much worry over the future of this delicate creature that
Colorado’s General Assembly “made it the duty of all citizens to protect this rare
species from needless destruction or waste. To further protect this fragile flower, the
law prohibits digging or uprooting the flower on public lands and limits the gathering of buds, blossoms and stems to 25 in one day.”
9
Frankly, 25 per day per consumer seems strikingly strange, given that the population of the state in 1925 was
just over one million, 5.7 million today, and the plant’s status is currently listed as a
G3, “Vulnerable.” Of course it is vulnerable.
Moreover, Colorado, like every Western state, has seen its share of exploitive
resource extraction, waste, and mismanagement. The very notion of a ghost town
summons the cumulative record of reckless opportunism, and the fallout leaves its
signature. In Montrose County, the Dolores River twists at peculiar angles through
the much-attenuated (highly relevant) community of Paradox. There, and in surrounding regions, uranium tailings, brine accumulation, water with excessively
acidic pH, and other human-induced impacts have left the area more depauperate
than it might have been, an equation of inordinately resounding relevance given the
town’s low density of human occupation.
10
Like the native plants, at least two documented native fish species within the Dolores River expanse are also listed in the
“sensitive” category, namely, the “roundtail chub and flannelmouth sucker.”
11
7 See Colorado Parks and Wildlife, “Rare Plant Conservation,” https://cpw.state.co.us/aboutus/
Pages/CNAP-Rare-Plants.aspx, Accessed May 13, 2019.
8 https://cnhp.colostate.edu/rareplants/list.asp?list=G2
9 See https://www.50states.com/flower/colorado.htm, Accessed May 13, 2019.
10 See Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Project, Paradox Valley Unit Final Environmental
Statement, U.S. Department of the Interior, and Bureau of Reclamation, Upper Colorado Regional
Office, Salt Lake City, 1978; see also “The Uranium Widows,” by Peter Hessler, September 6,
2010, The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/09/13/the-uranium-widows,
Accessed May 17, 2019; see also Reclamation – Managing Water in the West, Supplement to
January 2013 Scoping Report, Paradox Valley Unit EIS, December 2016m https://www.usbr.gov/
uc/wcao/progact/paradox/Supplement2013FinalSupplementalScopingReport_12.2016.pdf,
Accessed May 17, 2019.
11 See Evaluation of Existing and Proposed Areas Of Critical Environmental Concern for the
Uncompahgre Planning Area, February 2013, p. 77. Prepared by US Department of the Interior,
Bureau of Land Management, Uncompahgre Field Office, Montrose Colorado, https://eplanning.
blm.gov/epl-front-office/projects/lup/62103/78795/90462/ACEC_Report_Final_01152013.pdf,
Accessed May 17, 2019.
26.2 Ground Zero, Colorado
vulnerable,” 68 of these are actually endemic to Colorado.
7
Moreover, some 500
Colorado plant species are listed as being of “Special Concern.” When you look
through the dozens of “Imperiled” species (“G2”) face to face on the Colorado Rare
Plant Guide List,
8
their beauty, out of all those hundreds of thousands of plant species worldwide, goes instantly to your heart. Their endangerment is transposed to
ourselves. Their fate is our fate. The gorgeous Fisher Towers milkvetch, or Golden
blazing star, among them. But no plant species was more glorious than Colorado’s
state flower, the Rocky Mountain Columbine (Aquilegia coerulea), unanimously
hailed in 1899.
By 1925, there was so much worry over the future of this delicate creature that
Colorado’s General Assembly “made it the duty of all citizens to protect this rare
species from needless destruction or waste. To further protect this fragile flower, the
law prohibits digging or uprooting the flower on public lands and limits the gathering of buds, blossoms and stems to 25 in one day.”
9
Frankly, 25 per day per consumer seems strikingly strange, given that the population of the state in 1925 was
just over one million, 5.7 million today, and the plant’s status is currently listed as a
G3, “Vulnerable.” Of course it is vulnerable.
Moreover, Colorado, like every Western state, has seen its share of exploitive
resource extraction, waste, and mismanagement. The very notion of a ghost town
summons the cumulative record of reckless opportunism, and the fallout leaves its
signature. In Montrose County, the Dolores River twists at peculiar angles through
the much-attenuated (highly relevant) community of Paradox. There, and in surrounding regions, uranium tailings, brine accumulation, water with excessively
acidic pH, and other human-induced impacts have left the area more depauperate
than it might have been, an equation of inordinately resounding relevance given the
town’s low density of human occupation.
10
Like the native plants, at least two documented native fish species within the Dolores River expanse are also listed in the
“sensitive” category, namely, the “roundtail chub and flannelmouth sucker.”
11
7 See Colorado Parks and Wildlife, “Rare Plant Conservation,” https://cpw.state.co.us/aboutus/
Pages/CNAP-Rare-Plants.aspx, Accessed May 13, 2019.
8 https://cnhp.colostate.edu/rareplants/list.asp?list=G2
9 See https://www.50states.com/flower/colorado.htm, Accessed May 13, 2019.
10 See Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Project, Paradox Valley Unit Final Environmental
Statement, U.S. Department of the Interior, and Bureau of Reclamation, Upper Colorado Regional
Office, Salt Lake City, 1978; see also “The Uranium Widows,” by Peter Hessler, September 6,
2010, The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/09/13/the-uranium-widows,
Accessed May 17, 2019; see also Reclamation – Managing Water in the West, Supplement to
January 2013 Scoping Report, Paradox Valley Unit EIS, December 2016m https://www.usbr.gov/
uc/wcao/progact/paradox/Supplement2013FinalSupplementalScopingReport_12.2016.pdf,
Accessed May 17, 2019.
11 See Evaluation of Existing and Proposed Areas Of Critical Environmental Concern for the
Uncompahgre Planning Area, February 2013, p. 77. Prepared by US Department of the Interior,
Bureau of Land Management, Uncompahgre Field Office, Montrose Colorado, https://eplanning.
blm.gov/epl-front-office/projects/lup/62103/78795/90462/ACEC_Report_Final_01152013.pdf,
Accessed May 17, 2019.
26.2 Ground Zero, Colorado