Ridge to show health of wildlands

Ecological change to be observed west of Boulder

Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News

Thursday, March 15, 2007

A remote alpine ridge west of Boulder has been picked as one of 20 monitoring stations in a new nationwide "environmental observatory" that would take the pulse of America's rapidly changing wildlands for decades to come.

The proposed National Ecological Observatory Network would monitor ecological changes - many of them human-caused - and try to forecast future impacts.

"I think there is a general recognition that ecosystems are changing quickly due to climate change and due to land-use changes," said University of Colorado biologist Russell Monson.

"Things are changing so quickly that we can't understand the impacts of those changes unless we have a standardized observing network, a major environmental observatory," said Monson, who is involved in the so-called NEON project.

Niwot Ridge, along the Continental Divide about 35 miles west of Boulder, would be one of the 20 "core sites" in the U.S. network. CU's Mountain Research Station, in the forest below the 11,500-foot ridge, would be the logistical hub for the Niwot station.

The NEON proposal is currently under review by the National Science Foundation. The network could cost up to $1 billion, and Congress must approve the funding, Monson said.

NEON would track ecological changes due to urbanization, climate change, invasive plant and animal species, emerging diseases, and airborne dust and pollutants from Asia, among other things.

The Niwot Ridge site would coordinate observations with a shortgrass prairie "core site" involving researchers from Colorado State University.

ericksonj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5129