UP Project
The Ironhorse Analysis Area (IAA) is a 65,000 acre landscape of ponderosa pine, pine-oak, aspen, pinyon-juniper woodland, and sagebrush rangeland located at the southern tip of the Uncompahgre Plateau approximately six miles east of Norwood, Colorado. The IAA was extensively modified during the settlement and homesteading era of the late 19th century and received heavy commercial use well into the middle of the 20th century before being acquired by the National Forest System.
The fundamental changes in the forest and rangeland plant communities associated with this land use history resulted in the current legacy of vegetative conditions on the Ironhorse landscape. The primary effects of this land use were related to roads, homesteading, dryland agriculture, extensive livestock grazing, exploitive timber harvest and fire exclusion. While this situation describes the general condition and land use history of many low elevation ponderosa pine and dry forest types in the western United States, the extent of the impacts on the Ironhorse landscape are of a scope and scale that represents the more highly altered end of the disturbance scale. Vegetation structure, age, condition and spatial patterns within the IAA appear to be inconsistent with the estimated historic range of variability (Romme et al). This is in part due to the fact that many of the land use practices persisted on this landscape long past being discontinued on other areas primarily because of the easy access to its grazing and valuable ponderosa pine resource.
The ponderosa pine community in the IAA both defines and makes it a fairly unique resource on the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forest (GMUG). Ponderosa pine communities represent a relatively small component (3.5 %) of the forested type on the nearly three million-acre GMUG NF. In comparison, ponderosa pine makes up 42.8% of the forested type within the IAA. The IAA contains 24% of the total ponderosa pine for the entire GMUG Forest. Ponderosa pine provides important habitat diversity for several of the forest management indicator species (MIS) and is highly desired for big game and livestock grazing, recreation, timber and aesthetic values. Therefore, the ponderosa pine communities within the IAA are an integral resource for the entire GMUG NF.
A majority of the Ironhorse landscape (>50%) was in private ownership through the 1950s. The subsequent acquisition of the private lands into the National Forest System lead to some of the first efforts in large scale vegetation restoration on the GMUG NF. These restoration efforts were perhaps simplistic by contemporary standards, but did represent a successful operational effort to restore forest and rangeland cover through reforestation and rangeland seeding. There are, however, some unintended consequences related to the previous land uses and successional trajectories associated with past and current management direction, which suggest a need for timely management intervention.
In addition to the legacy of past land use, the previous landowners and the GMUG NF have, for the most part, successfully implemented a fire suppression program that has resulted in fire exclusion in a landscape that was adapted to a relatively frequent, low intensity fire regime. It is estimated that 78% of the Uncompahgre Plateau is moderately to significantly altered from its characteristic fire regime (Romme). The cumulative vegetative and fuel conditions resulting from this collective history are the underlying challenge for current and future management of the IAA.
Findings suggest a need to intervene or explore opportunities to move the landscape in the direction of pre-settlement (1870) structural and spatial restoration in the pine ecosystem. The application of a combination of active and passive restoration approaches are recommended to restore ecosystem function and resiliency, reduce the potential for unnaturally severe wildfires, and reduce susceptibility to abnormal levels of insect and disease mortality to this unique area. Current landscape conditions are predisposed for uncharacteristic disturbances that could disrupt societal expectations from this landscape.
To download a pdf of the Ironhorse Vegetation Management Strategy, click here.
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