Why does Colorado mountains grow so many trees yet no trees on the plains? (climate, water)

[otowi]

Originally Posted by Wendal

Speaking of forest fires, how long does it generally take for a forest to regenerate after a wildfire in Colorado? Can someone cite me some examples of before and after forest regeneration after a wildfire?
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I think it depends a lot on climate, location, etc. If you look at the Waldo Canyon scar, it is 8 years old and what you see is some undergrowth regeneration like grass but no new scrub oak or trees. Black Forest fire same - lots of dead trees still there, no sign of new tree or scrub growth yet. In the Hayman burn area which is now 20 years old you can still see the burn area but in some places there are now some small Aspens. No new evergreens that I've noticed. In 1989 there was a fire on Mt. Herman that created a bit burn scar still visible on its east side - still very noticeable today but there are now some Aspens and Scrub Oak in it.

There was purportedly a huge fire in 1853 that burned from Cheyenne Mountain all the way to Wilkerson Pass and most evidence of it is hard to find now, but there are still some dead groves on the east slope of Pikes Peak left over from that one. It is hard to say where trees regrew and places where maybe to this day trees didn't come back.

[Loyoung]

Originally Posted by Wendal

Speaking of forest fires, how long does it generally take for a forest to regenerate after a wildfire in Colorado? Can someone cite me some examples of before and after forest regeneration after a wildfire?

This can be a very complicated question, not sure what access you have to academic research journals, but one source that provides a wealth of information is PJ Fornwalt, who did a lot of work in the Hayman burn area. Why this answer can be complicated is different ecosystems will have different responses. You can think of succession in terms of pressures and thresholds, where different environmental pressures such as slope, distance from seed source, competition, compound disturbances, etc all have values, if those values are exceeded than that threshold will become a detriment to succession. There was a paper released last year out of the University of Colorado - Boulder (forgot who the Author was) where they found succession of forest stands were unlikely to occur along the Front Range. What you will find is in many cases the rate of succession will be very specific to geography, so the Northern Front Range will have a different rate compared to interior Colorado, or the Western Slope.

Here are some articles that go into more detail as to what I'm explaining if you're interested

Baker, W. L., Veblen, T. T., & Sherriff, R. L. (2007). Fire, fuels and restoration of ponderosa pine-douglas fir forests in the rocky mountains, USA. Journal of Biogeography

Buma, B., Brown, C. D., Donato, D. C., Fontaine, J. B., & Johnstone, J. F. (2013). The impacts of changing disturbance regimes on serotinous plant populations and communities. Bioscience

Carlson, A. R., Sibold, J. S., Assal, T. J., & Negrón, J. F. (2017). Evidence of compounded disturbance effects on vegetation recovery following high-severity wildfire and spruce beetle outbreak.

Chambers, M. E., Fornwalt, P. J., Malone, S. L., & Battaglia, M. A. (2016). Patterns of conifer regeneration following high severity wildfire in ponderosa pine – dominated forests of the colorado front range. Forest Ecology and Management

Fornwalt, P. J., Kaufmann, M. R., & Stohlgren, T. J. (2010). Impacts of mixed severity wildfire on exotic plants in a colorado ponderosa pine–Douglas-fir forest. Biological Invasions

[GeoffD]

I thought it was because the buffalo ate them all?

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by Wendal

Silly question. I know Colorado lacks an abundance of natural vegetation trees in areas like Denver due to the dry climate. But then why do higher elevation mountain towns like Estes Park, Breckenridge, Telluride and forested areas like RMNP have lots of trees? Is there more moisture in the higher elevations?

God put the trees there. In Denver proper and other such places, people grew them. Nature sometimes decides to remove some of the trees.

Now, when you get east of a place called Topeka Kansas, there's this stuff called vegetation, and a color called green.

[otowi]

In the plains of eastern Colorado, typically trees only naturally occur where there is consistent water - a spring or a creek or a river, etc. Other than that, the habitat and climate tends not to be treed. Man tends to put trees wherever they are, and they do alright as long as man pumps in/up the water for them.

[KSinmyrearviewmirror]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

God put the trees there. In Denver proper and other such places, people grew them. Nature sometimes decides to remove some of the trees.

Now, when you get east of a place called Topeka Kansas, there's this stuff called vegetation, and a color called green.

Originally Posted by otowi

In the plains of eastern Colorado, typically trees only naturally occur where there is consistent water - a spring or a creek or a river, etc. Other than that, the habitat and climate tends not to be treed. Man tends to put trees wherever they are, and they do alright as long as man pumps in/up the water for them.

Emigrants on the Santa Fe Trail were advised that Council Grove, KS, was the last place on the trail where trees were available/big enough to provide wagon axles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_..._Trail-NPS.jpg

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by KSinmyrearviewmirror

Emigrants on the Santa Fe Trail were advised that Council Grove, KS, was the last place on the trail where trees were available/big enough to provide wagon axles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_..._Trail-NPS.jpg

Speaking of frontier trails - did you know there's one that started in Atchison, KS, and ended at Colfax and Broadway in Denver? It's the trail that gave Smoky Hill Road its name and is responsible for all the XYZ Mile locations along Parker Road (e.g. the 17 Mile House - 17 miles from the end of the trail).

Smoky Hill Trail Association

[KSinmyrearviewmirror]

Yes on the Smoky Hill Trail, No on their meeting (Our 15th Annual Conference will be October 15, 16 and 17th in Abilene, KS!) THANX for the link!

The Smoky Hill/Santa Fe/Oregon trails utilized many of the same routes across portions of E. KS.

A news story about the last arson incident that destroyed the former World Champion Vieux Elm at the historic and tragic Oregon Trail Cholera Cemetery near Louisville KS. (Unfortunately, the arsonist was one of my former students @ Wamego HS.)

https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/..._Louisville_KS

We've been to the Louisville location; the cholera cemetery is a sobering reminder.

You might find this interesting:
https://www.amazon.com/WPA-Guide-193.../dp/0700603425

We use https://www.amazon.com/WPA-Guide-193.../dp/0700602496 in our KS travels. Of course, many things have changed since the Depression, but others are still alive & well. Many of the Army's outposts were little more than dugouts near a water source. Per this thread, wood for buildings was non-existent; so local stone was quarried IF there were actual buildings. As 98% of KS is private land, a large # of points of interest require landowner's permission.

Fort Harker, on the list of Kansas' stations of the Smokey Hill Trail, is a good example of early Army outposts. The guardhouse, where Chief Roman Nose escaped between the bars of the window, serves as a museum. That bldg & others, many dismantled for sandstone blocks; with some officers' quarters now serving as private residences.

I have a friend who got permission from tribe(s) in Colorado ~ '74, to hike the Santa Fe Trail. He described many artifacts along the trail (stoves). Hard to imagine going all the way from Misery, only to ditch possessions @ that point, when the going got "tough."

[COcheesehead]

Speaking of trails…the Old Spanish Trail is still walkable in parts of western Colorado.

[otowi]

Also speaking about trails, there is a trail known as the Cherokee Trail that cut up from Pueblo through Fountain area over to Jimmy Camp and up north through what is now Black Forest/Eastonville up to Denver and eventually to Fort Laramie. You can see ruts of it to this day at Big Johnson Reservoir.