The clay-loving wild buckwheat grows only on the adobe hills near Delta and Montrose, Colorado, a dry environment of clay hills (known as “the Adobes”) and open flats supporting a unique plant community of saltbush and sage.  The Adobes occur only in this narrow swath at the edge of the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area.  Urban growth is transforming this landscape, and the clay-loving wild buckwheat’s habitat is quickly disappearing under new luxury developments and dirt bike tracks.

A Building Boom

Montrose and the entire Uncompahgre Valley is growing quickly.  From 1990 to 2004, the population of Montrose grew by 73 percent[1].  Last year, Montrose issued twice as many permits for new residential buildings as in 2002, and it was ranked as the 18^th fastest growing small city in the country[2].  Farms and open spaces at the edge of the city are quickly being converted to tract homes, golf courses, and high-end condo units.

For the clay-loving wild buckwheat, this has meant devastating habitat loss.  Already eight populations of this endangered plant have been lost forever to housing developments.  Almost half of the remaining populations are imminently threatened by housing development.  A plan to build a beltway around Montrose is already spurring increased interest in development on the east side of town, where the buckwheat is found.  If this highway is constructed as proposed, it would plow through several populations of the plant.  Meanwhile, as development creeps closer to the edges of the public land surrounding the valley, habitat for the buckwheat there is increasingly degraded by invasive weeds, erosion, and encroachment by dirt bikes and ATVs.

Dirt Bikes and ATVs

As the popularity of motorized recreation on public and private lands continues to rise, clay-loving wild buckwheat habitat is being impacted.  The number of ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) in use in the U.S. has doubled since 1998[3], and in Colorado, dirt bike and other off-road vehicle registrations have increased almost sixfold since 1990[4].  In the Gunnison Gorge National Recreation Area, off-road vehicle use has tripled in the last decade[5].

For the clay-loving wild buckwheat, this has meant increased trampling, increased erosion, and habitat degradation.  Most of the plant’s largest populations are threatened by off-road vehicle trampling, and as housing developments and paved roads move closer to public lands, they provide more access points for motorized vehicles.

The Wild Buckwheat Conservation Fund Property

The property we will purchase and protect through the Wild Buckwheat Conservation Fund is a 43 acre former ranch east of Montrose, in an area that is rapidly being converted from farmland and open space to housing developments.  It has been well cared for over the last 40 years by an owner who protected the clay-loving wild buckwheat population there.  If this property is sold to a non-conservation buyer, it will almost surely be converted into tract homes like other nearby parcels.  If we can protect it, it will serve as an important open space and habitat preserve for many species.  Such an oasis will be increasingly important as the region continues to grow.