Colorado Natural Areas Program staff and their support group Friends of Colorado Natural Areas coined a snappy fundraising slogan for our joint campaign to protect the endangered clay-loving wild buckwheat found on the Wacker Ranch:  "Buckwheat:  it's not just for pancakes anymore."  Last Friday, they took the clever catchphrase one step further and actually served a buckwheat pancake breakfast at our event celebrating the purchase and protection of the Wacker Ranch.  The celebration was a terrific success.

Several reporters, local residents, members of the Montrose-based Uncompahgre Valley Association and Western Colorado Congress, Bureau of Land Management field staff, representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and even a Montrose County Commissioner attended the celebration, held amid a stand of black sage and saltbush at the head of the Wacker Ranch property.  On hand were members of each of the organizations involved in the campaign, including The Nature Conservancy, Colorado Natural Heritage Program, Colorado Native Plant Society, and us.

Rob Billerbeck, director of the Colorado Natural Areas Program (CNAP), welcomed everyone and told the story of how the unique coalition of state agencies, non-profit organizations, and private landowners came together to preserve the Wacker Ranch Natural Area.  Brian Kurzel of CNAP explained how the fundraising for the campaign happened.  Dave Gann of the Nature Conservancy talked about his organization's role in managing the property on behalf of the Colorado Natural Areas Program for the next several decades.  Rob and Brian then honored each of the players in the campaign for their role in this novel success, including Peggy Lyon from the Colorado Natural Heritage Program (who has done much of the surveying and field research on the buckwheat and the property), Ellen Mayo of the Fish and Wildlife Service (who helped the coalition apply for and secure a grant from the Service to allow the purchase of the property), and us. 

Perhaps the most important guests who were honored at the event were Harold and Kathleen Wacker, the original owners of the property.  Harold and Kathy bought the property more than 30 years ago.  They first became aware of the endangered clay-loving wild buckwheat when they allowed The Nature Conservancy onto their land to survey for rare plants.  Since then, they have remained responsible stewards of the species, protecting it from livestock trampling, off-road vehicle tresspass, and other threats, even as the properties around them inexorably converted into tract homes.  When they were ready to sell the half of their property containing the buckwheat, they contacted CNAP and the The Nature Conservancy about buying it and were willing to allow our coaltion to hold the option to buy while we continued our fundraising efforts.

Now, the Wackers continue to live next door and remain involved with the coalition as it decides how to manage the Wacker Ranch Natural Area to protect the clay-loving wild buckwheat and other outstanding natural values found there.

After the Wackers and others were recognized for their roles in this great success, the group was escorted on a tour of the property via the one trail allowed on the land, an old road bed that rises to an overlook.  Photographers from the attending media and others snapped pictures as Peggy Lyon and others introduced the guests to the buckwheat's unique habitat.  Peggy shared with the group the impressive results of a species survey she conducted on the property a few months earlier, during which she was able to find a much greater diversity of species than originally suspected, including other rare plants and animals.  In addition to the endangered buckwheat, the Wacker Ranch Natural Area supports the rare desert parsley and the Adobe penstemon, both of which have been considered for Endangered Species Act protection due to their scarcity.  Peggy also found the highly imperiled Gunnison's prairie dog and the northern leopard frog, a species Center for Native Ecosystems recently petitioned for Endangered Species Act protection.  Joining Peggy as interpreter for the tour was Barbara Hawke of the Black Canyon Land Trust, who showed the group the rare lichens that are found on the property as well.  It may sound unusual to say that this or that lichen species is rare or threatened, but lichens are in fact a vital, if fragile, piece of the semi-desert landscape in the Adobe Hills, and many varieties are losing habitat rapidly as the area gets developed.

After the public event, the Advisory Committee for the Wacker Ranch Natural Area met to continue our discussion of ongoing management needs for the property.  The agenda was focused on the most urgent management needs, so naturally weeds were at the top of the list.  Like so many Western landscapes, the Adobe Hills that encompass the Wacker Ranch are threatened by invasion from noxious weeds and other exotic species which displace native plants.  Fortunately, many of the partners on the Advisory Committee, like Colorado Natural Heritage Program and Colorado Native Plant Society (CoNPS), have lots of experience with battling weed infestations that threaten native plants.  Dickson Pratt, a CoNPS member in Montrose who has extensive experience with safe weed control measures, generously volunteered to begin immediate control measures on the most urgent weed challenge on the Wacker Ranch, Russian knapweed which has encroached on the front section of the property.  Fortunately, this aggressive weed has not reached the section of the property which supports clay-loving wild buckwheat, but left unchecked it can quickly spread.  With so much land disturbed by agriculture and housing development nearby, weed encroachment will continue to be a management challenge on the Wacker Ranch, but with knowledgeable volunteers like Dickson and CNAP Volunteer Steward Brenda Balfus-Williams, we will continue to meet the challenge.

Center for Native Ecosystems has been tremendously excited to be part of this unique collaborative effort to secure the Wacker Ranch Natural Area.  Not only are we proud to support the state Natural Areas Program and to work with such diverse and excellent partners, we also have been gratified to participate in a cooperative solution to an endangered species challenge with allies that many people assume are always on the other side of endangered species situations from us, like private landowners and the Fish and Wildlife Service.  Though we often find ourselves forced to rely on our tools of last resort, such as litigation, to protect the endangered species and habitat in our region that are so threatened these days, our actual tool box is much larger and includes tactics like collaboration with landowners and outright land purchases.  We are proud to be a part of the ongoing management of this property and will surely learn many lessons as an organization from being involved in this ongoing effort.