South San Juan Broadband • Entered by Louise van Vonno on July 29, 2021
Grazing hike in Hermosa watershed
July 28, 2021 – July 28, 2021
Participants and Hours
| Pre Planning hours | 2 |
| Post Admin hours | 1 |
| Activity Hours | 9.5 |
| Participants | 3 |
| Total Hours | 31.5 |
Key Issue: Livestock Grazing Management
Activity Type: Stewardship (monitoring, sampling, planting, etc.)
Key Partners: Columbine Forest District. Sean Kelly- Ranger and Kate Vassel-Range Management Specialist
Landscape/area: Hermosa Creek Wilderness (37203 acres)
Measurable Outcomes
Outcome 1: Event Attendees (3 people)
Outcome 2: Hiked (8 miles)
Outcome 3: Trail/land monitored (1 sites/plots)[/if 1231]
Short Description of Activity
3 members of our Broadband met Sean Kelly and Kate Vassel at the end of Elbert Creek Rd Thursday morning at 9:15 to hike into the grazing allotments in the Hermosa Creek watershed. Our goal was to examine a few key areas in the NW pasture but that was not accesible by foot so we hiked over to Beer Keg to compare conditions from last year. Lauri collected 7.5lbs of mushrooms and we all foraged for wild strawberris that we ate along the way.
Reflection/Evaluation
We did not examine the NW pastures. It was extremely steep terrain in a heavily burned area. We did examine a key area in the Upper Dutch creek allotment which looked very healthy. We also hiked over to the Beer Keg area which is a fragile riparian area. The cattle have not been in there this year and with the recent rains it looked quite good. We plan to return after the cattle have been in there this grazing season. We were all very happy to see how resilient the landscape is. Rain and no-cows = happy plants! Lots of wildflowers, a few increasers but no apparent invasives.
Photos/Uploads
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Photo Captions
1) Rose demonstrating height of grasses when no cattle have been grazing
2) Sean Kelly talking to the group
3) Rose standing downhill from a spring that is damned
4) Beer Keg area