FENS
Fens are amazing wetlands. Their organic soils, springs and seeps set them apart from all the other wetland habitats in the state. I’ve worked in fens my whole career, starting with an MS, PhD and Post-doctoral Fellowship all focused on studying the vegetation and ecological functioning of fens. Coupling that academic research with more than 25 years of professional investigative and restoration experience, it seems like I’ve done about everything “fenny”. Fen investigations tend to fall into three categories: mapping, assessment and restoration.
Mapping – Managing, restoring and even avoiding fens starts with knowing where they exist. I have mapped fens all over the state, in study areas ranging in size from a small parcel to ranches covering multiple thousands of acres to the south slope of Pike’s Peak, to entire geographic regions including both North and South Parks.
Assessment – Once one knows the whereabouts of fens in their area of interest, the next question to be answered is commonly, “what is the health of the fens?” or “What is degrading fen health and how can it be restored?” To me this is one of the most interesting aspects of fen investigations and it is vital to get this right. Assessment of fen functioning underlies all aspects of stewardship, from management to restoration. This is a classic example such an assessment, that I did with EcoMetrics at the Cucumber Gulch in Breckenridge - an Aquatic Resource of National Importance. This report led to a long-term program of restoration, management and study.
Restoration – Fens are notoriously difficult to restore correctly. How I learned to restore fens was to first intensively study how they functioned. I learned what makes them tick. Then I began to apply that learning to leading them back to health. The crown jewel so far in my career as a fen ecologist was the restoration at Denver Water’s Fourmile Creek Fen Mitigation Bank, with Colorado Corrections, Inc. Restoring this 96 acre site was a life changing event for me, and perhaps the most rewarding project I’ve done, to date.
Another high point was the Rocky Mountain Fen Research Project. In this voluntary demonstration project, a peat-mined fen was brought back to life by reconstructing the subterranean hydrologic system and then transplanting intact blocks of peat and vegetation, one-by-one.
