General information

Provisional. A provisional ecological site description has undergone quality control and quality assurance review. It contains a working state and transition model and enough information to identify the ecological site.

MLRA notes

Major Land Resource Area (MLRA): 049X–Southern Rocky Mountain Foothills

MLRA 49 is in Colorado (58 percent), Wyoming (27 percent), and New Mexico (15 percent). It makes up about 11,130 square miles (28,845 square kilometers). The major cities in or adjacent to this MLRA are Laramie, Wyoming; Fort Collins, Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo, Colorado; and Santa Fe and Las Vegas, New Mexico. Interstates 25, 70, and 80 cross the MLRA. Part of the Medicine Bow National Forest is in the northern tip of this area, in Wyoming; parts of the Roosevelt, Pike, and San Isabel National Forests are in this area in Colorado; and part of the Santa Fe National Forest is in the southern end of this area, in New Mexico. The Rocky Flats Nuclear Arsenal, Peterson Air Force Base, most of the Air Force Academy grounds, and part of the Fort Carson Military Reservation are in the part of this area in Colorado.

Almost half of this area is in the Southern Rocky Mountains and Wyoming Basin Provinces in the Rocky Mountain System. The rest is in the Colorado Pediment, Raton, and High Plains Sections of the Great Plains Province of the Interior Plains. The northern part of the MLRA consists of the Laramie Mountains. The central and southern parts generally are bounded on the east by the Great Plains and on the west by the Southern Rocky Mountains. Elevation ranges from 5,000 feet (1,525 meters) to 8,000 feet (2,440 meters) in most of the MLRA, but small mountains in the area are as high as 10,000 feet (3,050 meters). The Laramie and North Platte Rivers and their associated tributaries are the principal streams in the Wyoming portion of the MLRA. The Cache La Poudre, Big Thompson, Saint Vrain, South Platte, Arkansas, Saint Charles, Huerfano, Cucharas, and Purgatoire Rivers, Clear Creek, Fountain Creek, and their associated tributaries are the principal streams in the Colorado portion. The Vermejo, Cimarron, Pecos, and Mora Rivers and their associated tributaries are the principal streams in the New Mexico portion.

This area has been impacted by the geologic processes of uplift, folding, and faulting and by subsequent erosion and deposition. The Southern Rocky Mountains were uplifted 50 to 70 million years ago during the Laramide uplift. Most of this MLRA is adjacent to this uplift and was also affected. The uplift induced erosion of the relatively soft Late Pennsylvanian to Cretaceous sedimentary rocks from the uplands and dissected the underlying crystalline Precambrian rocks. The relief of the area was reduced by a combination of erosion of uplands and alluvial filling. Approximately 7 million years ago, a large portion of the area was uplifted again to elevations of 14,000 feet (4,270 meters) or more at the core of the Laramide uplift. Since then, precipitation occurring as both rain and snow led to the renewal of erosion and subsequent alluvial fills. The Wyoming portion of the MLRA, the Laramie Mountains, consists primarily of Precambrian plutonic rocks with Pennsylvanian and Permian sedimentary rocks folded and faulted at the margin of the range. The Colorado and New Mexico portions of the area consist primarily of remnants of the uplifted and folded Pennsylvanian through Cretaceous sedimentary rocks forming hogbacks, ridges, and hills, the ranges of which trend in a general north-south direction, parallel to the uplifted Southern Rocky Mountains. Tertiary volcanic flows filled valleys in some areas. After extensive erosion, these more resistant volcanic rocks now form prominent mesas, such as North and South Table Mountains near Golden, Colorado, and Fishers Peak Mesa near the Colorado-New Mexico border. Stream erosion from the eastern front of the Southern Rocky Mountains fostered the creation of a sequence of large alluvial fan remnants, pediments, and terrace deposits in this MLRA.

The average annual precipitation is 12 to 25 inches (305 to 635 millimeters) in most of this area, but it ranges from 10 to 35 inches (255 to 890 millimeters), generally increasing with elevation. The highest precipitation occurs in the Laramie Mountains, in Wyoming, and the lowest precipitation occurs in the Arkansas River Valley, above Salida, Colorado. Most of the rainfall occurs as high-intensity, convective thunderstorms during the growing season. Winter precipitation occurs as snow. The average annual temperature is 36 to 54 degrees F (2 to 12 degrees C). The freeze-free period averages 140 days and ranges from 90 to 195 days, decreasing in length with elevation and from south to north.

The dominant soil orders in this MLRA are Mollisols, Alfisols, Inceptisols, and Entisols. The soils in the Colorado and New Mexico portions of the MLRA dominantly have a frigid or mesic soil temperature regime. Those in the Wyoming portion have a frigid or cryic soil temperature regime. A few of the higher peaks and some north aspects have a cryic soil temperature regime. Most of the soils in the area have an ustic soil moisture regime, but those on the higher peaks and on some north aspects have a udic soil moisture regime. The soils in the area dominantly have smectitic or mixed mineralogy. They are very shallow to very deep and are dominantly well drained. The texture is dominantly loamy in soils that formed in material weathered from igneous and metamorphic rocks and is dominantly loamy or clayey in soils that formed in material weathered from sedimentary rocks. Some of the most extensive and representative great groups are Haplustolls (Baller series), Argiustolls (Nederland, Nunn, Santa Fe, and Enmedio series), Haplustalfs (Fort Collins, Stoneham, and Dargol series), Haplustepts (Stout series), Ustorthents (Lorencito and Saruche series), and Paleustolls (Flatirons series). (USDA-NRCS, 2006)

LRU notes

Land Resource Unit (LRU) 03 (formerly C) is a transition zone between the mountains and plains and describes the central Colorado foothills of the Front Range including the Palmer Divide. It includes the cities of Highlands Ranch, Castle Rock, and Kiowa in Douglas and Elbert counties. The Black Forest/Palmer Divide area is central, while Cheyenne Mountain State Park at Colorado Springs is the southernmost extent in El Paso County. It is characterized by Gambel Oak and Ponderosa Pine with ponderosa pine increasing at higher elevations. The ponderosa pine grades into grasslands on the drier eastern fringes as it transitions into the plains. This area was historically used for ranching, some farming, timbering, mining and quarry activities. The area had an influx of people during the Colorado gold rush of 1859. Because of its proximity to Denver and Colorado Springs, many of the original ranches and small towns have been converted to subdivisions, small acreage land holdings and suburbs. Some cities and counties such as Castle Rock and Douglas County have zoned "open space" for recreation and rangeland leased for ranching.

Classification relationships

NRCS:
Major Land Resource Area 49, Southern Rocky Mountain Foothills (United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2006).

USFS:
M331Ib – North Front Range; M331Ic – North Laramie Mountains; M331Id – South Laramie Mountains; and M331Ii – Northern Arkansas Granitics – 39 mile Mountain M331I – Northern Parks and Ranges M331 - Southern Rocky Mountain Steppe - Open Woodland - Coniferous Forest - Alpine Meadow (Cleland, 2007)

M331Fb – Wet Mountains; M331Fc – Wet Mountain Valley; M331Ff – Raton Basin; M331Fg – Sangre de Cristo Mountains Woodland; and M331Fh – Sangre de Cristo Mountains Coniferous Forest M331F – Southern Parks and Rocky Mountain Range M331 - Southern Rocky Mountain Steppe - Open Woodland - Coniferous Forest - Alpine Meadow (Cleland, 2007)

331If – Arkansas Valley Tablelands; 331Ig- Arkansas Valley High Tablelands; 331Ih – Black Forest; and 331Ii – Southern Front Range Foothills < 331l – Arkansas Tablelands < 331 Great Plains – Palouse Dry Steppe (Cleland, 2007)

331Ha – Southern Denver-Julesburg Basin; 331Hc – Eastern Central High Plains; 331He – Northern Front Range Foothills and 331Hf – Denver-Julesburg Basin < 331H – Central High Plains < 331 Great Plains – Palouse Dry Steppe (Cleland, 2007)

EPA:
21b – Crystalline Subalpine Forests, 21c – Crystalline Mid-Elevations Forests, 21d -Foothill Shrublands, 21e – Sedimentary Subalpine Forests, and 21f – Sedimentary Mid-Elevation Forests, 21j – Grassland Parks < 21 Southern Rockies < 6.2 Western Cordillera < 6 Northwestern Forested Mountains North American Deserts (Chapman et. al, 2006).

25c – Moderate Relief Plains, 25d – Flat to Rolling Plains, and 25l – Front Range Fans < 25 High Plains < 9.4 South Central Semi-Arid Prairies < 9 Great Plains (Chapman et. al, 2006).

26e – Piedmont Plains and Tablelands, 26f- Mesa de Maya/Black Mesa, 26h- Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands and Savannas, 26i – Pine-Oak Woodlands, 26j – Foothills Grasslands, 26k – Sandsheets, and 26l – Upper Canadian Plateau < 26 Southwestern Tablelands < 9.4 South Central Semi-arid Prairies < 9 Great Plains (Chapman et. al, 2006).

USGS:
Southern Rocky Mountain Province, Colorado Piedmont and Raton

Ecological site concept

R049XY206CO Stony Foothill occurs on hillslopes, ridges, hills and mountainsides. Slopes is between 5 to 60%. Soils range from shallow to deep (10 to 100 inches) in depth. Soils are derived from residuum and/or colluvium from sedimentary rock or alluvium, residuum or colluvium in general. Soil surface texture range from extremely stony loam, very cobbly loam, stony loam, bouldery clay loam or stony sandy loam. Family particle size is clayey, fine, and loamy-skeletal. It is a Big Bluestem – Little Bluestem- Rocky Mountain Juniper community. It has a typic ustic moisture regime and mesic temperature regime. The effective precipitation ranges from 17 to 20 inches.

Associated sites

Similar sites

Table 1. Dominant plant species