The City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) department designated nine Habitat Conservation Areas (HCAs) as a way to protect areas that provide habitat to some of Boulder’s rare plants and animals.
HCAs protect some trees and flowers so unusual that they are found nowhere else in Colorado! Other species in HCAs are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
You can help preserve and protect these extraordinary areas by staying on trail, observing closure signs and regulations, and avoiding nighttime use from one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise.
Mountain Lion sitting by its cache
Klaus Girk
An adult Bald Eagle perched in a tree
This HCA protects a 3,000 acre remnant of intact grassland and the plant and animal species that depend upon it. Visitors to the area may see wildlife such as badgers or burrowing owls. A restored section of Coal Creek cuts across the HCA. Bald eagles return each year to nest in the cottonwood trees along its banks and many ground-nesting birds breed here each spring, such as meadowlarks and grasshopper sparrows. To visit this HCA, walk the High Plains and Greenbelt Plateau trails.
Off trail travel in this HCA requires an off-trail permit.
The diverse terrain of Eldorado Mountain provides habitat for plants and animals. Here you’ll find shady old growth pine forests, dry meadows, cool canyons and dense shrub thickets. Few trails or roads bisect this area, making it available for animals such as Northern goshawks, mountain lions, Preble's meadow jumping mice and rare butterflies such as Shryver’s Elfin.
Travel off the trail in Eldorado Mountain HCA is only allowed for visitors with an off-trail permit.
Tim Hogan
Paper Birch in Long Canyon
Boulder’s climate was cool and moist 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. Thick deciduous forests covered the foothills. As the Ice Age came to an end, the climate became hot and dry. The moisture-loving forests were replaced by Ponderosa Pines and drought-tolerant shrubs except in a few cool canyons where Ice Age conditions—and plant communities—can be found to this day. Nowhere else in Colorado can you find Paper Birches (Long Canyon Trail) or the tiny White Adder’s Mouth orchid. Western Mountain Parks preserves areas unbroken by roads or trails, preserving habitat for animals like wild turkey, bobcat and black bear. Narrow tree-lined canyons attract nesting flammulated owls and Williamson’s sapsuckers. One way to enjoy this HCA is to hike the “Triple Peak Challenge,” a strenuous day hike that takes you across all three summits of the mountain backdrop on the Green Mountain West Ridge and Greenbear trails.
OSMP requires visitors to stay on the trail in the Western Mountain Parks, unless they have obtained an off-trail permit.
Claudia Van Wie
Bell's Twinpod
The geology underlying the land supports and defines the living communities above it. This is especially true in the North Foothills HCA, where outcroppings of Smoky Hills shale score the landscape. The shale creates soils rich in selenium, which support unusual plants. The Colorado Natural Heritage Program lists many of this HCA’s plant communities as “sensitive” at the state-wide level. Look for the yellow-flowered Bell’s Twinpod in spring which is unique in the world to the selenium-rich shale barrens along the Front Range. The rare birdsfoot violet also crops up here and there. Rattlesnakes from the surrounding areas congregate here in winter, hibernating within rocky crevices. If you have sharp eyes, you may see Horned Lizards, commonly known as Horny Toads, sunning themselves on rocks.
The Hogback Ridge and North Sky Trails provide on-trail access to this HCA. A small area of off-trail travel near Joder Ranch Trail is allowed with an off-trail permit.
Cottonwood trees line the bank of Boulder Creek as it flows across eastern Boulder County. Animals use the creek to move between farms and fields in the security of streamside thickets. Lower Boulder Creek’s abundant water provides habitat for many amphibian and reptile species including the only occurrence of the six-lined race runner lizard on OSMP. Several pools along the creek provide a refuge for fish, where they can restock the populations up and down the waterway. The area can be accessed on the East Boulder/White Rocks Trail. Visitors may see bald eagles, northern harriers, belted kingfishers, and Great blue herons, which nest in a protected rookery just east of the HCA.
Because of special characteristics of the Lower Boulder Creek ecological systems, including protection of nesting bald eagles, off trail travel is not allowed in this HCA. A limited number of guided hikes are conducted by Open Space staff in late summer and early fall after eagles have fledged. More information about guided hikes in this HCA and elsewhere can be found on the Natural Selections webpage.
The grassy flats beneath Jewel Mountain are relatively undamaged because its stony soil was too difficult for settlers to plow. This unusual “xeric” (dry land) tall grass prairie is home to a number of rare butterflies such as the Arogos and Crossline Skippers. Jewel Mountain is home to elk herds that migrate between the mountains and eastern plains. Southern Arapaho cultural sites also make this an important area. Jewel Mountain HCA is not open to public access.
Dave Sutherland
Bobolink on fence post
When the Ice Age came to an end 10,000 years ago, Colorado’s lush stands of tallgrass prairie couldn’t take the heat, and were replaced by drought-tolerant grasses. But in isolated pockets around Boulder, tiny remnants or “relicts” of this ecosystem remain. This HCA preserves some of the most important stands of dryland (xeric) tallgrass prairie west of the Mississippi River. In fall, grasses take on delicate and subtle shades of ochre, tan, wine and purple. These pockets of habitat support rare plants like the Ute Ladies’ Tresses Orchid, which is protected under the Endangered Species Act and the American Ground Nut, known to grow in only six sites in Colorado (four of them on OSMP). Bobolinks, disappearing across much of their range, still nest here, as do common snipe and meadowlarks. Prairie dog colonies in this HCA attract hawks, eagles and American badgers.
No trails have been designated in this HCA. Many visitors enjoy the South Boulder Creek Trail, which runs along the edge of this HCA.
Sombrero Marsh may have been the only perennial body of open water in Boulder Valley at the time of settlement. Sombrero is an alkali marsh, rare in this part of the United States. It is shallow and periodically dries out, leaving mudflats that provide unique habitat for emergent vegetation and nesting wading birds. But it wasn’t always this way! It had been used as a garbage dump until 2000, when OSMP acquired the marsh. OSMP began restoring the marsh, first hauling out 55,000 cubic yards of trash, then replanting native alkali marsh vegetation. Several short trails and a board walk now skirt the eastern shore for use by the public, school groups and classes at Thorne Ecological Institute.
Wendy Marie Stuart
Great Horned Owl in tree
Many species of songbirds nest among the foliage of the cottonwood trees that like Boulder Creek, including yellow warblers, northern orioles, blue grosbeaks, and American goldfinches. In the grassy meadows, rabbits search for food and watch out for red foxes and great horned owls. Because of the research value of this habitat, the Cottonwood Grove HCA is closed to visitors. An agreement with the University of Colorado has provided long-term research at Cottonwood Grove HCA.
One of the ways that HCAs protect ecological systems is by requiring visitors to stay on designated trails. Off-trail permits are required to travel away from the trail in the following HCAs:
Off-trail activities include hiking, bird watching, photography, climbing and running. Dog walking and bicycle riding are not allowed off-trail. Designated trails are always marked with signs that include a trail name. Dog walking and bicycle riding are not allowed on or off trail on Goshawk Ridge Trail in the Eldorado Mountain HCA, and equestrians may only travel on trail. Nighttime use (one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise) in HCAs is discouraged.
Off-trail travel is not allowed in the Lower Boulder Creek HCA, or most of the North Foothills HCA.
No visitor access is allowed in the Jewel Mountain or Cottonwood Grove HCAs.
Off-trail access is currently allowed but discouraged for the following HCAs:
No off trail permit is required for these areas.
