Plant and Animal Species of Local Concern in the Boulder Valley

The loss of species can occur when habitat is lost, fragmented or degraded and when natural processes are disrupted or discontinued. Ecosystem and habitat conservation practices act as a coarse filter to address the decline of species and ecological systems by considering system level interactions, structure and processes. Coarse-scale conservation, however, does not preclude the need to identify and protect individual species. “Fine filter” or species-based approaches are often used to complement ecosystem conservation. These species-based techniques are meant to address the conservation needs of species that are especially rare or sensitive to some human activity and therefore not necessarily conserved by habitat or ecosystem level strategies.

Fine-filter conservation has been used to avoid the decline of species to threatened or endangered status. Some uncommon and rare species of the Boulder Valley, especially plants, occur in restricted and unusual habitats. Because they are localized, they could be destroyed quickly by incompatible human activities, land uses, or natural catastrophes.

Project Purpose

Policy 3.03 expresses the city’s intent to protect local species diversity and natural ecosystems. The purpose of creating the Boulder Valley Species of Special Concern List is to support this policy by refining federal and state lists of species of concern to reflect the uniqueness of lands within the Boulder Valley.

Boulder faces unique challenges in managing its wildlife and plant resources, due to its location at the urban/wildland, the diversity of habitats, the variety of recreational uses, and the amount of community involvement. The Boulder Valley Species of Special Concern List is intended as a supplement to the Critical Habitat and Species section of the Boulder County Comprehensive Plan Environmental Resources Element.

The Species of Special Concern List complements the Natural Ecosystem designation in the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan by serving as a reference for the protection and management of sensitive species and their habitat. The list is a guide for developing departmental management plans and for making citywide policy, land use, and regulatory decisions. The list will be updated as the status of species changes and as data gaps are filled.

Project Goals

The following goals guided the development of the Species of Special Concern List:

Recognize sensitive plant and animal species currently unrecognized through regulatory programs
Integrate local significant ecological features of the Boulder Valley as part of the spectrum of species of concern
Establish local responsibility for species of concern
Provide updated and Boulder Valley specific guidance for city policies, regulations, programs and plans
Recognize the intrinsic value of local flora and fauna
Instill community awareness of species protection issues and the cumulative impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation
Create a living record for future monitoring and study

Planning and other city and county practices to help implement policy 4.06 include the following:

Public land management
Public acquisition
Purchase of development rights or conservation easements
Promotion of private land conservation practices
Land use designation changes and rezonings
Annexations and initial zonings
Service area boundary changes
Mitigation of impacts through development review
Subcommunity and departmental master planning.

Listing Criteria

State, and federal species of concern lists were used to create the Boulder Valley List of Species of Special Concern. Information was collected from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Colorado Division of Wildlife, and Colorado Natural Heritage Program. At least one of these agencies recognizes each species on the list as having a global, federal, or state ranking of concern. The criteria for including a species on the Boulder Valley list is as follows:

1. The species is listed under the provisions of the federal Endangered Species Act as;

LE – Listed Endangered
LT – Listed Threatened
PT – Proposed threatened or
C – Candidate for listing

2. The species is listed by the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife as

Threatened
Endangered

3. The species is listed by the Colorado Natural Heritage Program as

G1 – Globally critically imperiled (typically 5 or fewer occurrences)
G2 – Globally imperiled (typically 6 to 20 occurrences)
S1 – State critically imperiled (typically 5 or fewer occurrences)
S2 – State imperiled (typically 6 to 20 occurrences)

In the future, this list may be expanded to include species that meet the following additional criteria, listed in order of precedence:

The species is endemic to this area
The species is critical to ecosystem function or ecosystem processes are diminished enough to require intervention
The species habitat is isolated, at the edge of it range, or declining in Boulder County
The species habitat or population is threatened by adjacent land uses, recreational uses, invasive weed species, wildlife influence or collecting activities
The species habitat is limited or the species is a member of a relictual community
Information or professional data on this species is lacking
The species is extirpated in Boulder County
The species requires special management or monitoring actions related to public safety or federal/state protection

For plant species, the following criteria may be used in addition to the above to further refine the list as needed:

The species is limited to uncommon successional stage(s)
The species has a high sensitivity to fire or other disturbance
The number of pollinators of the species is limited
The species is a critical food source, etc., for rare animal species
The species is threatened by the high degree of reproductive or genetic isolation.

Listed Species

Common Name	Scientific Name	Criteria for Listing
American Peregrine Falcon	Falco peregrinus anatum	LE, S2
American Redstart	Setophaga ruticilla	S1
Argos Skipper	Atrytone argos	S2
Bald Eagle	Haliaeetus leucocephalus	LT, S1, state threatened
Banded Physa	Physa utahensis	G1, S1
Black-tailed Prairie Dog	Cynomys ludovicianus	C
Blue-Ringed Dancer	Argia sedula	S2
Burrowing Owl	Athene cunicularia	state threatened
Chestnut-sided Warbler	Dendroica pensylvanica	S2
Colorado Blue	Euphilotes rita coloradensis	S
Common Shiner	Notropis cornutus	S2
Cylindrical Papershell	Anodontoides ferussacianus	S2
Great Egret	Ardea alba	S1
Greenback cutthroat trout	Oncorhynchus clarki virginalis	LT, S2, state threatened
Hops Azure	Celastrina humulus	G2, S2
Lake Chub	Couesius plumbeus	LE, S1
Lake Darner	Aeshna eremita	S1
Long-billed Curlew	Numenius americanus	S2
Moss's Elfin or Schryver's Elfin	Callophrys mossii schryveri	C, S2
Mottled Duskywing	Erynnis martialis	S2
Mountain Plover	Charadrius montanus	S2
Northern Goshawk	Accipiter gentilis	S2
Northern Redbelly Dace	Phoxinus eos	S1, state endangered
Ottoe Skipper	Hesperia ottoe	S2
Ovenbird	Seiurus aurocapillus	S2
Plains sharp-tailed Grouse	Tympanuchus phasianellus jamesi	S1, state endangered
Plains Topminnow	Fundulus sciadicus	C, S2
Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse	Zapus hudsonius preblei	LT, S1, state threatened
Regal Fritillary	Speyeria idalia	C, S1
Rhesus Skipper	Polites rhesus	S2
Rocky Mountain Arctic Jutta	Oeneis jutta reducta	S1
Rocky Mountain Capshell	Acroloxus coloradensis	S2
Sharp Sprite	Promenetus exacuous	S2
Short-eared Owl	Asio flammeus	S2
Stonecat	Noturus flavus	S1
Two-spotted Skipper	Euphyes bimacula	S2
White-winged Crossbill	Loxia leucoptera	S1
Extirpated Species
American Bison	Bison bison
Black-footed Ferret	Mustela frenata	G1, LE, S1, state endangered
Grizzly Bear	Mustela frenata	LT, state endangered
Northern River Otter	Lutra canadensis	state endangered
Pronghorn Antelope	Antilocapra americana
Timber Wolf	Canis lupus lycaon