The most intact portion of the Central Shortgrass Prairie ecoregion is in southeast Colorado, in private ownership. In 2007 and 2009, landowners requested biological inventories of their properties by the Colorado Natural Heritage Program, so the landowners might obtain data pertinent to their stewardship, future management decisions, and ecosystem credit values.
This study was made possible with support from Great Outdoors Colorado, Colorado Division of Wildlife, Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust, Colorado State Land Board, The Nature Conservancy, Natural Resource Conservation Service, and private landowners.
Our surveys have confirmed that southeast Colorado is a biological hotspot. CNHP mapped over 2400 mapped locations of 41 rare species of animals, 36 of rare plants, and 46 plant communities of conservation concern.
The results of the 2009 surveys are now available in the report Southeastern Colorado Survey of Critical Biological Resources 2009 Addendum to the 2007 Survey. Both this and the report for the 2007 surveys are available on the Documents and Reports page of our website.
