WHICH ECOSYSTEMS ARE IN NEED OF PROTECTION? 
Humans have been a part of natural ecosystems 
far millenia, yet the explosion in population and 
accompanying resource use in the last century 
has resulted in drastic changes in. the structure 
of ecosystems. Much of the change has involved 
simplification, so that the structure of the 
ecosystem is oriented solely toward production 
of food or f\ber for humans. Because of this, 
ecosystems that formerly occupied valley land, 
areas of rich soil, or areas associated with 
water have suffered extensive conversion to ag- 
riculture. In the western United States nearly 
all of the remaining non-forested lands have beer 
used for domestic grazing. Though grazing has 
been a natural part of many grassland ecosystems 
throughout their evolution, so that they are 
somewhat resistant to the impact of animals, 
other Colorado grasslands (e.g. mountain park 
grasslands such as the bluebunch wheatgrass 
grasslands of Middle and North Parks) probably 
did not evolve under the influence of large 
herds of wild ungulates, and now deteriorate 
rapidly with grazing by domestic animals. 
Forests, on the other hand, have mostly suffered 
from increased fires gr lumbering* though cer- 
tain kinds of forests have been extensively 
cleared to create agricultural lands. The 
overall impacts an forest are generally lower 
in the west in terms of changes in ecosystem 
structure that they are in grasslands and po- 
tential agricultural lands. 
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE COLORADO NATURAL HERI- 
TAGE INVENTORY? 
The Colorado Natural Heritage Inventory (CNHI), 
which is a part of the Natural Areas Program in 
the Division of Natural Resources of the State 
of Colorado, is beginning to serve as a central 
data base for information on the status of 
ecosystems in the state. For the past few 
months, CNHI has been preparing a list of the 
terrestrial ecosystems of the state. This list 
encompasses all the ecosystems that have been 
named and described in the scientific litera- 
ture, including the recently prepared List of 
Habitat Types of Region 2 of the Forest Ser- 
vice, the Bureau of Land Managements Range Site 
Types, the Society of American Foresters' Forest 
Cover Types, etc. This list will be circulated 
for review by ecologists throughout the state. 
CNHI is currently inputting all available data 
on ecosystems and their locations in Colorado 
so that this Information will be available for 
any geographic area. The status of a part1au 4r j 
ecosystem is then assessed by considering how 
widespread the system formerly was, etc. CNHI is 
developing, through the volunteer efforts of 
Steve Boand, a comparable list for the aquatic 
systems. Though CNHI's role is strictly that of 
a data base, information on the status of eco- 
systems, location of remaining high quality ex- 
amples, etc., is provided to anyone in the 
state, including federal and state land manage- 
ment agencies, private consulting firms. The 
Nature Conservancy, private individuals, and 
the Natural Areas Program. This information is 
being used on a regular basis. 
WHAT CAN YOU DO? 
CNHI needs help In many phases of data collec- 
tion, input, and use. We would like to estab- 
lish a statewide network of people who could 
periodically volunteer to assist in searching 
for examples of ecosystems and in photographing 
or collecting information on these systems. 
Particularly valuable are people who have a 
general knowledge of the geography of a par- 
ticular area or some familiarity with plants or 
the ecosystems in some part of the state. 
Volunteer* who heve a fondness for forms, fil- 
ing, or maps are needed: in tfts Denver office. 
Qur current list of the state's ecosystems in- 
cludes some 500 types, anti is too bulky ajid^ 
costly for general circulation in Janua 
These lists will be of those systems that a, 
pear to be most threatened and those systems for 
which we would like to find more locations and 
more data. Eventually, we plan to prepare an 
abstract for each ecosystem, which will describe- 
the system, indicate its general range in 
Colorado, include all scientific references to 
the system and, hopefully, photographs. 
If you would like to become involved in any of 
these activities, please send your name, ad- 
dress, phone number, a list of your general 
interests, background, training. If you have a 
particular geographic area of the state you know 
well or would like to help with, send that. We 
need someone who knows anything at all about 
some of the less spectacular parts of Colorado, 
such as Phillips County or Kit Carson County. 
Send all information to Bill Baker, Plant 
Ecologist, Colorado Natural Heritage Inventory, 
1550 Lincoln St. #106, Denver, CO 80203. I may 
not be able to answer immediately, but you will 
be added to our network and contacted as some 
point. 
Bill Baker 
