The Planning Area is located in the foothills and montane life zones of Boulder County. Elevation ranges from approximately 6,000’ where Magnolia Road crosses Middle Boulder Creek in the bottom of Boulder Canyon to 8,900’ on Tungsten Mountain in the southwest corner of the Planning Area. Forest cover in most locations is dominated by ponderosa pine mixed with Douglas-fir and some Rocky Mountain juniper. Lodgepole pine is a common forest cover on north-facing slopes above 8,200’ and throughout much of the western portion of the Planning Area. Limber pine is found on exposed, rocky ridges and summits. Other upland plant communities of note are aspen forests and meadows.
Surface water is limited to wetlands, stockponds and streambeds. Most of the wetlands and streams are small. Spring, however, can be very wet everywhere, with rushing creeks and standing water in the meadows. Spruce, cottonwood, willow, alder and birch dominate riparian ecosystems.
Adverse impacts from historical and current land uses are ubiquitous. Meadows dominated by native plant species are rare. Old-growth forest structure is almost nonexistent, although there are some patches of conifers that could become old growth in a generation or two. Fire ecology in conifer forests and mountain grasslands has been disrupted from natural cycles. Charred stumps and occasional blackened tree trunks attest to the occurrence of fire, but there has not been a major area-wide event in approximately one hundred years. The result is that current fire hazard is very high.
Despite these and other adverse impacts, the Planning Area contains some of the last wild areas on the Front Range, as evidenced by the designation of two Environmental Conservation Areas in the Boulder County Comprehensive Plan. These conservation areas total approximately 5,000 acres out of the 12,000 acre Planning Area and represent sites with the highest level of natural integrity and/or the best opportunity for ecological restoration. The natural vegetative ecosystems have been greatly impacted since pre-settlement times. It will take sustained effort and cooperation between the public land management agencies, private property owners, and other interest groups to restore and maintain healthy ecosystems in the Magnolia area.
A wealth of information exists for the Planning Area. The Boulder County Geographic Information System Department has produced a vegetation map of the Planning Area that has been used in the Winiger Ridge project (described below). The County and Forest Service have mapped old-growth and potential old-growth stands. The Forest Service has utilized aerial photography to classify vegetative communities. The Boulder County Parks and Open Space Department (1998) conducted extensive fieldwork in order to develop management plans for its three open space parcels in this area. The Boulder County Ecosystem Cooperative has generated extensive data for the Winiger Ridge project. Mutel and Emerick (1984), Peet (1981), and Marr (1967) have described the foothill and montane lifezones and ecosystems of the Front Range. Veblen and Lorentz (1991) have documented the changes in the forests over the past century.
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