{"id":22906,"date":"2025-04-01T22:14:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T04:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/explore-pinon-juniper-ecosystems-mancos-conservation-district-offers-field-trip-and-speaker-series\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:19:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:19:58","slug":"explore-pinon-juniper-ecosystems-mancos-conservation-district-offers-field-trip-and-speaker-serie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/explore-pinon-juniper-ecosystems-mancos-conservation-district-offers-field-trip-and-speaker-serie\/","title":{"rendered":"Explore pi\u00f1on-juniper ecosystems: Mancos Conservation District offers field trip and speaker series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=1b477c1b-0368-4387-ac23-229240c632b6&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1283\" alt=\"Pi\u00f1on and juniper species are adapted to the high desert, however, other trees in the drought-stricken state have struggled. (Susan Montoya Bryan\/Associated Press file)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Pi\u00f1on and juniper species are adapted to the high desert, however, other trees in the drought-stricken state have struggled. (Susan Montoya Bryan\/Associated Press file)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>To teach people about the largest ecosystem in the West, the Mancos Conservation District has set aside the better part of two days coming up to explore the ecology, threats and adaptation of pi\u00f1on-juniper landscapes.<\/p>\n<p>Those interested can attend a free field trip to Mesa Verde National Park the afternoon of Friday, April 11, or they can pay $15 to sit in on an all-day speaker series on Saturday in Mancos.<\/p>\n<p>Or, they might just attend both.<\/p>\n<p>As the largest ecosystem in the West, \u201cthere\u2019s no one standard for pi\u00f1on-juniper management,\u201d said Amorina Lee-Martinez, the program assistant at the Dolores Watersheds Collaborative.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of private landowners live in pi\u00f1on-juniper forests, too.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why learning about the local ecosystem is important: It \u201ccan inform best management practices \u2026 to mitigate for wildfire and to support local biodiversity,\u201d said Lee-Martinez.<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-pdf-embed\"><iframe class=\"article-pdf\" src=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/HOjFZe9ct4ONMPECZL69uLK967Q.pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:500px;border:1px solid #ddd\" loading=\"lazy\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/HOjFZe9ct4ONMPECZL69uLK967Q.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PJFlyer.pdf (Download PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/iframe>\n<p class=\"naviga-pdf-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/HOjFZe9ct4ONMPECZL69uLK967Q.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PJFlyer.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Attendees will learn pertinent information on thinning and fire mitigation, what such efforts look like after a decade\u2019s time and how fire impacts pi\u00f1on-juniper ecosystems more generally.<\/p>\n<p>On April 11, field trippers are asked to meet at Mesa Verde\u2019s visitor center parking lot at 1 p.m. with water and wearing hiking shoes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom there, we will first visit a private property at Cedar Ridge to learn from a landowner\u2019s fire mitigation work and what that looks like,\u201d said Lee-Martinez.<\/p>\n<p>Afterward, participants will head into the park, where two researchers will teach them about pi\u00f1on-juniper conditions \u201cwithin a burn scar and outside a burn scar, and lessons learned about fire recovery of species that live with pi\u00f1on-juniper,\u201d said Lee-Martinez.<\/p>\n<p>The speaker series at the Mancos Community Center on April 12 starts at 8:30 a.m. and wraps up just before 4 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>The $15 entry fee helps cover morning coffee from Fahrenheit Coffee Roasters and a catered lunch from Esmeralda\u2019s in Cortez.<\/p>\n<p>Eight experts are lined up to speak throughout the day on everything from the history of pi\u00f1on-juniper landscapes to tribal perspectives on the ecosystem and fire. Conversation will also cover soil, ecological change and restoration.<\/p>\n<p>To secure a spot, sign up <a href=\"https:\/\/linktr.ee\/mancoscd?utm_source=qr_code\" id=\"link-904fba82d7ed859e72a7b05b63931f50\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">online<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/linktr.ee\/mancoscd?utm_source=qr_code\" id=\"link-297b6b8cd3a0648a9f0a54f97159f158\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bit.ly\/3E41lmE<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-pdf-embed\"><iframe class=\"article-pdf\" src=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/ejDsDRgN3aKxV1zWoZoUzRhQbfk.pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:500px;border:1px solid #ddd\" loading=\"lazy\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/ejDsDRgN3aKxV1zWoZoUzRhQbfk.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PJ Symposium Program.pdf (Download PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/iframe>\n<p class=\"naviga-pdf-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/ejDsDRgN3aKxV1zWoZoUzRhQbfk.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PJ Symposium Program.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>invited to learn about their local landscape <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[529,28,83,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-conservation","tag-headlines","tag-mancos","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77896,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22906\/revisions\/77896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22906"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}