{"id":39434,"date":"2022-07-14T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-14T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southwest-colorado-a-playground-for-research-scientists\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:49:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:49:46","slug":"southwest-colorado-a-playground-for-research-scientists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southwest-colorado-a-playground-for-research-scientists\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Colorado a playground for research scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mark
Mark Pollock, an environmental science student at Fort Lewis College, digs a pit in Burrows Basin northeast of Silverton as he helps Heidi Steltzer, a professor of biology and environment, with her research on permafrost in the San Juan Mountains. (Courtesy of Heidi Steltzer)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, as well as other federal and state partners, produced an \u201cecoregion\u201d map for Colorado.<\/p>\n

An ecoregion is an area where ecosystems are similar. They help to guide the management of federal and state agencies and inform research.<\/p>\n

Southwest Colorado has about a dozen ecoregions, ranging from the shale deserts and sedimentary basins southwest of Cortez to the alpine zones surrounding Silverton.<\/p>\n

The diverse landscapes make Southwest Colorado a playground for scientists, and researchers with Fort Lewis College are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the area\u2019s unique environments.<\/p>\n

Melissa Clutter, Jared Beeton and Heidi Steltzer are three researchers from FLC studying the hydrology, prehistory and alpine environments across Southwest Colorado. They have each found the region fruitful for their research, and their work has been boosted by the unique landscape and people of Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this diversity of landscape, we have the ability to combine all these different disciplines and study how the environment works in these landscapes,\u201d Beeton said. \u201cI\u2019m an interdisciplinary scientist. I would be bored if I just studied permafrost all the time, or if I just studied river systems or wetlands or dire wolves. The real interest for me is the interconnection of all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Groundwater hydrology<\/div>\n

Clutter, an assistant professor of geosciences at FLC, grew up in Oklahoma and came to Southwest Colorado as a student at FLC on the college\u2019s Native American Tuition Waiver. In part, it was the region\u2019s natural environment that drew her to the college.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course like most people that don\u2019t grow up in places with topography, I wanted to experience the mountains,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While in school, she studied environmental geology, focusing on hydrology before graduating in 2011. For her senior thesis, Clutter installed nine groundwater monitoring wells along the Dolores River to study how McPhee Dam had changed the flow of the river and how it was affecting groundwater recharge, which is how water moves into the ground and is then stored.<\/p>\n

\"Melissa
Melissa Clutter, an assistant professor of geosciences at Fort Lewis College, installs a monitoring device in a groundwater monitoring well in 2010 along the Dolores River. As a student at FLC, Clutter installed nine groundwater monitoring wells along the Dolores River, wells she has maintained for more than a decade to study how McPhee Dam affects groundwater recharge along the Dolores River. (Courtesy of Melissa Clutter)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As Clutter was pursuing her research and working with professors Cynthia Dott and Gary Gianniny, she decided studying as a hydrologist and teaching as a professor would be her path.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking with them when we were going out into the field and I said, \u2018You have the coolest job in the world. How do I get your job?\u2019 They told me you have to have a Ph. D. and I said, \u2018OK,\u2019\u201d Clutter said. \u201cMy goal was always to come back to Fort Lewis.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more than a decade, Clutter has maintained the nine wells she installed as an undergraduate with the help of FLC professors, studying how the flow of the Dolores and groundwater recharge have changed over time and analyzing the long-term data she is collecting.<\/p>\n

Her research has led her to join a new collaborative initiative with scientists and managers from the Bureau of Land Management, CPW, The Nature Conservancy and other groups called the Dolores River Adaptive Management Support Project.<\/p>\n

The goal of the project is to support management decisions and flow recommendations for the Dolores River and McPhee Dam.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to think about the flow regime in the river \u2013 how the channel is changing, how the groundwater is changing, how the plants are changing \u2013 looking at historic data like groundwater monitoring data, vegetation surveys, historic aerial photographs,\u201d Clutter said. \u201c(We\u2019re) getting an idea of how to better manage the dam for those native fish species and plant species.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, Clutter and the Dolores River Project team have found that sustained flow from McPhee Dam is more important for groundwater recharge downstream than the volume of water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they release water for a longer period of time, that\u2019s what the groundwater needs,\u201d she said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be as high of a magnitude of flow, it has to be a longer duration.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the semiarid benchlands and canyonlands (according to the EPA\u2019s ecoregion map) surrounding the Dolores River may seem like an odd place to study hydrology with their relative lack of water, the arid environment is actually better for groundwater research.<\/p>\n

\"Melissa
Melissa Clutter and her team install a groundwater monitoring well in the Big Gypsum Valley north of Dove Creek. As a member of the Dolores River Adaptive Management Support Project, Clutter has shown that sustained flow from McPhee Dam is more important for groundwater recharge downstream along the Dolores River than the volume of water. (Courtesy of Melissa Clutter)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIn the desert, groundwater is a really important resource. It\u2019s one of the best places you can study groundwater in the country,\u201d Clutter said.<\/p>\n

But the appeal of hydrologic research in Southwest Colorado goes beyond the favorable climate for Clutter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of studying water in the desert southwest, it\u2019s of interest to so many people, especially in this smaller, tight-knit Four Corners community,\u201d she said. \u201cThat for me is the coolest part is how involved the community is and how interested they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ancient wildfires and wetlands<\/div>\n

As a Ph. D. student at the University of Kansas, Beeton, the chairman and an associate professor of environment and sustainability at FLC, studied the ancient river systems of the Great Plains.<\/p>\n

But he found himself wanting to understand how mountain environments change over time, a product of his \u201caddiction\u201d to studying glacial deposits after his master\u2019s research in the Never Summer Mountains of north central Colorado.<\/p>\n

Enter Southwest Colorado and FLC.<\/p>\n

At its core, Beeton\u2019s research investigates Southwest Colorado\u2019s past environment to understand the region\u2019s present and future amid a changing climate.<\/p>\n

Beeton has a number of ongoing research projects with his students in the region, but two stand out as indicative of his work.<\/p>\n

The first is the study of charcoal from wildfires thousands of years old along the Piedra River near Chimney Rock National Monument.<\/p>\n

\"Garrett
Garrett Brown, an environmental science student at Fort Lewis College, collects charcoal samples for radiocarbon dating from a cut bank along the Piedra River as part of the prehistoric forest fire frequency research of Jared Beeton, the chair and an associate professor of environment and sustainability at FLC. (Courtesy of Jared Beeton)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As the Piedra River flowed, it cut away at the earth, creating a \u201ccut bank\u201d that exposed the layers of sediment and debris collected by the landscape over thousands of years.<\/p>\n

Hidden in those layers is charcoal from paleowildfires in the San Juan Mountains that was deposited by rivers over time. By identifying these layers and then radiocarbon dating them, Beeton and his students have begun developing a forest fire frequency diagram for the Piedra Basin, which tells them how often large forest fires occurred in the past.<\/p>\n

Their goal is to construct a historical record that scientists and land managers can compare with Southwest Colorado\u2019s current wildfire regime, which climate researchers project will worsen in the coming decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re going to ask questions like: Are forest fires increasing today? Are we having more forest fires than we did in the past because of a drying climate in a warming world? Or, is it because of forest management? We need to understand how forest fires occurred in the past without so much human influence,\u201d Beeton said.<\/p>\n

One of Beeton\u2019s other projects is farther east in the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge near its namesake town.<\/p>\n

Once of two places in Colorado where researchers have found the remains of dire wolves, the area was once a massive wetland that mammoths also roamed (FLC students found a mammoth tooth at the site).<\/p>\n

Beeton and his students again use radiocarbon dating as well as pollen analysis to understand what the climate was like at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can look at the peat deposits in the old wetland, and we can tell how the water table fluctuated over time. When the water table came up, it was a wet wetland. And when the water table went down, it was drier,\u201d he said. \u201cThat can tell us about precipitation over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The aim is again to link Southwest Colorado\u2019s current climate to the past, showing that over glacial-interglacial cycles for the last 30,000 years the area became wetter when it was colder and drier when it was warmer, a trend that could explain what may come for the region as temperatures warm.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about understanding how past environments have changed, so that we can understand future environments,\u201d Beeton said.<\/p>\n

As a geographer, he relies on interdisciplinary study, employing ecology, geology, chemistry and biology for his research.<\/p>\n

\"Jared
Jared Beeton, the chairman and an associate professor of environment and sustainability at Fort Lewis College, examines a mammoth tooth at his research site in Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge. Beeton\u2019s research investigates Southwest Colorado\u2019s past environment to understand the region\u2019s present and future amid a changing climate. (Courtesy of Jared Beeton)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For Beeton, the interdisciplinary research required to study the diverse ecoregions of Southwest Colorado is what sets the region apart as a destination for scientific inquiry.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in Southwest Colorado, we\u2019re right on the margin of the desert and the mountains. To understand environmental change, we\u2019re not just talking about the species that live there,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re also talking about the landscape, the soil, the rocks, the atmosphere and the climate \u2026 To put these stories together, it requires interdisciplinary research.\u201d<\/p>\n

Permafrost<\/div>\n

Steltzer, a professor of biology and environment and the coordinator for FLC\u2019s environmental science degree program, knew she wanted to study Southwest Colorado\u2019s mountains in 1996.<\/p>\n

As a second-year Ph. D. student at the University of Colorado Boulder, she was conducting research at the university\u2019s Niwot Ridge Long-Term Ecological Research site west of Boulder, but she eyed the more remote mountains of Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much of the alpine science in our state has been done in the Front Range mountains, and I thought, \u2018Well, I\u2019ll go somewhere fewer people have gone,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Sera
Sera Wacesy, an environmental science student at Fort Lewis College, digs a permafrost pit while Mark Pollock, left, and Col Koespel look on in the Burrows Basin northeast of Silverton. The three students were helping Heidi Steltzer, a professor of biology and environment, with her research identifying permafrost in the San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado. (Courtesy of Heidi Steltzer)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

An expert in alpine environments, Steltzer started as a professor at FLC in 2009. She has conducted research across the globe from Alaska to Greenland, and she was the lead author of the high mountain chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change\u2019s 2019 special report on the ocean and cryosphere (the frozen parts of the earth).<\/p>\n

It was while walking in the San Juan Mountains in 2021 that Steltzer drew much of her inspiration for her current research.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was walking in this one basin and I was like, \u2018This looks like Alaska, but I\u2019m in Colorado. And I know I\u2019m in Colorado, (so) what\u2019s the story?\u2019 The story is there\u2019s got to be water there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Much of Alaska\u2019s landscape is shaped by the freezing and thawing cycles that are extreme in the Arctic north and permafrost, ground that remains permanently frozen.<\/p>\n

In Alaska, the expansion of frozen water lifts the ground and creates the distinctive mounds of grasses that dot the state\u2019s landscapes, a process linked to permafrost.<\/p>\n

When Steltzer noticed mounds of grass in the San Juan Mountains that looked similar to Alaska, she found herself asking the question: Could there be permafrost in Southwest Colorado?<\/p>\n

Steltzer, along with Beeton and her students, has taken to the mountains to find out if the region\u2019s mountains are indeed the southern terminus of permafrost in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Last year, in the project\u2019s first year, students helped Steltzer to dig a 1.4-meter pit in Burrows Basin northeast of Silverton.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to locations where we expect there to have been more accumulation of soil and a greater depth to bedrock,\u201d Steltzer said. \u201cAnd, with those deep soils, a greater likelihood that it stayed cold and that there\u2019s permafrost down there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steltzer and her team also installed temperature sensors in the pit to document the frozen water that could be contained in the bedrock, which is where the soil meets rock.<\/p>\n

This fall they will dig more holes with the ultimate goal of identifying the potential distribution of permafrost in the San Juan Mountains and studying how permafrost could influence the region\u2019s alpine ecosystems.<\/p>\n

\"Burrows
Burrows Basin northeast of Silverton has distinctive mounds of grass that are often created by the expansion of frozen water in alpine environments, a process linked to permafrost. (Courtesy of Heidi Steltzer)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The implications are significant.<\/p>\n

Permafrost limits how deep plant roots can go and alters how water moves. On the Tibetan Plateau, high alpine environments with permafrost are actually seeing greater plant growth because of the warming climate \u2013 melting permafrost provides more water for plants, which can grow more when it is warmer, Steltzer said.<\/p>\n

The chance to study ecosystems that are comparable to those in such unique places as Alaska or the Tibetan Plateau is one of the reasons why Southwest Colorado is so compelling for researchers and teachers like Steltzer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the opportunity for Fort Lewis College students that are interested in science to do expeditionary science, and we don\u2019t have to go outside our region to go on a science expedition,\u201d Steltzer said.<\/p>\n

Like Beeton, the geography of Southwest Colorado drew Steltzer to the region. But while the region\u2019s landscape has proved fruitful for Steltzer\u2019s research, it is now the chance to share the scientific opportunity of Southwest Colorado with her students and others that drives her work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m one person with training in the sciences who could help facilitate experiences for others to step into the same kind of research I\u2019ve been so privileged and fortunate to get to do in my career,\u201d she said. \u201cNow that I\u2019ve been here and I\u2019ve been in this awesome region, shouldn\u2019t everybody get to step in?\u201d<\/p>\n

ahannon@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Landscape diversity invites study of desert groundwater, alpine permafrost and prehistoric wildfires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[785,120,44,341,950,1030,350,918,132,28,198,1290,2582,1518,145,358,498,295,294],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-climate","tag-colorado","tag-dolores","tag-dolores-river","tag-durango","tag-environment","tag-fire","tag-forests","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-headlines","tag-history","tag-natural-science","tag-research","tag-rivers","tag-science-general","tag-science-and-technology","tag-southwest-natural-resources","tag-water","tag-water-supply"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39434","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=39434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84330,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39434\/revisions\/84330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39434"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}