Vegetation Inventory, Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, A Report for The Southern Plains Network

Roath, Roy; Ridenour, Rachel; Wesley, Bob; Holmes, Zachary; Colorado State University

The Colorado State University, Forest, Rangeland and Watershed Stewardship Department established a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service to complete an intensive vegetation inventory of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site (SCMNHS) in Kiowa County, CO. This inventory measured the current plant species composition, the current ground cover composition, and photographically documented the vegetation on the site. Data collection occurred in the summer of 2005 and analysis was completed in fall 2006. The inventory accomplished a near complete collection of plants on the sites and documented their frequency of occurrence in the landscape. This exceeded the 90% target for the inventory. There were no rare plants found in the inventory. The information obtained from this inventory will be used as a foundation for future management decisions at the SCMNHS. However, no management recommendations or discussion will be contained in this document. This will be held for a future document that is in progress. The SCMNHS was found to be unique in terms of the potential vegetation. The site is a mix of sandhills mixed grass prairie and a highly productive shortgrass phasing into a loamy mixed grass prairie. The importance of understanding the sites ecological potential is in guiding management to return the area to its historic potential. However, it may not be possible to attain historic potential across the site due to persisting effects of disturbance. Historic Climax Plant Communities of the Ecological Sites at the SCMNHS were used as a reference to classify current plant communities relative to their current ecological status. The current plant species presence and the composition of the current plant communities are evidence that historic disturbance has dramatically altered the site. The key plant species expected in the high seral communities of the Ecological Sites were present on most of the site but in much reduced abundance. Annual plants were abundant and over-represented in the area. This is a factor of both historic cultural disturbance and near-term drought effects. The drought effect is likely to be reversible in the short-term, when rainfall regimes return to more normal patterns and amounts of precipitation. In contrast, those areas disturbed through agriculture and infrastructure have been pushed beyond ecological thresholds that have significantly altered the ecological potential of these areas for the foreseeable future. It is uncertain what the historic pattern of ecological conditions and plant communities were on the prairie. This would have been dependent on historical disturbances like frequency of encampment use, number of horses in the camps, recent use by bison and a plethora of natural disturbances. A summary of all the research would assist tremendously in understanding the complex influences and their affect on vegetation communities and dynamics.

Vegetation Inventory, Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, A Report for The Southern Plains Network

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