Natural Treasure: Photographing Open Space Habitat Conservation Areas
Thicket Hairstreak butterfly - Long Canyon HCA
White Evening Primrose - North Foothills HCA
Boulder is located at a biological crossroads: along the Front Range, where the ocean of Midwestern prairie crashes into the Rocky Mountains. Plants and animals from both East and West mingle here, as well as rare and unique species. The city’s OSMP department has designated Habitat Conservation Areas (HCAs) as a way to protect places that provide a home to some of Boulder’s rarest and most sensitive creatures, including some trees and flowers so unusual that they are found nowhere else in Colorado!
Join naturalist Dave Sutherland for a slideshow tour of these special places, and learn how you can visit and photograph their beauty while protecting them for future generations.
Male bobolink singing - Tallgrass West HCA
Striped Chorus Frog, Cottonwood HCA
