journal — RYAN 荣 JONES

About 45 miles west of Denver at Georgetown begins the Guanella Pass Scenic Byway — a 22-mile stretch of highway that puts on display some of Colorado’s most iconic ecosystems. From the dense stands of pine, spruce and fir trees at lower elevations, you’ll rise to meet meandering streams cutting through alpine meadows, eventually reaching the top of the pass that summits above the timberline. This upper portion of the pass sits at about 11,500 feet above sea level in the alpine tundra and supports one of the largest known wintering populations of white-tailed ptarmigan in Colorado.

These birds are the smallest among the grouse family and the only birds in North America that spend their entire lives in the alpine tundra above the treeline. During the summer months, white-tailed ptarmigan plumage is a speckled brown, gray and white, while in the winter they lose any dark coloration and become fully white — except for one small black beak and two small black eyes. Their feet are covered with feathers that stave off the cold while acting as snowshoes in the wintertime to assist with walking. When the temperature drops or the winds pick up, white-tailed ptarmigan keep warm by burrowing up to a foot beneath the snow.

Unfortunately, life for these birds may be getting more difficult. In addition to losing habitat for which they have become so uniquely adapted due to climate change, recreation is one of the most imminent threats to these birds and other wildlife dependent on alpine ecosystems. Because white-tailed ptarmigan lead a sedentary lifestyle in the winter when food sources are not as plentiful, any extra requirements to move around the landscape can be detrimental to their survival. And because of a wintering ptarmigan’s energetics — i.e., the particular way in which ptarmigans acquire and expend energy — they may be more susceptible to human disturbance.

The winter season is a popular time for snowshoers, skiers and hikers, and Guanella Pass is a popular spot for these types of activities. The most traversed trail on the pass during the winter takes recreationalists to the top of Mount Bierstadt, bisecting an essential core habitat area for white-tailed ptarmigan.

CPW personnel have observed a marked increase in recreation in recent years — particularly noticing more snowshoe tracks weaving through this crucial wintering ptarmigan territory. As a result of the noted increase of recreation on Guanella Pass, CPW biologists Rebecca Boyce, Lance Carpenter and Mark Fisher have launched a project to evaluate the efficacy of occupancy surveys that can be used to distinguish a change in the distribution of white-tailed ptarmigan found in winter core habitats caused by recreational activities over time.

On a Monday in late February, a day of surveys began at 8 a.m., when lead biologists and volunteers gathered to review the day’s goals and protocol before moving out into the field. Core habitats for the ptarmigan have been divided into four zones containing 365 randomly generated plots measuring 70 square meters with a 100-meter buffer between them.

As teams of two set out on a survey, one person moves out first while the other waits about 30 minutes before following — allowing a plot to be independently surveyed twice. Each plot receives 12 minutes of time to be surveyed by each independent observer, during which they look for ptarmigan or any sign of them (e.g., burrows, tracks or fecal droppings). Should a bird or any indication of its presence be found before the 12 minutes expires, the observer immediately moves on to the next plot.

Surveyors also carry tape measures to gather an average height of any exposed willow branches, the buds from which are a white-tailed ptarmigan’s primary source of food during the winter months. If no bird or sign is observed within the 12 minutes, the surveyor moves on to the next plot until finished.

The data collected here can be expected to help alleviate pressures on ptarmigan by being better able to inform the general public of their presence and how people can help nurture the surrounding wildlife and landscape by practicing respectful recreation. Simple actions such as staying on designated trails, keeping dogs on leashes, and providing wildlife with ample room to move, can go a long way toward conservation as well as personal safety.

A black-footed ferret surveys its new home in Lamar, Colo., following a release by Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Great things take time; that is why seeds persevere through rocks and dirt to bloom.
- Mashona Dhliwayo

In the fall of 2016, I began a graduate program at the University of Florida in pursuit of a master’s degree in interdisciplinary ecology and wildlife conservation to complement a background in photography and visual storytelling. After seven years of finding my way through a labyrinth of undergraduate studies that began at pharmaceutical research, took a detour through computational biology and business marketing before reaching my final stop in photojournalism, I told myself that I would never go back to school.

At first, I wasn’t quite sure where photography would take me or what I wanted to do with it, but as time went on and my portfolio grew, I found the work toward which I mostly gravitated typically took place outdoors — with some landscape or wild creature carefully framed at the far end of my lens. After an expedition (and a bit of soul-searching) just inside the Arctic Circle of Northern Norway, I returned with a fresh set of eyes on what I wanted. And so began the bitter work of going back to school to build a greater foundation of the natural sciences and an outlet through which to channel a newly realized commitment to the field of conservation storytelling.

Remember that very first quote above? Okay, now fast-forward six years and here we are. Earlier this month, I began working at Colorado Parks and Wildlife as a photographer, and on my third day, I was afforded the opportunity to document the release of some of North America’s most endangered mammals — black-footed ferrets.

Before proceeding further, it should be noted that this restoration effort would not be possible without the help and cooperation from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, land owners and citizen advocates, and a number of conservation and business organizations. Working with these partners over the last several months of 2022, Colorado Parks and Wildlife released an additional 61 black-footed ferrets into the wild.

The only ferret species native to North America, the black-footed ferret’s historical range covered much of the Great Plains from Canada to Mexico and is closely correlated with the range of habitat also occupied by prairie dogs — the ferret’s primary food source. However, as prairie dog populations declined over the last century from land conversion and plague, so did the population of the black-footed ferret until it was declared extinct in 1979.

But on Sept. 26, 1981, in Meeteetse, Wyo., cattle rancher John Hogg discovered the carcass of what he thought only to be a strange-looking mink, killed by the family dog, Shep, sometime during the night. Hogg and his wife, Lucille, recalled hearing Shep barking in the predawn hours but figured the dog “got in a tangle with a porcupine" and went back to sleep. It wasn't until later that morning, after Lucille asked her husband to take the dead animal to a taxidermist for mounting, when they were told what they found was, in fact, a rare and endangered species.

There were about 130 ferrets discovered in Meeteetse over the next few years — and just in time too, as plague had spread through the colony and killed all but 18 of the ferrets before USFWS was able to spearhead a captive breeding program in the mid-1980s. Since then, reintroduction has taken place in multiple states across the West. CPW established its own initiative in 2013 to restore black-footed ferret populations on the Eastern Plains and celebrated the state’s 500th ferret release eight years later in November 2021.

These efforts are ongoing, and on Nov. 9, 2022, with help from the USFWS and a few dozen elementary school children, CPW released another 15 black-footed ferrets on an unusually warm and wildly windy afternoon on a private ranch in Lamar, Colo. It’s such a privilege to work alongside dedicated people who have such big hearts for nature and wildlife.

From discovering a vocation to restoring a critically endangered species, all great things take time. It’s also important to remember and honor the time and journey in between these great moments. Performing an action today might not produce a result tomorrow, but little by little has the potential to culminate into something truly spectacular — like discovering a vocation or restoring a critically endangered species. In short, I suppose the message here is to persevere.