Fens are ground water fed peat accumulating wetlands. Fens are common in southwestern Colorado (see Chimner, Lemly and Cooper 2010) where the highest elevation region in the western US occurs in the high peaks and volcanic plateaus of the San Juan Mountains. Miners also settled this area in the 1870s and their activities and those of more recent humans have resulted in the drainage, and destruction of a number of fens. I have worked to develop a cooperative research and restoration program involving fellow researchers Dr. Rodney Chimner (Michigan Technological University) and Joanna Lemly (Colorado Natural Heritage Inventory), and Koren Nydick of the Mountain Studies Institute in Silverton, CO and funding agencies, Environmental Protection Agency Region VIII, San Miguel County, Town of Telluride, and Town of Mountain Village, as well as Town of Ophir and the Telluride Ski and Golf Corporation, to map and characterize fens of the San Juan Mountains, identify impacted fens, and develop a program to restore fens and promote and test simple but effective methods to restore these fens. Graduate student David Schimelpfenig (right in lower right photo, shown with from left Rod Chimner, Cooper, and Dick Andrus) worked on the restoration aspects of this program, trying to understand the effects of various ditch-blocking techniques on fen water levels, and also to understand whether hydrologic restoration also restores the functioning of peat soils. The work published in Restoration Ecology is linked below.

ChimnerLemlyCooper2010 San Juan Fens
SchimCooperChimRestEcol2013