‘Our Natural World’ Archives
What was Johnny Appleseed up to?
By Doug Nichols Berthoud Recorder Autumn is apple time across America — crisp fruit and sweet cider. The season may bring to mind that American folk hero Johnny Appleseed. You probably know him from the 1958 Disney film “American Legends,” which portrayed him as a young man traveling on the western frontier in the early 1800s, unselfishly planting apple trees for settlers to enjoy. But the true story of John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, is somewhat ... Full Story
Those autumn leaves
By Doug Nichols Berthoud Recorder “Those falling leaves drift by your window, those autumn leaves of red and gold....” So goes the old song. Here in Colorado, those autumn leaves are mostly gold: aspens and cottonwoods. For red, maples are the best but there are none of those in our native flora. Nonetheless, few sights equal groves of golden aspens against crisp blue skies in our mountains. In any event, why the beautiful colors as autumn arrives? And, why are those leaves ... Full Story
The Amazing Fossils of Florissant
By Doug Nichols Berthoud Recorder The previous “Our Natural World” column covered the origin of the 34-million-year-old lake deposits at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument and the legislative struggle to have the site preserved for the public as part of the National Park system. This column provides some details about the fossils present in this unique area. Most prominent are enormous petrified trunks of prehistoric sequoia trees, relatives of the giant redwoods of ... Full Story
Preserving a Paleontologic Treasure Chest
Doug Nichols Berthoud Recorder Aug. 20, 2009, was the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, a site maintained by the National Park Service for the preservation of spectacular plant and insect fossils, including huge petrified trunks of fossil sequoias, ancient relatives of the giant redwoods of California. The site is located west of Colorado Springs, just south of the town of Florissant, Colo. The efforts to save the site and its ... Full Story
Dinosaurs and Other Colorado Fossils
By Doug Nichols Berthoud Recorder As dinosaur lovers of all ages in our state know, the Colorado State Fossil is the stegosaur (Stegosaurus stenops). This familiar herbivorous dinosaur with rows of plates along its back was officially adopted by executive order of Gov. Richard Lamm in 1982, following a two-year campaign by schoolchildren. Stegosaurs roamed Colorado during the late Jurassic period of geological time, about 145-150 million years ago. They were large animals, weighing an ... Full Story
Colorado’s Oldest Living Residents
By Doug Nichols Berthoud Recorder Have you met one of Colorado’s oldest living residents? No, it is not that cranky, old guy down the street; it is the bristlecone pine. They are among the oldest living organisms anywhere in the world. There are some bristlecone pines in Berthoud, but they are just youngsters. The really old ones — some more than 1,500 years old — live in the Rocky Mountains. The Colorado bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata) is sometimes known by the common name ... Full Story
Colorado’s Natural Fireworks—Volcanoes
By Doug Nichols Berthoud Recorder Recently, fireworks have been heard around town, but they were nothing compared with Colorado’s natural fireworks -- volcanoes. Volcanoes in Colorado? Yes! Well, not recently, but definitely in the geological past. The most recent volcanic eruption in Colorado took place about 4,200 years ago near the present day town of Dotsero, by the confluence of the Colorado and Eagle Rivers, in the north-central part of the state. Interstate 70 cuts across the ... Full Story
Colorado’s Botanical Symbols
By Doug Nichols Berthoud Recorder The State of Colorado has three official botanical symbols: the State Flower, the State Tree, and the State Grass. Probably you can name the first two, but who knew we also have a State Grass? The State Flower is the white and lavender columbine, also called the Colorado columbine. Its scientific name is Aquilegia caerulea, and it belongs to the Ranunculaceae (buttercup family). Its distinguishing feature is a flower with a cluster of five ... Full Story
How Old Are Those Hills?
How Old Are Those Hills? By Doug Nichols Berthoud Recorder “As old as the hills” is what some folks say when they mean that something is very old. But, actually how old are those hills, specifically those lofty peaks of the Colorado Front Range, those mountains just to our west? That is an interesting question, and the answer is not simple. For one thing, the peaks of the Colorado Front Range, including Longs Peak to our west, Mount Evans to the south, and Pikes Peak near ... Full Story
I Need a Drink!
By Doug Nichols Berthoud Recorder That is what the trees and shrubs in your yard probably are saying right now. March was supposed to be our snowiest month, but despite the recent spring snowstorms, we are still behind in precipitation. Water has long been a topic of critical interest in Colorado, and the low amounts of snow or rain so far this year make it even more pressing for local homeowners and gardeners. Here in Berthoud, our municipal water supply comes from the Western Slope ... Full Story
