The Basin/Bald Hill

Background | Criteria | Northwest Colorado | Northeast Colorado
Southwest Colorado | Southeast Colorado

The Basin/Bald Hill
Park County

Size: 9,300 acres

Elevation: 9200 - 9400 feet

Habitats: Primary – grassland

Secondary – wetlands/playas

Ownership: Federal (Bureau of Land Management)

State (State Land Board)

Land Use: Primary – hunting/fishing

Secondary – agriculture/livestock

IBA Criteria: 1, 3

Site description

Location: The Basin/Bald Hill is located approximately 7 miles east of the town of Fairplay in the South Park area of central Colorado. Reinecker Ridge borders the site to the west, Mexican Ridge to the east, and Bald Hill to the south.

Vegetative/natural features: The site consists of a large grassland area dominated by Slimstem Muhley (Muhlenbergia filiculmis) and alkaline playa lakes. The Natural Heritage Network recognizes grasslands in the site’s non-alkaline uplands as a distinct vegetative community that is considered Globally Imperiled.

Ornithological Importance

The site supports approximately 300 breeding Mountain Plovers in good condition native habitat. The density of breeding plovers in 2000 was 7.7 birds/km², which is extremely high for Colorado.

Breeding species:	Average #	Maximum #
Mountain Plover	300	437

Conservation/Management Issues

Potential threats:
1. hydrologic changes (which could result from an interest in South Park water resources by Front Range communities). If these communities were to build a reservoir, draw down the water table, or otherwise plumb the local hydrology in adjacent properties, the playas in this site would behave differently, perhaps to the detriment of the Mountain Plover population.

Management details:
Owned by the State Land Board and the Bureau of Land Management, the site is leased by Colorado Division of Wildlife as the ‘Reinecker Ridge State Wildlife Area.’ The current land use patterns at the site appear to be compatible with a breeding Mountain Plover population.