Ed Gorman stoops over, reaching for a tiny green bundle at his feet. He closes his fingers around the plant’s base and plucks it from the damp soil. The root softly snaps. Ed stands up. In his palm rests an emerald tuft with wiry, bouncy stems.
“Look how long the root is already,” Ed says, turning the plant over in his hand. “As soon as it sprouts, it’s sending a root down.”
With his pointer finger, he makes a sharp downward motion. A lengthy, pale stem trails from his closed fist.
“This stuff knows the game is to get your roots down to where there’s likely to be some moisture. That’s pretty incredible growth for, you know, a couple of months. Because they don’t sprout in March, it probably sprouted sometime in April,” he adds.
All around us, the rhythmic buzzing of insects keeps time. Meadowlarks, grasshopper sparrows, and lark buntings chatter about. The rasping call of a nearby ring-necked pheasant adds to the chorus.
At the bottom of a ravine, a small cluster of cottonwoods throws dappled shade. Clumps of bone-colored grass dot the property. Green leafy patches loosely arranged in little rows stretch into the distance.
It’s cloudless to the East. Freshly turned earth in the shape of a deer hoof crisscrosses our path. Skeletal stalks of wheat, muddy soil, and our necks lightly bake under the mid-morning sun.
To the untrained eye, this is just another patch of farm country to dismiss without a second glance. A spot to barrel past at 45 mph, gravel singing off the truck’s muffler. Something unremarkable.
To Ed, Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s small game manager, this is a jewel on Colorado’s Eastern Plains. This is what a Corners for Conservation property looks like in late May.
Corners for Conservation (Corners) fields are sprinkled across Colorado far beyond the Front Range.
What is a “Corner?”
Much of the farmland in eastern Colorado is divided into a checkerboard pattern of corn, wheat, sugar beet, and sunflower fields. While most crops are grown with natural precipitation, called dryland farming, some are watered by center-pivot irrigation systems, which miss the outlying acres in each corner of the square. Corners for Conservation (C4C) projects create pockets of new wildlife habitat in the unharvested areas.
These properties are tucked away on the edges of wheat, corn and soybean fields. They’re set aside from large sections of pastureland. Sometimes they’re quite literally the triangular corner of a field. Sometimes they’re long strips of land or big rectangular blocks. They can be twisting, irregular shapes following a creek bottom.
Migrating songbirds, pollinating insects, pheasants, quail, dove and deer all frequent these properties. Some species use them as nesting habitat. Others use them for gathering nectar and pollen. Some animals seek them out to find respite from the winter weather. These Corners are a true wildlife haven.
Abundant wildflowers, tall grasses and forbs (small flowering plants), typically planted in March after the ground thaws, are the stars of the show. Once seedlings sprout and flowers start blooming, the beauty and benefits last all season long.
Habitat conservation isn’t new to this part of the state.
Versions of the Corners program have been around for decades. Up until a few years ago, it was the Pheasant Habitat Improvement Program. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the focus was on planting junipers and plum thickets. These trees create windbreaks and provide wildlife habitat while protecting soil from erosion.
Bruce Rosenbach, a local dryland farmer and the head of the High Plains Land Conservancy, remembers those days well.
“In ‘91, I planted trees with my drip irrigation system and everyone thought I was crazy that I planted some trees in my pasture,” he recalls with a wry smile. “They all said ‘this guy is nuts’ and lo and behold the trees all grew because I was watering them.”
Bruce has partnered with CPW on creating pollinator and bird habitat for nearly 30 years. He’s soft-spoken, with gray hair and gentle eyes. He’s also one of the greatest conservationists the nation has seen in the last 50 years.
Now, Bruce is amazed at how his community embraced the Corners program. Today, more than 12,000 acres across eastern Colorado are planted with trees, pollinating flowers and tall grasses.
“It blows me away,” Bruce says.
These Corners create vibrant and resilient wildlife habitat. They increase public access to hunting. They support the farmers who love the land and make up the fabric of rural Colorado. The Corners program keeps the gears of conservation, legacy and community turning.
Two slumping, half-empty seed bags lightly bounce in the back seat. Frayed at the top and bulging with several dozen pounds of seed inside, they look right at home in Ed’s truck. Several tools rattle around on the floor.
Lush green wheatfields zip past the dirty truck windows. We both take in the sight. The tools rattle around a bit more as we crest a small hill. In the distance, another Corners property breaks the horizon.
A plump bumblebee works its way around a delicate stem of small pink flowers.
The plant sags under the insect’s weight. The bee extends a single leg, grasping a nearby blade of grass. Once stable, the bee continues working around the blush-colored dress of flowers.
Ed lightly taps a neighboring plant with the toe of his shoe.
“This is a flax that hasn’t done anything yet,” he says. Petite bulbs drape from thin, dark green stems.
“That one will still bloom probably next week, or in a couple of weeks,” he adds.
In each plant, every patch of soil, all the forlorn rows of wheat stubble, Ed sees the future.
“The idea is to get a mix of flowers and grasses,” Ed says.
His goal is to have a variety of plants growing all summer long, from mid-May through September.
“The birds will be in here for the cover provided by the grasses, and they might as well have something to eat while they’re in here. The chicks in particular, it’s still thin enough for them to move through,” Ed adds.
An afternoon breeze carries a meadowlark song past us. Insects buzz and click in the maze of tall grass. The end of spring is close.
For the Corners for Conservation program, the beauty is just beginning.
Farmers can sign up and enroll their properties in the Corners for Conservation program, which Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) operates with nonprofit partners like the High Plains Land Conservancy.
Written and photographed by Forrest Czarnecki. Forrest is a Colorado hunter and angler, and he is a Digital Media Specialist for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
One Response