Understory

Effective beginning 5/30/2025This website, and all linked websites under the control of the agency, is under review and content may change.Progress report on the West-Side Fire and Climate Adaptation Research Initiative.

A timeline of events starting in 1861 related to the creation and operations of Manitou Experimental Forest.

Driving directions from Colorado Springs and Denver area to Manitou Experimental Forest Headquarters. Also included is a map indicating where to park once visitors have arrived at headquarters.

Study request form that needs to be filled out prior to conducting research at Manitou Experimental Forest.

Habitat loss and degradation are among the greatest threats to wild bee populations. Since pollinators are a keystone species for agricultural and forested ecosystems, pollinator habitat restoration is critical to ecosystem health and stability worldwide. Log landings, open areas in forests where logs are processed and stacked before being loaded onto logging trucks, are challenged with soil compaction, erosion, residual mulch and logging debris, and invasive species.The Pollinator Habitat in Log Landings (PHiLL) project was designed to investigate the establishment of ephemeral pollinator hab...

Log landings (places where loggers stack, sort, and load timber into trucks) result in soil compaction and the removal of vegetation. Although using dedicated landing sites and skid trails during timber harvests limits heavy machine traffic to specific areas of the forest and minimizes soil and vegetation disturbance, these practices can result in severe soil compaction on the small areas used, which can in turn lead to erosion of unprotected soils and provide opportunities for invasive plant species to gain a foothold. The result can lead to poor quality habitat for local wildlife, including ...

The Pollinator Habitat in Log Landings (PHiLL) Project was designed to investigate the establishment of ephemeral pollinator habitat across three National Forests in the Midwest: Hoosier (Indiana), Shawnee (Illinois), and Mark Twain (Missouri).This project involves conducting field experiments to address the issues of soil compaction and other site characteristics hampering the development of floral resources for native pollinator species.

Wild bees are among the most diverse and important pollinators in forested ecosystems. Wild bees range in color from blue, brown, green, black, yellow and red and in size from an inch to smaller than a grain of rice. The vast majority of wild bees are solitary, meaning that the female bee creates a nest and cares for her offspring alone. Approximately 70 percent of wild bees nest in the ground. Other common nesting sites include coarse woody debris and hollow stemmed plants. In North America, an estimated 4,000 native bee species help to pollinate our ecosystems.Populations of many wild bee sp...