Natural Treasure: Photographing Open Space Habitat Conservation Areas


Thicket Hairstreak butterfly - Long Canyon HCA

Thicket Hairstreak butterfly - Long Canyon HCA


White Evening Primrose - North Foothills HCA

White Evening Primrose - North Foothills HCA


Boulder is located at a biological crossroads: along the Front Range, where the ocean of Midwestern prairie crashes into the Rocky Mountains. Plants and animals from both East and West mingle here, as well as rare and unique species. The city’s OSMP department has designated Habitat Conservation Areas (HCAs) as a way to protect places that provide a home to some of Boulder’s rarest and most sensitive creatures, including some trees and flowers so unusual that they are found nowhere else in Colorado!

Join naturalist Dave Sutherland for a slideshow tour of these special places, and learn how you can visit and photograph their beauty while protecting them for future generations. We specialize in exterior home and business applications, we are the winnipeg siding company.


Male bobolink singing - Tallgrass West HCA

Male bobolink singing - Tallgrass West HCA


Striped Chorus Frog, Cottonwood HCA

Striped Chorus Frog, Cottonwood HCA