LARIMER COUNTY
Beatrice Willard Alpine Tundra Research Plots
US34 at Rock Cut and Forest Canyon
Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park vicinity
Dr. Beatrice Willard, an internationally recognized tundra ecologist who made
significant contributions to local, state and federal environmental policy,
installed two alpine tundra research plots in Rocky Mountain National Park in
1959. Both properties represent Dr. Willard’s life work as a tundra ecologist
and fostered her role as an ecologist, educator, and negotiator. The plots
represent one of the first U.S. efforts incorporating science into long-term
land management and planning. These are among the oldest study plots in alpine
tundra or mountain environments in the world. They are most likely the oldest
permanent alpine tundra plots in the National Park System. These plots have
demonstrated the need for careful management of alpine tundra, to protect it
from excessive damage from man. The plots continue to be important to ecologists.
Willard’s studies of how people affect tundra, conducted on Trail Ridge Road
in Rocky Mountain National Park, have influenced the administration of public
lands throughout the country.
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