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Table 2. Fauna Present [n Project Area • American elk Beaver Bighorn sheep Bison Blue grouse Common chipmunk Golden eajle Jackrabbit Least chipmunk ~1ule deer Nuttall's cottontail Porcupine Prairie falcon Red fox Red-tailed hawk Red-sliefted flicker Ruffed grouse Sage arouse Sharp tailed grouse Stallar's jay Striped skunk Thirteen-lined ground squirrel Turkey vulture IVhite-tailed deer • r 1 U P 15T AND PRC•SBNT rLl`.1AT There has been little paleoclimatoingical research in northwestern Colorado; however, it may be possible to suggest several trends. Amore precise synthesis of Colorado east slope paleoclimate, drawing from a number of sources especially the work of James Benedict (1975), is present in Burney et al. (1979) and is abstracted here. During Late iVisconsin times, the Pinedale glaciation, one of three advances, occurred in Colorado. Climate was moister and cooler in tlic summers and winters (Richmond 1960. Temperatures during the summer at 8,000 feet (2,433 m) could have Seen similar to those of 11,700 Ct/3,588 m today (Rusted 196?). After the Pinedale glaciation, the Altithermal brought an increase in temperature and a decrease in moisture (Outcalt and 11acPhail 19G5). Several fluctuations occurred during the Altithermal, with the Altithermal maximum occurring at 7500 to 6500 B.P., probably causing the abandonment of many lower areas and the use of Higher elevations as refuge areas (Benedict 1975). An expansion of the sagebrush steppe and recession of the forest probably occurred at this tune (Lischka 1976), and shitted vegetational communities upward. Since the Altithermal, there have been three small glaciations (\lillington 1977). Cooler summers and increased snowfall can be postulated durir~; these stages, but it is unlikely that conditions were as srv~rc as those of the Pinedale glaciation. These cooler episodes apparently caused a slight lowering of vegetational communities and increased runoff during the spring. 9