Stand With Our St. Vrain Creek, a citizen action group based in Longmont and dedicated to protecting our riparian areas from damaging development, is hosting 2 Save Our Swallows events at Roger’s Grove Nature Area in Longmont on Sunday, July 24th from 9am to 11am and Sunday, September 4th from 9am to 11am.
Join us at the picnic pavilion next to the bathrooms to learn more about Bank Swallows, specifically those nesting at Roger’s Grove, the only nesting colony on Longmont-protected land. We’ll also have spotting scopes available for anyone who’d like to make the short walk to view the birds before they migrate south for the winter.
Bank Swallows have very specific nesting habitat requirements. Mainly due to loss of that habitat as a result of erosion and flood control projects, they are a rare and declining species nation-wide. There are only a handful of known colonies within Boulder County and the City of Longmont lists them as a species of concern in its Wildlife Management Plan.
Stand is concerned about the future of the Roger’s Grove colony because preliminary plans for the portion of Longmont’s Resilient St. Vrain flood mitigation project (RSVP) in the vicinity of Roger’s Grove call for construction of a split flow channel through the swallows’ nesting bank. Thankfully, these plans have not yet been finalized and funding for that stretch of the St. Vrain has not yet been secured, meaning there’s still time for these plans to be changed.
To show community support for protecting the Bank Swallows, we will also have postcards available at the pavilion for people to sign asking the City to to bypass the swallows’ nesting area. Stand will be presenting all of the postcards we receive to City Council within the next couple of months.
If you’d like to sign a postcard, but are unable to attend either event, contact Shari Malloy at standwithstvraincreek@gmail.com
