"Parks Face 'Greatest Threat' -- Climate Change"

"ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, Colo. -- Visitors at the Beaver Meadows entrance here marvel over their first glimpse of thick ponderosa pine stands rolling out like a welcome mat to the snow-capped Rocky Mountains.

But the meadows that should be filled with native bunchgrasses and flowers instead are covered with cheatgrass. The invasive plant has turned the fields brown and threatens extensive ecological damage across one of the nation's most iconic parks.

"If you'd taken a picture of this meadow 10 years ago it would have been lush and green," said Paul McLaughlin, an ecologist at the park.

Until recently, park officials had not seen cheatgrass at an elevation of 9,000 feet. But warming temperatures and earlier springs have allowed the noxious weed to spread rapidly. It's soaking up scarce water, changing soil chemistry and threatening to wipe out native plants like rubber rabbitbrush and antelope bitterbrush that migratory birds, deer, elk and jackrabbits depend on for food or shelter."

Scott Streater reports for Greenwire July 26, 2016.