Dear RMBL community, 

If you’ve spent any time in the Upper Gunnison Valley this summer, you’ve likely noticed something remarkable: monument plants are everywhere.

Towering above the landscape at heights of 7 to 9 feet, monument plants (Frasera speciosa) are experiencing a “super bloom” year. These extraordinary plants can live for decades — sometimes nearly a century — before flowering just once in their lifetime. After decades of quietly storing energy, they produce a spectacular flowering stalk, scatter seeds, and complete a life cycle that may have taken 50 years or more to unfold.

Many valley residents remember the last major bloom in 2019 and another in 2010. Yet despite decades of observations, scientists still do not fully understand what triggers these synchronized flowering events. Is it snowpack? Temperature? Drought? Climate variability? Some combination of environmental conditions accumulated over many years?

These are exactly the kinds of questions that scientists at RMBL are working to answer.

For nearly 100 years, scientists at RMBL have documented environmental change across the Upper Gunnison Valley and the headwaters of the Colorado River Basin. Together, they have created one of North America’s most valuable collections of ecological knowledge — hundreds of research projects, nearly 13,000 herbarium specimens, long-term environmental datasets, and a scientific record that spans generations.

Today, those observations are becoming more accessible than ever through the RMBL Data Hub, which connects thousands of scientific publications, environmental datasets, maps, forecasting tools, and historical records. The Data Hub represents an important step forward in making nearly a century of science available not only to researchers, but also to educators, communities, and the public.

But data alone is not enough. The real opportunity lies in translating data into understanding.

One example is RMBL’s new Wildflower Bloom Forecast. Built using decades of ecological observations, the tool helps visitors and residents anticipate peak wildflower blooms throughout the season. While it is a practical resource for the community, it also demonstrates something much bigger: how long-term data and technology can work together to make science useful and accessible.

That raises an important question: What else can we do with nearly a century of environmental data?

Answering this question requires more than data. It requires partnerships across our community and beyond. At RMBL, we are increasingly thinking about how science can move from discovery toward understanding. That means building relationships across disciplines, sectors, and communities.

Those partnerships span local, regional, and national organizations. Locally, RMBL is entering its second year of an exciting partnership with the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival, helping connect the public with the science of wildflower ecology and why wildflower-pollinator interactions are critical to our ecosystem. Community partners, such as Irwin Brewing Company, create opportunities to engage residents and visitors with RMBL’s science in accessible and enjoyable ways.

In addition, we are expanding collaborations with Tribal communities, including early conversations with members of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, whose deep knowledge and enduring relationships with these landscapes offer invaluable perspectives for understanding and stewarding them, allowing us to learn from one another.

At the same time, we are building new relationships with universities and technology leaders. This month, RMBL hosted faculty and students from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Aerospace Engineering program to explore opportunities involving remote sensing, satellite technologies, and environmental monitoring models. These collaborations represent exciting opportunities to connect cutting-edge technology with some of the world’s most valuable long-term ecological datasets.

Together, these partnerships are helping shape a broader vision for RMBL’s future — one where scientific discovery extends beyond the field to inspire education, strengthen conservation, foster community engagement, build environmental resilience, and create lasting benefits for the communities and landscapes we serve. By bringing together diverse expertise, perspectives, and partners, we are creating new opportunities to better understand our changing world and the interconnected systems that shape it.

The monument plants blooming across the valley this summer are a reminder that some of the most remarkable outcomes take years — even decades — to emerge. The same is true for scientific discovery.

This is an exciting time to be engaged with RMBL. As we approach our second century of science, education, community engagement, and discovery, we invite you to join us on this journey, helping transform nearly 100 years of scientific inquiry and observation into understanding for our communities, our landscapes, and our future.

Thank you for being part of the RMBL community.

Jeni Blacklock, PhD
RMBL Executive Director

PS: There are many opportunities for you to engage with RMBL this summer. Here are a few highlights:

• Events such as Art/Science Exchange film screening and conversation at the Majestic, public lectures, RMBL Reads book club, workshops, and family-friendly programming
• Wildflower and townsite tours through the Visitor Center 
• Our interactive wildflower bloom forecasting tool 
• The new RMBL Data Hub 
• Fat Marmot Week (stay tuned!) 
• Marmot Tears IPA, our new collaboration with Irwin Brewing Co. — launching July 1! 

Top: Jeni (left) with Prof. Jade Morton of the University of Colorado Boulder. Photo by Jeni Blacklock