Climate change threatens the high-alpine home of Colorado’s pika. A lack of snow does not bode well for the lynx. Gas and oil development has overtaken former land of the prairie chicken and mountain plover. Urban development has overtaken that of the burrowing owl. Hikers and campers scare away the boreal toad, while rock climbers pose risks to the cliff-nesting peregrine falcon. Meanwhile, the state bird, the lark bunting, is competing with “intensive agriculture,” among other concerns.

Those are just a few takeaways from Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s new Species Conservation Dashboard, which lists threats for more than 350 life forms and 2,500-plus actions to help them in an ever-evolving state.

“Over the past many months, you’ve heard a lot about gray wolf restoration planning efforts, but that’s just one of the programs we coordinate in the species conservation unit,” said the unit’s supervisor, David Klute, during a CPW Commission meeting this summer.

That was in introducing the Species Conservation Dashboard. The online database is intended to be an interactive way for people to track CPW’s progress, or lack thereof, toward species protection previously outlined in the 2015 State Wildlife Action Plan.

The plan is due for revision by 2025. In the meantime, officials and any concerned Coloradan can toggle through the dashboard to educate themselves on threats and initiatives. They’re bound to learn something.

Perhaps about the Eastern black rail, the bird that has lost marshy habitat along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

“Interior populations are thus extremely important,” Klute said at the commission meeting, “and Colorado has the largest known interior population in North America.”

While he said CPW has only begun to learn more about black rail in the state, the agency continues to monitor Gunnison sage grouse, a federally listed threatened species.

“Just about 100% of the global population of this species occurs in Colorado,” Klute said. “So the vast majority of the conservation responsibility of this species falls to lands in Colorado.”

The new dashboard identifies specific threats and also recognizes a lack of understanding.

For the iconic, migrating sandhill cranes, CPW lists a need for “improved knowledge of breeding distribution.” There’s a “lack of dedicated funding source” for the threatened New Mexico jumping mouse. And there’s a hint at an “action plan” needed for wolverines; CPW has suggested reviewing old plans for reintroduction to the state.

The dashboard represents conservation success stories. For example, at the commission meeting, Klute spoke on the black-footed ferret’s reemergence on the plains.

The dashboard tells a different story for Colorado’s reptiles, he said.

“There’s little we’ve done to directly understand and conserve reptiles,” he said. “A lot of future work and opportunity still exists.”

Contact the writer: seth.boster@gazette.com