BOULDER — If the cow bawling in the field below the Flatirons was human, she probably would have gotten bereavement leave.

Her mournful cries meant her calf was gone — likely in the belly of a mountain lion.

But she didn’t necessarily need to take time off, because her job was to eat, and eating she loved.

She was among the 48 cow-calf pairs brought to the grassy meadow above the Shanahan Ridge neighborhood near the National Center for Atmospheric Research building in southern Boulder, where in 2022 a wildfire, dubbed the NCAR fire , tore down the ridge at top speed because there was so much available fuel.

Most of it was tall oatgrass , an invasive species likely introduced with historical grazing in the Boulder area in the 1950s. Cattle ate it, expelled the seeds and contributed

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