© Mike Norton (Colorado)
The Nature Conservancy - Colorado Field Office
Our Mission
To preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.
Our Work
Colorado's crested buttes, snow-capped mountains, rolling hills, vast grasslands and rushing rivers define the West. Our varied landscapes and wealth of plants and animals are sources of inspiration and recreation and provide us with the lands and waters we need to survive. Colorado's beauty and our natural resources are central to life in our state.
But we are losing ground. The pace of change - population, development, energy demands, water use, climate - outstrips the pace of conservation despite our past efforts and successes.
We have an opportunity to reverse this trend and preserve our state's remarkable natural heritage.
Our plan calls for an evolution in The Nature Conservancy's approach: from protecting discrete pieces of land to conserving entire ecosystems. Only this will save the very wealth and beauty of Colorado. In the next five years, we must double what's been accomplished in the last 40.
Our work will build upon what we do best: on-the-ground results, science, collaboration and financial leverage, which allows us to use every dollar raised privately to generate public investment. Our goal is to improve flows on over 1,000 miles of Colorado's rivers, help to restore 350,000 acres of our forests and preserve 565,000 acres of grasslands, mountain valleys and western range landscapes. These are the necessary milestones on the road to the sustainable future we all want for Colorado.
To learn more about our conservation work and specific projects, please visit nature.org/colorado.
TNC Colorado Projects and Initiatives
-
© Keith Schulz/TNC (TNC Ecoregional Priorities Featured Image)
The Nature Conservancy Ecoregional Priorities in Colorado
Working across the country with numerous partners, The Nature Conservancy establishes conservation goals and priorities as part of a ranking process that assesses global habitats and identifies high-priority ecological regions. These analyses develop and disseminate finer-scale data on a variety of measures — the distribution and status of biodiversity, the habitat condition, current and future threats, and important sociopolitical conditions influencing regional conservation success.
Go to the Map
Use the interactive map to zoom smoothly from a national view to state and local perspectives anywhere across the country.
Go Straight to Your State
Learn about conservation and open space in your state.