7883

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7883
• Author: Colorado Ecosystem Partnership.
• Title: Colorado Ecosystem Partnership, ...Governments, Citizens and Scientists Working Together...
• USFW Year: 1994.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

Colorado Front Range Ecosystem
Management Research and
Demonstration Project
Rocky Mountain Station, Region 2,
Colorado State University, Arapaho Roosevelt and Pike
and San Isabel National Forests
August, 1994
Setting and scope The Front Range of the Colorado Rockies from Wyoming to New Mexico, west to
the Continental Divide (in the north) and the Sangre de Cristos (in the south) and
east to Fort Collins, Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo. The Colorado Front
Range is comprised of diverse terrestrial ecological systems including alpine,
subalpine, montane, woodland, and grassland with associated riparian corridors
and aquatic ecological systems. Three million people live in or adjacent to the
area in settings ranging from isolated mountain homes, ranches, mountain
subdivisions, and small communities to major urban centers. The area offers a
wide range of goods and services generated both by human infrastructure and
wildland ecosystems. Demand is increasing for these goods and services from
local, national, and international consumers. Human impacts are significant and
will increase as demand and human populations increase.
All of these factors create serious problems for those charged with managing area
Issues/problems being ecosystems as evidenced by both increasing decline in the health of Front Range
addressed ecosystems and by increasing public awareness of this decline of conditions. The
mix of wildland and urban areas, along with issues of forest fragmentation,
wildfire suppression, intense recreational use, forest insect and disease
outbreaks, water development, diversion and depletion, and other renewable
resource allocations, pollution, and expanding developments all threaten the
sustainability of these ecological systems. The ability of land managers from
diverse agencies to address these complex issues is impeded by our lack of
knowledge of.
(1) the role human dimensions should play in decision-making and effective
approaches for identifying and managing deep social conflicts over resource use
and environmental values in ecosystem management;
(2) long-term cumulative implications of human interactions on sustainability of
the mosaic of diverse Front Range social and ecological systems;
(3) strengths and weaknesses of agencies charged with managing ecosystems and
the, collaborative processes needed to implement ecosystem management;
(4) basic ecological system function, structure, diversity, and productivity;
(5) critical characteristics to be monitored for reliable information on trends of
ecosystem condition and sustainability;
(6) determining optimal allocation of human economic resources needed to
provide goods and services while sustaining Front Range biological and physical
ecological systems.
A final objective is to maximize application of relevant knowledge and
technology from all sources in carrying out this research to determine where and
what economic and human resources are needed to restore and sustain the social,
biological and physical systems in the Front Range.
Improvements in our ability to address these problem areas will provide
information that will be applicable to other regions of the country with similar
urban and wildland interface conditions.