LA JUNTA, Colo. – As part of an agency-wide restructure that took effect this year, the Colorado State Forest Service has filled a new position dedicated to assisting eastern Colorado with community forestry concerns.
The CSFS recently named longtime forester Donna Davis as the urban and community forestry specialist serving eastern Colorado.
Working out of offices in La Junta and Broomfield, she will be serving as a resource for CSFS field offices, partners and communities throughout the eastern half of the state, offering field support, program planning and administration.
“From a community forestry perspective, the primary concerns for our cities and towns in eastern Colorado relate to tree planting, management and long-term care, all in the face of drought and weather events and insect threats like emerald ash borer,” Davis said.
“We’ll be looking at how our existing programs can better serve these communities, to ensure that they continue to benefit from having healthy trees.”
In her new role, Davis’s duties will include assisting local CSFS staff and partners with community forestry projects, conducting trainings/workshops, meeting with city councils/county governments, coordinating regional community forestry forums, administering contracts and working with the Colorado Tree Coalition and Arbor Day Foundation on related programs.
Nurturing community forestry in eastern Colorado
Prior to this position, Davis served as district forester for the CSFS La Junta Office for 33 years. There she led CSFS efforts to provide forestry assistance to a seven-county district in southeast Colorado, with a focus on community forestry, rural forest stewardship, education and outreach and wildfire mitigation.
Her past accomplishments in southeast Colorado include:
- Spearheading multiple grants to implement community forestry efforts
- Training hundreds of Volunteer Master Foresters and Volunteer Forest Stewards
- Working with landowners to plant tens of thousands of seedling trees
- Coordinating interagency Wildfire Annual Operating Plans
Davis holds Certified Arborist and Tree Risk Assessment qualifications from the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA); is a 2018 Municipal Forestry Institute Graduate from the Society of Municipal Arborists; and is a member of the ISA, Society of American Foresters and Colorado Tree Coalition. Prior to serving for the CSFS, she worked for the Oklahoma Forestry Division.
“I very much look forward to my new role, and to continue serving our eastern Colorado communities,” she said.