Urban and Community Forestry

Colorado’s cities and towns offer urban forests that are comprised of trees in yards, open spaces, parks and greenways. These trees provide clean air and water, energy conservation, wildlife habitat, reduction in noise pollution, stormwater mitigation and a multitude of other benefits.

The Colorado State Forest Service and its partners enhanced urban and community forests through successes in funding, planning, education and management.

Goals and Accomplishments

Select a goal to learn about accomplishments toward that goal for Urban and Community Forestry.

Goals and accomplishments are connected to national priorities of state forest action plans: Conserve working forestland, Protect forests from harm and Enhance public benefits from trees and forests

Goal 1: Promote the Role and Infrastructure Development of Urban and Community Forests to Advance Public Health, Wellness and Safety

Since 2020, 35 cities and towns across Colorado updated their tree ordinances and six communities updated or wrote management plans for urban forestry and parks, including the City of Fort Collins’ Rooted in Community: Urban Forest Strategic Plan.

Since 2020, the CSFS conducted 24 tree inventories in communities, with some inventories that included hazard tree risk assessments, and added over 11,000 trees to the Colorado Tree View database. In addition, partners added more than 300,000 additional trees to this public database. Learn about the tree inventory in Yuma and view locations of tree inventories in Colorado since 2020

The CSFS provided funding to 14 communities and projects to plant more than 400 trees, remove over 300 hazardous trees and support the local management of urban forests through the Colorado IRA Urban & Community Forestry grant program. These numbers are expected to grow as projects continue. Read about a project in Alamosa through the Boys & Girls Clubs that planted 50 trees, and view the locations all 14 communities and projects across Colorado

The Colorado Tree Coalition has provided pass-through grants to 97 communities in Colorado since 2020. They also distributed 13,253 low-cost trees to 165 groups, offering a diverse selection of 40 to 47 tree species each year to provide affordable and hardy trees to small Colorado communities.

The Urban Forest Inventory & Analysis program visited 255 plots to assess the status and trends of trees and forests in urban settings, including the ecosystem services that they provide, their health and their risk from insects and disease.

In November 2023, the CSFS, CTC and CSU College of Agricultural Sciences established the Urban and Community Forestry Hub on the CSU Spur campus in Denver. The hub serves as a central location for urban forestry expertise, workshops and trainings, and statewide partner engagement.

The CSFS created the Colorado Urban Forestry listserv to facilitate information sharing, peer-to-peer discussion and professional networking among arborists and urban foresters statewide. The listserv included over 310 members as of July 2025.

Goal 2: Promote and Increase Public Awareness and Leadership within the Urban Forestry Community

Colorado has increased its number of Tree City USA communities to 96 with three new communities in the past five years, and at least 23 communities have received Tree City USA Growth Awards since 2020. In addition, Colorado has two utilities recognized as a Tree Line USA, including one new utility in the past five years; six college campuses recognized as a Tree Campus Higher Education, including Colorado State University in Fort Collins; and four schools recognized as a Tree Campus K-12.

Since 2020, the CSFS has provided more than 120 workshops, trainings and conferences related to urban trees and forests, including online training during the pandemic and the Western Urban Forestry Conference. In addition, partners at the Urban and Community Forestry Hub launched the Trees in the West conference and an Arborist School at the CSU Spur campus.

Spearheaded by the CSFS, the Colorado Intermountain Urban Forestry Council formed in 2023 in western Colorado to complement the Front Range Urban Forestry Council. As of July 2025, the new council held 10 virtual meetings and two in-person conferences, with over 275 people in Colorado receiving education and training in urban forestry.

The Colorado Tree Coalition continued its Colorado Arbor Day Poster Contest. The CTC awarded five more winning fifth-graders for their posters since 2020. See the winning posters and entries from past years.

Since 2020, the Colorado Champion Trees program administered by the CTC received 175 nominations, recognized 163 new champions and added 28 new species. Over the years, a total of 2,733 trees have been designated champions, representing 1,070 unique species and cultivars, according to available data.

The CSFS promoted careers in arboriculture and urban forestry through Project Learning Tree’s Green Jobs initiative. In addition, the CSFS supported workforce development efforts through The Park People, helping 53 people transition into positions within the arboriculture industry.

Goal 3: Improve and Enhance Ecosystem Health and Biodiversity for Long-Term Resilience by Integrating Urban and Community Forest Management, Maintenance and Stewardship into all Scales of Planning

The CSFS upgraded the Colorado Tree View online database from a basic tree inventory system to a complete, professional tree inventory system provided at no cost to communities. CO-TreeView also includes tree risk, storm damage and new tree planting assessments and houses the Colorado Tree Coalition’s Champion Tree database.

Partners representing diverse aspects of Colorado green industry updated the Front Range Tree Recommendation List® in 2024.

The CSFS, CSU Extension and partners continue to respond to the invasive emerald ash borer through monitoring and guidance for communities. The CSFS maintains a map of EAB detections in Colorado and implemented the Your Ash is on the Line project, which provides support for EAB to small communities.

Partners at the Urban and Community Forestry Hub on the CSU Spur campus in Denver established a research grove to study and determine long-term survivability, water usage needs and adaptability of tree species for Colorado communities.

The Colorado Urban Wood Network formed in 2022 as a chapter of the national Urban Wood Network to promote urban wood use, offer a network for urban wood businesses and support the development of Wood Co-ops and urban forest products.

The CSFS developed the Front Range Urban Wood Utilization Report, which is the first technical report on this subject in Colorado. The report provides biomass estimations and characterization for 2,734.23 square miles of urban forest on the Front Range.

Impacts from IIJA Forest Action Plan Funding

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Forest Action Plan implementation funding supports the Colorado State Forest Service with outreach to communities following a natural disaster. After a massive hailstorm on May 20, 2024, damaged nearly all of the trees in the small eastern Colorado town of Yuma, the CSFS Urban and Community Forestry Program led an inventory to help the town assess the damage. On July 2, 2024, CSFS staff supported through IIJA funding evaluated more than 700 trees around town. The exercise provided tree-inventory training for interns from Colorado State University and Front Range Community College. Documenting the trees’ conditions also helped Yuma plan for recovery.

Explore Accomplishments for Other Themes and Goals

You can also explore statewide cross-theme accomplishments toward goals.

Visit the Colorado Forest Action Plan Five Year Review homepage.