No place like home
Lands in Our Hands
Seas of green and gold
Colorado is an ideal setting to study forest and rangeland ecology and management. Colorado State University’s campus is surrounded by shortgrass plains to its east, and the rugged Rocky Mountains hold high elevation forests, grassland meadows and riparian areas to its west.
You’ll find six national forests, a national grassland, Rocky Mountain National Park, and several wilderness areas within a 100-mile radius. These sites offer unique opportunities for research and practice in a wide variety of forest and rangeland ecosystems.
Our backyard. Colorado.
Our community. Earth.
34% Forests
60% Rangelands
30% Forests
~45% Rangelands
Colorado's forests
- Spruce-fir
- Aspen
- Limber pine
- Lodgepole pine
- Ponderosa pine
- Piñon-juniper
- Colorado blue spruce
- Southwestern white pine
- Douglas-fir
- Bristlecone pine
- Cottonwood/willow
Colorado's rangelands
- Grasslands
- Riparian areas
- Alpine tundra
- Shrublands
- Desert
Colorado at a Glance
Shades of Green and Gold
Colorado has some of the most diverse forest and rangeland landscapes of any state in the U.S. Our green and gold mosaic contours flat eastern plains, elevated western plateaus, towering Rocky Mountains, high southern deserts and sloping Front Range foothills.