Restoring Front Range Forests to Protect People, Water and Wildlife
Posted by Stacy Plemmons
C
olorado’s Front Range forests supply drinking water to 70% of the state’s population, and are home to wildlife and communities. As we’ve seen in recent years, the forested watersheds of Colorado’s Front Range are extremely vulnerable to fire, damaging water quantity and quality, wildlife, and communities. This week RCFC Past President Melanie Chamberlain will introduce Landscape Ecologist Rob Addington and Director of Science John Sanderson from the Nature Conservancy, a charitable environmental organization, with a mission to "conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends."
olorado’s Front Range forests supply drinking water to 70% of the state’s population, and are home to wildlife and communities. As we’ve seen in recent years, the forested watersheds of Colorado’s Front Range are extremely vulnerable to fire, damaging water quantity and quality, wildlife, and communities. This week RCFC Past President Melanie Chamberlain will introduce Landscape Ecologist Rob Addington and Director of Science John Sanderson from the Nature Conservancy, a charitable environmental organization, with a mission to "conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends." 
The Nature Conservancy has identified 1.5 million acres of Front Range forests that are critical for healthy watersheds and wildlife habitat. During this program, Rob and John will discuss how their work affects our lives, working collaboratively to facilitate forest restoration and improved land management on the Front RangeThe Nature Conservancy now impacts conservation in 69 countries, including all 50 states of the United States. The Conservancy has over one million members, and has protected more than 119,000,000 acres (48,000,000 ha) of land and thousands of miles of rivers worldwide. The Nature Conservancy also operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally. The organization's assets total $6.71 billion as of 2015. The Nature Conservancy is the largest environmental nonprofit by assets and by revenue in the Americas.
Rob Addington is a Landscape Ecologist with The Nature Conservancy in Colorado. He specializes in the restoration and management of fire-adapted forests, with emphasis on spatial planning as well as research and monitoring of forest restoration aimed at reducing hazardous fuels, promoting landscape resilience, and enhancing ecosystem services. Rob has nearly 15 years of professional experience working in frequent-fire ecological systems, from longleaf pine ecosystems of the southeastern United States to ponderosa pine systems of the West. Rob holds B.A. degrees in Biology and English from the University of Colorado and a M.S. degree in Plant Biology from the University of Georgia. Rob and his family reside in Fort Collins, CO.
John Sanderson is Director of Science for the Nature Conservancy of Colorado. John leads a staff of scientists who work on a range of conservation challenges, including determining how much water is enough for endangered fish in the Yampa River, measuring the effects of fires in Colorado’s Front Range forests, planning for sustainable grazing on hundreds of thousands of acres on the Great Plains, and adapting conservation strategies to a changing climate. After earning his BS in Engineering from Purdue University and an MS in Botany from the University of Vermont, John got his start in Colorado in 1994 doing field inventory and conservation planning for the Colorado Natural Heritage Program. He later earned his PhD. in the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology. John is currently celebrating his 10th year working for The Nature Conservancy.