by Karen Vanderwall
People living along the Front Range are becoming more aware that conserving water and establishing native habitats is vital to managing our regional drought and supporting local pollinators. The City of Fort Collins is innovating and leading, locally and nationally, by weaving together the built environment and natural ecosystems. Driven by community funding and new initiatives, the city strives to provide high-quality ecological habitats throughout Fort Collins and to ensure green spaces are integrated into the daily lives of residents wherever possible.
If you haven’t been to Fort Collins, you’re missing out – Fort Collins (FOCO) has water-wise and native plants everywhere! Driving to my grocery store yesterday, I saw several beautiful blooming prickly pear cacti in the median. A native plant lover must remember to keep eyes on the road!
Although city innovators were already working toward finding ways to add drought tolerant plants and natural areas where possible, a big game changer for Fort Collins was the vote to fund the ‘Strategic Plan’ in 2015. Named ‘Nature in the City’, the planning department wanted to better integrate nature into Fort Collins; the idea being to create a network of linked natural areas where residents live and work. The natural areas support both people AND wildlife. It is worth noting – Fort Collins residents are so pleased with the program that funding has been renewed for the next ten years!
‘Nature in the City’ grew into partnerships with various city and residential groups to incorporate natural buffers in development projects, city parks, stormwater utility sites, neighborhood open spaces and community gardens. It blossomed further to include partnering with groups such as the Night Sky Team, The Water Efficiency Planning Team, and the Climate Action Planning Team.
There are efforts in other areas as well. The Gardens on Spring Creek, our botanical garden, has a foothills native plant garden and a prairie garden that showcases underused notable and unique native plants well suited for use in home gardens.
The city’s medians, typically underutilized or neglected areas, are landscaped by the horticulture team of the parks department which creates beautiful AND drought tolerant native plant/water wise eco-gardens all over the city! The urban forestry department creates resilient landscapes and city stormwater retention ponds are kept natural while still maintaining their important function.
Areas along the Poudre River and Spring Creek, which weaves through the city along with a parallel bike path, are natural havens teeming with wildlife while still maintaining the very important role of flood control.
And the icing on this wonderful multilayered cake – a City of Fort Collins Recommended Plant List which is a comprehensive and searchable native plant database used by the city and accessible to residents.
There are many reasons Fort Collins is a Front Range leader in the native habitat movement, but one that I haven’t mentioned is the FOCO attitude. Residents love and appreciate the outdoors here and have shown up for nature and water conservation with their votes time and again.
*Karen Vanderwall is on the Wild Ones Front Range Board. She native gardens in Fort Collins, CO