Colorado Tree Coalition

The Colorado Tree Coalition works closely with partners such as the U.S. Forest Service, Colorado State Forest Service, Xcel Energy, and several corporate and private sponsors. Programs administered by CTC include the Champion Tree, Tree Risk Assessment and Fifth Grade Arbor Day Poster Contest programs. Additionally, the Trees Across Colorado program provides low cost trees to CO communities, and the ReForest Colorado program helps communities recover from natural disasters.

Testimonials

"The CTC grant-funded program will reverse this trend and make it possible for 30 disadvantaged and disabled high school students to learn about and participate in tree planting and stewardship in their local open space." ~ Institute for Environmental Solutions Executive Director Carol Lyons on how CTC support helped to alleviate ecological decline in the Wheat Ridge Greenbelt caused by drought, extreme weather, and limited municipal resources
"We were thrilled to learn of our grant approval. Tree planting connects people with their local forests and the natural world around them." ~ Sarah Jones, executive director for Yampa Valley Sustainability Council (YVSC) on the CTC-supported Re-Tree Steamboat 2015 Event
"It was simple. It was free. And it did exactly what we needed it to do. Plus you didn't have to go to a five-day training to learn the software." ~ Jennifer Simmons, planning director for the Town of Frederick, on why the Colorado Tree Coalition's free mapping tool CO-TreeView was perfect for the town's first tree inventory
"I think the value of the report is still being revealed. The choices that we make and the care that those trees get will be far better than had we not done the inventory." ~ Jennifer Simmons, planning director for the Town of Frederick, on how the CTC's mapping tool CO-TreeView is helping them to protect and care for Frederick's urban trees
"We loved the interactiveness and that it was something you could just pick up and use." ~ CU-Denver's Michael Tupa on the user-friendliness of CO-TreeView

Yampa Valley Sustainability Council (YVSC) sincerely appreciates the grant of $2,000 from Colorado Tree Coalition (CTC) in support of ReTree Steamboat 2015,
Funding from CTC has helped the program evolve into a community-wide effort engaging a diverse audience of people in caring for our local forests: youth, adults, artists, art-lovers, outdoor recreationalists, nonprofit organizations, professional foresters, teachers, and more,
We just capped off our best year yet for community engagement last weekend with two ve1y different ReTree events, On Friday, October 2, 2015 we opened the two-month ReTree Att Show at The Art Depot with the Steamboat Arts Council, hosting a gallery show of over 45 artists from around the countty who submitted tree­ focused artwork, That night we also debuted our ReTree documentmy video (see link in attached rep01t), which highlights the program's five-year history and mission, ReTree volunteers enjoyed dinner and live music as our thank you for their dedication and hard work,
On Sunday, October 4, 2015, we had our final public tree-planting event at Chuck Lewis State Wildlife Area, Nearly 50 volunteers helped plant 150 cottonwoods and willows along the banks of the Yampa River as part of a larger river restoration project in partnership with Colorado State Forest Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, It was a gorgeous fall day and a fitting end to the planting season, Our final planting for 2015 is next week, Youth from Rocky Mountain Youth Corp will plant the last 120 evergreens in Groasis Waterboxxes at Stagecoach State Park,
All in all, we planted 1,636 trees in 2015 (double our objective for this year) and engaged and cormected 178 volunteers and more than 125 participants to their forests through six different community events (bow many were at the Depot event Seventy-six of these volunteers were youth, which will help ensure that the conservation of forests in Routt County will continue with the next generation, By engaging youth in the monitoring and long-term stewardship of the trees, YVSC is achieving survival rates of 70-80% average for seedlings planted over the past few years-a huge achievement given Colorado's drought conditions,
Thank you for your support of ReTree 2015, Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or need additional information,
Sincerely, Sara B Jones ' Executive Director