High Line Canal Conservancy

The High Line Canal's future needs you. More than a million people enjoy the Canal each year, but keeping this remarkable greenway healthy and welcoming takes ongoing care. Your gift helps protect the Canal's natural spaces and creates opportunities for more people to discover and enjoy this extraordinary place.

WHAT YOUR GENEROSITY MAKES POSSIBLE

When you support the Canal with a gift today, you are not only helping to improve the trail. You’re also creating opportunities for education, land conservation and connection to nature right in our city’s backyard. 

Help more people feel connected to the Canal: You can help bring neighbors together through welcoming activities and opportunities to explore one of Colorado's most remarkable outdoor spaces.

• Engage more than 2,000 participants annually across over 20 educational, recreational and community science programs.
• Strengthen more than 75 unique community partnerships with local organizations like Denver Botanic Gardens, Aurora Naturalists, Craig Hospital, school districts and parks departments to collaborate on Canal programs and engage diverse groups of people.

Help the next generation discover nature: Your gift supports outdoor learning experiences that introduce young people to the natural world, right in their own communities.

• School partnerships, in-classroom visits, and Canal field trips to provide relevant environmental education experiences and community science.
• Develop a digital library of publicly accessibly Canal educational resources.

Help protect the Canal for the future: From caring for native plants to supporting hands-on volunteer efforts, your generosity helps give this extraordinary greenway the attention it needs to thrive.

• Provide tools, trainings and opportunities to more than 1,000 Canal Conservation Corps volunteers to learn about and take part in the stewardship of the Canal.
• Care for the Canal’s natural resources, including more than 23,000 trees, to support the greenway’s environmental resilience.

A 71-mile Canal?

The High Line Canal was hand-dug in the 1880s to bring irrigation water from the Rocky Mountains to farms along Denver's front range. Today, it's one of the longest urban trails in the country. The 71-mile Canal, which stretches from Waterton Canyon to just a few miles south of Denver International Airport, threads together communities from Colorado's most populated and diverse region, and is used by over 1 million people annually.

 Explore the Trail

Who We Are

In 2014, the High Line Canal Conservancy was formed to lead a regional effort to preserve, protect and enhance the Canal for future generations. Working closely with our partners, including Denver Water and the 11 jurisdictions along the Canal’s reach, the Conservancy provides leadership, comprehensive planning, programs and initiatives to ensure that the Canal is protected and enhanced for future generations. 

Read the Plan for the High Line Canal

What We Do

The Conservancy is committed to preserving and enhancing the Canal with projects and programs that improve quality of life and the environment and provide measurable benefits for all people. The Conservancy is working with its partners to:

• Ensure permanent protection of the 71-mile Canal with sustainable funding and enhancements
• Enhance public use of the Canal through improved access, safety and quality of visitor experience with improvements and on-Canal public programs
• Improve environmental health for the Canal with region-wide benefits through stormwater management, care for over 23,000 trees, plantings, and other ecological enhancements

2025 Annual Report