After celebrating 30 years of service to the Northern Colorado community, the Fort Collins Natural Areas Department (NAD) Strategic Framework will address the need to align the community’s vision for land conservation, wildlife, recreation, wellness, and education in an ever-changing environment.

Your Input is Important! The Future Is Up to You!

As the community looks forward to conservation and stewardship in a changing world, it is vital to connect with a diversity of groups representing a number of perspectives to develop a unified plan. The goal for the engagement approach is to be inclusive, listen genuinely, and collect a breadth and depth of perspectives.

Who is Involved?

• Community members
• Historically Underrepresented Groups
• Technical Advisory Committee
• Boards and Commissions
• City Council
• City Departments and Partners

Visit the project website for updates and opportunities to participate.

Why Plan for the Future?

Challenges natural areas will face in the next 20 years include:

Increasing flooding, wildfires, and stressed ecosystems due to climate change and population growth; Increasing needs for infrastructure maintenance; Increasing visitation and recreation use; Diverse and sometimes conflicting community interests 

Planning for the future will:

• Bring together a variety of community voices
• Align financial and staffing resources
• Define tools that respond to an ever-changing environment
• Improve environmental health and ecosystem function
• Create a more equitable City

Schedule

• Phase 1 Discovery (December-May 2024)
  • Focuses on identifying the process and early data collection. Existing data will be organized into a storymap to define various trends and forces. Building on existing surveys and research will focus the public outreach moving into the next stage.
• Phase 2 Think Ahead (June-September 2024)
  • Guided by what resulted from Phase 1, the community will be asked to weigh in on the different focuses Natural Areas could trend in the future.
• Phase 3 Strategize (October 2024-Jan 2025)
  • Guided by the community feedback collected in Phase 2, Phase 3 will introduce draft vision, goals, and strategies to inform the Strategic Framework.
• Phase 4 Confirm (February 2025-May 2025)
  • Gather early feedback on the Draft Strategic Framework from partners then collect community comments.
• Phase 5 Present (April 2025-August 2025)
  • Finalize the Strategic Framework and present it to Council for adoption.