Colorado Statewide Forest Resource Assessment

Areas with high potential for growth but no capacity to address the resultingforestry and other environmental impacts were ranked the highest in the fi nalanalysis. This fi nal layer reveals at least 650,000 acres with some opportunityfor investment in community forestry; 30 percent of these acres are in themoderate and high categories for projected growth. As would be expected,virtually all of these acres are in private ownership. Where opportunity areasoverlap with traditional forest types, forests tend to be lower-elevation typessuch as ponderosa pine, oak shrubland and piñon-juniper. It also is importantto note that a signifi cant portion of these acres consist of a more urban mix ofnative and ornamental tree species that does not fi t into the forest vegetationscheme used throughout this assessment.Data Gaps• Need a clear defi nition of and spatial data on the location and extent ofwhat constitutes a “community” for the purposes of this analysis.• Need a statewide inventory of urban and community forests to provideinformation on the quality, extent and threats associated with theseforests.• Need a statewide analysis to quantify the environmental benefi tsprovided by urban and community forests.67