In 2010, Colorado Front Range National Forests were awarded a Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration (CFLR) grant to facilitate the implementation of restoration treatments across 32,000 acres of ponderosa pine-dominated forests. Collaborative, multi-party monitoring of the impacts of restoration was a required component of the grant; however, the budget for this work was limited, and initial monitoring plans for the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest (AR) and the Pike-San Isabel National Forest (PSI) did not include a strong emphasis on key components of the ecosystem such as wildlife and understory plants. Members of the Front Range Roundtable, an interagency collaborative with representation from 50+ stakeholder groups, prepared a supplemental proposal to the Southern Rockies LCC in 2011 to significantly expand the CFLR monitoring effort and integrate several goals of these 2 important new national programs.
