Rising in Rocky Mountain National Park and coursing 126 miles to its junction with the South Platte River near Greeley, the Cache la Poudre River is the lifeblood of several northern Colorado communities and contributes significantly to the economy of…

One of the most ecologically and culturally significant trees in Colorado, the plains cottonwood (Populus deltoides monilifera) thrives near rivers and riparian areas throughout the state. It is one of the only tree species to grow on Colorado’s Great…

Coloradans have maintained a complex relationship with the natural process of flooding. On one hand, inhabitants of the arid West—from early indigenous communities to current metropolitan populations—have been attracted to the many resources floodplains…

The Front Range is a corridor of the Rocky Mountains and surrounding land stretching 200 miles from the Wyoming border on the north to the Arkansas River on the south. The western border of the Front Range consists of a collection of high mountain ranges…

Greeley is a growing community of 100,000 people along the Front Range in northeastern Colorado. Founded as an agricultural colony in 1870, the city has an economic, political, and cultural reach that extends far beyond its municipal borders. Greeley is…

Ignited by lightning in early June 2012, the High Park Fire became one of the largest and most destructive wildfires in Colorado history, burning 87,415 acres along the Cache la Poudre River in the mountains west of Fort Collins. By the time it was fully…

The Kaplan-Hoover Bison Kill Site west of Windsor preserves one of the largest single-event Archaic arroyo kills ever found. Discovered in 1997 during construction of a housing development, the site was excavated by a Colorado State University (CSU) team…

The Roberts Ranch Buffalo Jump in northern Larimer County is a Protohistoric period (1540–1860 CE) bison kill and butchering site that dates to about 1663–84 and represents one of the southernmost bison jump sites on the Great Plains. Discovered in 1957,…