Colorado Statewide Forest Resource Assessment

I. Executive SummaryThe Statewide Forest Resource Assessment is the fi rst geospatial assessmentcompleted by the Colorado State Forest Service. This report contains thecomplete set of data used to inform the assessment, as well as the processwe followed and a list of the people we engaged. It also contains informationabout Colorado’s forest types and ownership, a brief history of forest uses inColorado and actions we can take to address priority needs. The objectiveof the assessment is to provide a spatial overview of Colorado’s forestsand display areas in the state where resources are best focused to achievedesired future conditions.Early in the assessment process we established an interagency,interdisciplinary steering team to identify the best available data layers. Wethen combined the individual data layers according to three national themesidentifi ed in the Forestry Title of the 2008 Farm Bill (Conserve Working ForestLandscapes, Protect Forests from Harm, and Enhance Public Benefi ts fromTrees and Forests). The data then was combined to provide a comprehensiveoverview of the important forest resource areas across Colorado. Through thedevelopment of the assessment and this document, we discovered topics/themes/areas for which signifi cant data were available and other topics/themes/areas for which a pressing need to develop additional data exists. Toequitably identify important forest areas across Colorado, we used only datathat best represented specifi c resources and values at the statewide level.This report contains data sets that were combined to address the threenational themes and represents the best available data at the time this reportwas published. Additional data included in this report provides resourceinformation, but was not included in the thematic combinations. The structureof some of the additional data sets was not conducive to integration intoa combined data set. It is important to note that the data included in thisreport can be combined in numerous ways. As noted earlier, we selected thecombination of data sets that best address the three national themes. Thisassessment is designed to be a living document and is structured to allowincorporation of new data as it becomes available. The assessment will bereviewed and updated at a minimum of every 5 years.All data in this report is available for public use, and we look forward tohearing your thoughts on the assessment. We also invite you to help usfurther identify gaps so that we can develop additional data sets that betterdescribe our forest resources. This assessment will frame discussionsregarding our forested areas and will help determine appropriate distributionof limited resources to areas where they will be most effective. During ourdiscussions across the state, we also will examine the importance of our forestresources and how to effectively conserve them so they continue to servesociety’s needs without compromising future productivity.1