In 2020, the Salazar Center announced a new intergovernmental agreement with the City and County of Denver to advance Denver Parks and Recreation’s efforts in climate resilience, habitat, and equitable access to green space. One goal of this partnership is to leverage climate-related expertise at CSU to create actionable research that supports the city’s climate resilience management needs and decision-making.
The Center invited proposals from CSU faculty and research staff that address urban landscape and habitat resilience, urban tree canopy, soil carbon sequestration, and native pollinator habitat needs. In alignment with the Center and DPR’s programmatic priorities, proposals also addressed how the research will support solutions that deliver equitable benefits across Denver’s communities. The RFP opened to applications on June 30, and proposals were due by August 5, 2022.
In 2022, a Colorado State University research team was selected to receive the award.
Principal investigator John Mola, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship in the Warner College of Natural Resources, will receive $150,000 from the Salazar Center to optimize plant choices to maximize pollinator habitat, climate resilience and social values across Denver parks and neighborhoods. The project supports DPR’s efforts to deliver equitable climate resilience solutions across the city’s diverse communities.
Mola and his team, Caroline Havrilla, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship; and Veronica Champine, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, are the inaugural grantees of this pilot program, which the Salazar Center and DPR co-designed to identify, leverage and fund actionable research that supports the city’s climate management needs and decision-making.