Denver Parks & Recreation On-Call Ecological Restoration Services

Denver’s Parks and Recreation Department is taking a holistic, proactive approach to city-wide ecological restoration and stewardship, and is working to bring city departments and partners together to improve the ecological function and educational opportunities of its priority landscapes.

The City of Denver Parks and Recreation Department manages designated natural areas and priority landscapes representing over half of the acreage within the City Parks network. Some parcels have significant but compromised ecological potential, but their restoration had never been systematically examined. As part of an on-call contract to provide ecological restoration services, Biohabitats assessed the holdings and prioritized restoration projects for21 priority properties.

Biohabitats assessed ten City lakes and four gulches that traverse multiple jurisdictions as they flow through Denver natural areas. The gulch sites had impairments ranging from erosion and incision because of channel alteration, to encroachment by urban development, to invasive species. The management priorities for these sites will be used to prioritize the maintenance and restoration activities for the Program’s upcoming planning period. Identifying potential projects near schools to enhance educational opportunities was a particularly important aspect of the project.

Biohabitats’ living systems approach resulted in collaboration with other City partners. The City and Urban Drainage and Flood Control District, which shares maintenance responsibilities with the Natural Areas Program, initiated a broader collaboration to improve its ecological approach to managing City lands, and Biohabitats is assisting with vegetation management planning. Biohabitats is assisting the City and their partner, Groundwork Denver, to assess the feasibility of a pilot stormwater best management practice project to reduce E coli in Bear Creek.