Colorado Urban Wood Network

The Colorado UWN aims to leverage the urban wood economy as a nature-based climate solution. Urban lumber is a resource that intersects multiple social and environmental issues. As standing trees, the urban canopy is a valuable community resource. After removal, for whatever reason, trees can and should be used as efficiently as possible, sequestering carbon within our infrastructure instead of heading to the landfill. As a chapter, our focus is connecting interested parties in diverse roles, including arborists, municipalities, manufacturers & makers, wood suppliers, design professionals, and more to make the wood economy efficient and smooth. With a large and diverse region, Colorado offers coniferous forests that interface our mountain populations and urban hardwood canopies that characterize our cities and towns. Our chapter brings together diverse stakeholders from within and adjacent to the urban forestry, forest management, and wood products sectors, building new and strengthening existing relationships. We comprise a mixture of large and small municipal governments, non-profit organizations, and businesses that value the urban tree canopy throughout its entire lifecycle. Integration across sectors is especially important in Colorado where we have a large and growing wildland-urban interface experiencing more erratic, larger, and more intense wildland fires.