Resources and Facilities

Fort Collins is located at the interface between the western edge of the Great Plains and the foothills of the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. A rich variety of ecosystem types and research sites are readily accessible. Nearby major ecosystem types include: shortgrass steppe , mixed-grass prairie, sagebrush steppe, mountain meadows, forests, lakes, and streams; southwestern deserts; alpine tundra; urban ecosystems and and a wide range of irrigated and dryland agroecosystems.

Colorado State University is rich in research laboratories and support services. The Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory is an international center for ecosystem analysis. Both the University Insect Collection and the Herbarium contain large reference collections. The Central Animal Care Facility has conventional and restricted containment facilities, as well as controlled environments, surgical facilities, and animal transport capabilities. Computing facilities at CSU are fully networked, offering access from PCs to supercomputers. The Statistics Laboratory provides consultation for all statistical software supported by the Computer Center. The University also operates several microcomputer laboratories in colleges and departments contain a wide range of hardware and software products. GDPE students are authorized to use the computing facilities of their advisor's college and department.

Colorado State University maintains a large number of field sites. The Colorado State Forest Service manages the 29,000 ha State Forest located 130 km west of Fort Collins and the State Forest Service Nursery at the Colorado State Foothills campus. The Agronomy Research Center provides over 80 ha of farmland. The Colorado State Agricultural Experiment Station maintains nine Research Centers located throughout the state for research on agronomic and horticultural crops, land management, rangeland ecology, and livestock production. Pingree Park is the mountain campus of Colorado State and is located 90 km northwest of Forest Collins adjacent to the Roosevelt National Forest and Rocky Mountain National Park. Facilities include laboratories, classrooms, cabins, dining hall, and a conference center. The Maxwell Ranch, a 4,850 ha tract 30 km north of Fort Collins, is ideal for rangeland ecology research.

Many federal and state lands are readily accessible and used extensively by GDPE students and faculty. Nearby Rocky Mountain National Park not only provides a vast recreation resource for the public, but also provides designated natural areas for research purposes. The Shortgrass Steppe Research and Interpretation Center is the gateway the 6000 ha Central Plains Experimental Range managed by the Agricultural Resarch Service and the the 80000 ha Pawnee National Grasslands managed by the US Forest Service. It is also the location of the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research project. Located on the west side of the Continental Divide is the USFS Fraser Experimental Forest, primarily subalpine habitat permanently maintained for basic and applied research in the areas of timber, watershed, and wildlife management. The U.S. Forest Service also maintains the Manitou Experimental Forest (primarily ponderosa-bunchgrass) near Colorado Springs.

Other federal land units in the area include the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest, which contain over 500,000 ha of mountain forest and rangeland between Denver and Wyoming. Colorado Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation, through its Northern Regional Office in Fort Collins, administers six state parks (34,000 ha), areas valuable for wildlife and recreation-related research. Several nearby federal and state agencies have traditionally maintained cooperative research ties with Colorado State. These include: USDA (Agricultural Research Service, Economic Research Service, Forest Service); U.S. Department of Interior (National Biological Survey, Cooperative Wildlife and Fishery Units, National Park Service); Center for Disease Control; Colorado Division of Wildlife; and Colorado State Forest Service.