One of the questions we get most often at Trees, Water & People from well-meaning donors of all sizes is, “So… how many trees can we plant for this many dollars”?

On October 13, 2022, second graders from Kwiyagat Community Academy (KCA) in Towaoc, Colorado, participated in a planting event in the Mancos Canyon on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation.

After years of planting tree seedlings every spring, this year, Trees, Water & People and partners will be conducting fall plantings in New Mexico, Colorado, and South Dakota, to test whether survival rates are higher as we head into winter, versus into the hot dry months of summer.

This past weekend (May 15th), the TWP Staff, TWP Board and some incredible volunteers planted 300 Ponderosa pine in Monument Gulch. The Monument Gulch/Poudre River watershed was extremely impacted by the 2020 Cameron Peak Fire.

Winter is a quiet time of year for communities working on reforestation initiatives, including our partners at Santo Domingo Pueblo and the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, but winter is a critical time for our nursery partners and the baby seedlings that will be planted in the coming months.

For Santo Domingo Pueblo elder, Joe Bird, the restoration of Tribal lands is more than regenerating critical natural resources. He believes in restoration as a form of medicine to preserve the land, language and rich traditional values that are imperative to the survival of people in Santo Domingo Pueblo.

Joe Neguse has been a household name to people in northern Colorado for several years. His rise into the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018 gave him a national platform to represent Colorado’s 2nd District - taking the seat vacated by Colorado Governor Jared Polis.

Last summer in Fort Collins was characterized by thick smoke and orange skies from the Cameron Peak Fire, this summer flash flooding and debris flows from the burn scar are dominating headlines.