The Regional Vision includes values, desired future conditions, and action plans

Denver, Colo. – The Metro Denver Nature Alliance (Metro DNA), a coalition whose mission is to align nature-based efforts to ensure more equitable access to nature and to promote healthy people, communities, and natural places, has released its Regional Vision for People and Nature.

The Regional Vision describes the current context and conditions, regional values and themes, and the desired future conditions for the region. The visioning process informed key recommendations and strategies in the coalition's action plan.

The four main challenges facing the Denver metro region were identified through detailed focus groups conducted by Metro DNA. They include access, displacement, and inequity; climate change and urban sprawl; fragmentation; and funding.

“The challenges the region is facing are ones that have impacted us individually, one way or another. As a program provider, I’ve seen firsthand how scheduling time in the outdoors has become more difficult because the outdoors is getting hotter and drier,” said Kim Lopez, Volunteer Coordinator at Friends of the Front Range Wildlife Refuges and Executive Committee member of Metro DNA. “Our community wants fun, safe, and inclusive ways to recreate locally in the outdoors, and they shouldn’t have to leave the Denver Metro to find it. The Regional Vision is directly informed by the lived experiences of our neighbors and the latest data regarding our environment’s health. The Denver Metro is the perfect place to demonstrate how we can build resilient landscapes with both the community and the land’s needs equally considered.”

Read the Regional Vision for People and Nature

With support from Colorado Parks and Wildlife Regional Partnership Initiative funding, Metro DNA launched this shared roadmap to guide community priorities and investments in the outdoors. Metro DNA engaged Keystone Policy Center to lead this process, which included a three-phase approach beginning with a background research assessment of existing plans and efforts underway in the region, and a robust six-month community engagement period, including focus groups, interviews, surveys, and mapping with a diverse array of stakeholders and communities across the region.

Read the Background Research Report

Read the Community Engagement Report

These first two phases shaped the final phase, producing the Regional Vision by lifting up local voices, values, and ideas to reflect Metro Denver’s diverse needs and aspirations. The Regional Vision will serve as a framework for building and investing in a more connected, inclusive, and sustainable future for people and nature in Metro Denver.

The Regional Partnerships Initiative (RPI) is a statewide network of coalitions that advance conservation and outdoor recreation priorities rooted in community values through coordinated, regionally led planning. Supported by Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Great Outdoors Colorado, RPIs play a critical role in implementing Colorado’s Outdoors Strategy by applying shared data, tools, and inclusive approaches to strengthen conservation, outdoor recreation, and climate resilience across the state.

“As the Regional Partnerships Initiative leaders for the Metro Denver region, Metro DNA helps translate community priorities into regional action,” said Erica Elvove, Strategic Projects Lead for Metro Denver Nature Alliance. “We’re deeply grateful to Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Great Outdoors Colorado for their continued support as we advance a Regional Vision for People and Nature.”

The Regional Vision builds on previous work by Metro DNA, including the Regional Conservation Assessment, the Regional Equity Assessment, and investments in Regional Demonstration Projects.

“Metro DNA’s Regional Vision for People and Nature establishes a unifying foundation that brings together a broad and diverse coalition committed to stewarding the natural resources that make the Denver area so special,” said Chris Hawkins, Cities Program Director for The Nature Conservancy in Colorado, and Executive Committee member of Metro DNA. “Every person deserves access to nature – and nature depends on all of us to thrive”

Read the Regional Vision for People and Nature

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About Metro Denver Nature Alliance

Metro Denver Nature Alliance (Metro DNA) is a growing coalition of more than 60 nonprofit, government, academic, and private sector members aligned around the mission of championing more equitable access to nature and promoting healthy people, communities, and natural places in the metro Denver region. Metro DNA works with organizations across the seven-county metro Denver region, serving nearly 3.3 million people inhabiting more than 4,500 square miles of land and water. The mission of Metro DNA is to align nature-based efforts to ensure more equitable access to nature and to promote healthy people, communities, and natural places.

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Media Contact:

Erica Elvove

Strategic Projects Lead

Metro Denver Nature Alliance

303-204-2707

ericaelvove@gmail.com