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Nature in the City Grants#

Nature in the City helps to fund projects that will bring natural spaces into your neighborhood and community!

Applications for 2025 grant funds will be available this fall, from September 1 to October 20, 2024.

Learn more about Nature in the City Grants here!

Yellow coreopsis flowers

What to Plant?

The City of Fort Collins Recommended Plant List is here! This unique database includes hundreds of plants native to Fort Collins and Colorado.

Check out the Plant List

Purple bee balm flowers.

Landscaping Resources to Help Make it Happen!

The City of Fort Collins has many resources available to help you save money on your native habitat or water-wise landscaping!

Check out these resources

Vertical rectangles of garden scenes surrounded by a white border yellow and pink flowers insects and front of a house

Sustainable Landscape Series

Attend the Sustainable Landscape Series to learn how to create a sustainable, water-wise landscape!

Not able to attend? View the Fort Collins Design Guide to begin learning how to diversify your urban landscape. The full guide provides inspiration and information to build your dream landscape.

Learn More and Register for the Series

Stay up to Date#

Sign up to receive the monthly Natural Areas eNews which includes Nature in the City updates. Click the Newsletters icon under this page's "Nature in the City" title to enter your email address to subscribe.

Subscribe to our Newsletter!

Background#

Purple coneflowers

The Nature in the City program started as an idea in the Planning Services Division of the City as City Planners wondered how they could better integrate nature into development projects. These ideas evolved over the years to the eventual City Council adoption of the Nature in the City Strategic Plan in 2015.

Nature in the City works with myriad partners to implement innovative and creative projects. Locations for Nature in the City projects may include City Parks, Stormwater Utility sites, open spaces in your neighborhood, community gardens, and more. While not every site will provide every experience, Nature in the City will ensure that residents have access to a variety of natural experiences close to where they live and work.

Vision, Goals, and Strategic Plan#

A Yellow Warbler sits on a branch.

Vision:

A connected open space network accessible to the entire community that provides a variety of experiences and functional habitats for people, plants, and wildlife.

Goals:

  • CONNECTIVITY across high-quality natural spaces through enhancement of urban lands that provide diverse social and ecological opportunities.
  • ACCESS to nature by ensuring every resident can easily experience nature where they live, work, and play.
  • STEWARDSHIP of the naturalized landscape by demonstrating that a shift in our community landscape can support healthy environments for people and wildlife.

Strategic Plan:

Nature in the City goals: Connectivity, Stewardship, and Access

Partnerships to Reach Goals#

Partnerships to reach goals.

Some current partnerships that help reach Nature in the City Goals:

Nature in the City Photos#

Volunteer holding a praying mantis.
Young fox in grass.
Nature in the City sign with new plantings.
American Avocet walking along water.

American Avocet

Sunflower with pond.

Belted Kingfisher

Native pollinator garden.
Blue grosbeak

Blue Grosbeak

Dog looking at pond.