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Nature in the City Grants#

landscape plans on the grass

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

The Planning grant application window for 2025 grant funds has closed. Applicants will be notified in mid December if their project will be awarded funds and an announcement of awarded projects will be made later in 2025.  

Learn more about Nature in the City Grants

Volunteer at Sugar Beet Park.

2023 Annual Report

Explore the annual report to find out how the community and volunteers helped make 2023 another fantastic year!

Read the 2023 Annual Report

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

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

Draft Design Guide

Check out the draft Fort Collins Design Guide to learn how to diversify your urban landscape!

The Sustainable Landscape Classes that follow the guide will be available again soon. Check back here, or sign up for Natural Areas E-News.

See the Design Guide

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.

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

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:

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.