View from the top of the Grand Staircase, Sunset Cliffs Proposed Wilderness, Dixie National Forest. © by Utah Forest Network

The Colorado Plateau harbors a spectacular diversity of forestlands. Spanning the region’s mountains and high plateaus, Plateau forests form the scenic backdrop and headwaters to the region’s world famous canyon country.

If one were to descend from atop the Plateau’s highest points, they would first encounter woodlands of ancient bristlecone pines. Comprised of windswept and sometimes millennia old trees, as one descends these woodlands give way to extensive forests of spruce and fir, mixed conifer, and aspen. At lower elevations, mixed conifer forests yield to mosaics of ponderosa pine forest, Gambel oak woodland, and eventually pinyon-juniper woodlands along the lowest, driest locales. Each of these forests has a unique ecology, and in total these forests comprise a diverse flora and fauna that includes species that are federally protected and found nowhere else in the world.

But like many Western forests, forests of the Colorado Plateau have been subject to a history of land use that prioritized commodity production over other values and uses. Industrial logging, livestock grazing, fire suppression, killing of predators and road construction have all compromised the ecological integrity and scenic quality of these forests, making the protection of remaining healthy forests, and restoration of those that have been degraded, a top conservation priority.

Grand Canyon Trust works in several arenas and employs a diversity of strategies to protect and restore Colorado Plateau forests. Our forest conservation program includes policy advocacy, collaborative, on-the-ground restoration, forest planning advocacy, and forest protection. Common to these efforts is the need to forge reciprocal relationships between the Plateau’s human communities, native biological diversity, and future generations thereof. From community based collaboration to national-level policy advocacy, we bring the best available information into forest management and policy in order to sustain the ecosystems and biological diversity upon which society ultimately depends.

You can learn more about these program areas by visiting the Arizona Forests and Utah Forests pages on our website. Please explore these pages, and feel free to contact us with any questions or comments you may have.

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