Click here to watch an animated short by Aspen Center for Environmental Studies exploring how forests affect, and are affected by, the forces around them.
In December of 2011 Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES) and For The Forest (FTF) announced a strategic alliance in which FTF joined and became part of ACES. The decision brought together two of the valley’s most visible and active environmental groups.
Click here to read the press release about ACES and FTF joining forces.
Since then, ACES has informed FTF’s programs based on its longstanding history of education, outreach, and land stewardship in the Roaring Fork Valley. We are in the process of creating an annual Forest Health Index for the Roaring Fork Valley, a comprehensive, innovative new means of taking stock of our local forests. ACES also plays a key leadership role in the Hunter Creek – Smuggler Mountain Cooperative Plan, the first truly collaborative, community-based management plan for US Forest Service land. We are continuing to expand biochar-based restoration efforts, such as the Hope Mine Biochar Project, all as part of a concerted effort to transform environmental liabilities into solutions, while simultaneously addressing the global climate crisis.
For a compelling glimpse at how our forests are changing, watch Jim Balog’s time-lapse footage, commissioned by FTF, here.
Learn more about ACES For the Forest Programs in the menu on the left.