ng monitoring protocol.
•Increase the diversity of urban tree species to improve overall urban forest resilience.
• Review and improve strategies for responding to pest and disease invasions.
• Review and refine park and natural space plans to minimize damage from the impacts of increased use and warmer conditions.
• Explore the establishment of a partner non-profit urban forest foundation to leverage additional financial and community support for the urban forest.
Goal: By 2050, Boulder’s surrounding lands will be managed to maintain a vibrant and diverse natural ecosystems while also being able to adapt to significantly different growing conditions and species compositions.
From forests and grasslands to alpine and desert, Boulder’s extensive wildland ecosystems play an important role in maintaining the livability and beauty of our community in the face of climate change. Boulder will continue to experience rising temperatures that will upset the delicate balance of our wildland ecosystems and likely result in increased fire and flood frequency, less snowpack, more drought, bigger spread of invasive species, and more. By improving the resilience and climate-stabilization abilities of our wildlands, we will support the continued vibrancy, diversity and benefit of Boulder’s natural ecosystems in the face of climate change.
2015-2020 City Wildland Ecosystem Action Plan Priorities
• Incorporating climate change into all levels of planning. In particular, invest in scenario planning, focusing on novel future conditions so that recommendations for land management reflect the best available and most current science and potential range of impacts.
• Manage landscapes to support ecosystem transitions.
• Identify multiple biological indicators of climate change sensitivity and response; specifically, identify high risk assets for monitoring or intervention. .
•Develop downscaled future climate layers and use them to predict the return interval of extreme events.
Goal: By 2050, agriculture on city lands will maximize the health and climate benefits of soil and associated ecosystems while producing more local foods.
The City of Boulder leases nearly 15,000 acres of agricultural lands, most of which is used for livestock grazing and part of which is focused on locally-marketed food products. Agriculture accounts for approximately nine percent of greenhouse gas emissions nationwide; however, agricultural practices can also be used to reduce emissions and capture carbon in soil, which helps to stabilize the climate and foster agricultural production and land health. By supporting Boulder farmers in using organic and other sustainable farming practices, we will reduce emissions from agriculture and increase the ability of agricultural lands to stabilize the climate.
2015-2020 City Agricultural Ecosystem Action Plan Priorities
- Continue the development of Best Management Practices for Soil Sequestration--Soil sequestration of carbon is a new science and Best Management Practices for our local climate and soils are still being developed. The city is working on developing soil organic matter sampling procedures to set standards for acceptable conditions and work towards increasing soil organic matter and soil health on city-owned agricultural lands.
- Implement soil protection actions—Work with agricultural lessees and university researchers to adopt soil conservation systems such as reduced tillage, cover cropping and longer crop rotations.
- Identify suitable sites to run pilot projects for soil sequestration of carbon—Explore collaboration opportunities between the city and Boulder County, as well as private farms which are already using many soil carbon sequestration methods, to provide opportunities for testing various soil sequestration strategies.
- Explore Opportunities to Incentivize “Carbon Farming”—Identify and assess opportunities to incentivize sequestration management through both local carbon offset funding or the development of external carbon market incentives such as the Carbon Trade Exchange
- Initiate a public inform