Colorado Forest Restoration Institute

What Colorado Forest Restoration Institute does

The Colorado Forest Restoration Institute (CFRI) is a science-based outreach and engagement organization chartered by Congress through the Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act of 2004 and hosted by Colorado State University's Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship within the Warner College of Natural Resources. CFRI operates as a bridge between researchers, land managers, and stakeholders to generate and apply locally relevant, science-informed solutions for forest restoration and wildfire resilience across Colorado, the Southern Rocky Mountains, and the Intermountain West. Its portfolio includes the Geospatial Portal (ArcGIS-based StoryMaps, planning links, and data viewer), the Colorado Forest Tracker (statewide open-access activity database), the CFRI Monitoring Handbook and accompanying video series, and TWIG (a national open-access tool connecting fuel treatment and wildfire data). Service capabilities are organized around six expertise areas: Spatial Wildfire Decision Support, Ecological Monitoring and Research, Collaborative Adaptive Management, Post Wildfire Reforestation and Recovery, Principles to Practice, and Capacity building.

CFRI is funded primarily through federal congressional appropriations, supplemented by project-specific grants (CFLRP since 2010, the 2021 IIJA ReSHAPE project since 2022, USFS SBEADMR project funding) and tax-deductible donations routed through CSU. Services and tools are provided at no cost as part of CSU's public engagement mission; there is no commercial pricing model. Core partners include the USFS (Grand Mesa, Uncompaghre, and Gunnison National Forests; Rocky Mountain Research Station), Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Upper South Platte Partnership, the SBEADMR Adaptive Management Group, the Public Lands Partnership, CFLRP, the SWERI network, and the Big Thompson Watershed Health Partnership. Scale indicators include 486 Forest Management Units across 75,000+ acres, 5,253 monitoring plots collected since 2010, 39 continually engaged landscapes, and 137+ million acres of reported on-the-ground impact across the Western USA. Leadership is shared by Director Camille Stevens-Rumann and Co-Lead Brett Wolk following the July 2024 transition from founding Director Tony Cheng (now Director Emeritus).

Name

Colorado Forest Restoration Institute

Legal name

Colorado Forest Restoration Institute

Website

https://cfri.colostate.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2005

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Colorado Forest Restoration Institute is a federally-chartered, university-hosted research institute that bridges forest scientists, land managers, and stakeholders to deliver science-based tools, monitoring data, and collaborative frameworks for forest restoration and wildfire resilience across Colorado and the Intermountain West.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Fort Collins

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Federal Congressional Appropriations: CFRI was established by Congress through the Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act of 2004. Primary funding originates from federal appropriations allocated to support the institute's mission of bridging researchers, managers, and stakeholders to restore and enhance resilience of forest ecosystems to wildfires in Colorado, the Southern Rocky Mountains, and Intermountain West.
2. Tax-Deductible Donations and Gifts: CFRI accepts tax-deductible gifts through Colorado State University's giving platform. Donations support hands-on work opportunities for students from non-traditional backgrounds to advance into professional restoration ecology. Donations can be mailed to 1401 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523.
3. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (2021) Funding: In 2022, all three SWERI institutes began working on a national project from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to increase capacity for cross-boundary forest treatment and wildfire data management and application.
4. Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) Funding: CFLRP provided funding starting in 2010 for Front Range and Uncompahgre Plateau restoration projects. CFRI joined the partnership and engaged with broader forestry and federal stakeholder groups.
5. US Forest Service Project Funding (SBEADMR): The US Forest Service funded the Spruce Beetle Epidemic & Aspen Decline Management Response (SBEADMR) project through a flexible adaptive management approach allowing designation of large swaths as priority treatment areas. The USFS also funded an independent science advisory team.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Colorado Forest Restoration Institute (CFRI) is a university-hosted science-based outreach and engagement organization that develops and disseminates actionable forest restoration science, geospatial decision-support tools, and collaborative adaptive management frameworks for land managers, agencies, and forestry collaboratives across Colorado and the Intermountain West. It produces open-access geospatial platforms (e.g., the CFRI Geospatial Portal, Colorado Forest Tracker, TWIG), monitoring guidance (e.g., the CFRI Monitoring Handbook), and facilitates large-scale collaborative programs (e.g., SBEADMR, Forsythe II Multiparty Monitoring, Upper South Platte Partnership).

Product overview

The Colorado Forest Restoration Institute (CFRI) is a science-based outreach and engagement organization hosted by Colorado State University. Rather than a single commercial software product, CFRI offers a portfolio of research tools, data platforms, collaborative programs, and expertise-driven services focused on forest restoration and wildfire risk reduction. Core products include the Geospatial Portal (featuring ArcGIS StoryMaps, Planning Links, and data viewers), the Colorado Forest Tracker (open-access forest management activity tracking), the CFRI Monitoring Handbook and Video Series (guidance for forest monitoring plans), and TWIG (an open-access national tool connecting fuel treatment and wildfire data). CFRI's services are organized around six expertise areas: Spatial Wildfire Decision Support, Ecological Monitoring and Research, Collaborative Adaptive Management, Principles to Practice, and Post Wildfire Reforestation and Recovery. CFRI also facilitates three major collaborative initiatives: the Forsythe II Multiparty Monitoring Group, the Spruce Beetle Epidemic & Aspen Decline Management Response (SBEADMR), and the Upper South Platte Partnership. A searchable Publications Archive of over 550 publications and annual reports spanning 2006–2025 support the broader research and practitioner community.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• CFRI Geospatial Portal An ArcGIS-based spatial data and map viewing platform hosting internally and publicly available spatially-explicit datasets, StoryMaps, planning data links, and a CFRI data viewer to support planning, assessment, monitoring, and adaptive management for public officials, forestry collaboratives, land management agencies, and the research community.
• Colorado Forest Tracker A transparent, open-access statewide resource for tracking forest and woody vegetation management activities across Colorado, serving as a primary resource for forest resilience planning.
• CFRI Monitoring Handbook and Video Series A guidance document and accompanying video series providing guidance for the development and implementation of forest monitoring plans, supporting adaptive management and field monitoring as core CFRI program components.
• TWIG (Tool for Wildfire Integration and Geospatial analysis) An open-access national tool developed under the SWERI ReSHAPE project that connects fuel treatment and wildfire data to support cross-boundary decision-making across agencies and landscapes.
• CFRI Publications Archive A searchable archive of more than 550 CFRI research outputs spanning 2006–2026, organized by publication type (Briefs, Peer-Reviewed Articles, Ecological Monitoring Reports, Protocols, Reports, Posters), subject topic area, year, and author.
• CFRI Annual Reports Annual reports from 2006 through 2025 documenting CFRI's activities, accomplishments, and impact, with accompanying Facts at a Glance summaries available as downloadable PDFs.
• Spatial Wildfire Decision Support (RADS/PODs) Service A CFRI expertise service developing new spatial analysis methods within collaborative processes to make data more useful for assessing tradeoffs in forest and fire management actions, identifying where values interact with wildfire behavior and forest ecology to plan management strategies before, during, and after wildfire.
• Ecological Monitoring and Research Service A CFRI expertise service that contextualizes ecological data with local expertise to inform adaptive forest and fire management strategies, collects and analyzes ecological data, and synthesizes applied science on fire-adapted forest landscapes.
• Collaborative Adaptive Management Service (CoRDS) A CFRI expertise service that applies economic and social sciences to assess and deploy strategies that increase the readiness, effectiveness, resilience, and adaptiveness of cross-boundary, multi-party collaborative processes, providing informational resources and coaching for shared decision-making.
• Principles to Practice Service A CFRI expertise service creating and enhancing resources and activities for targeted information delivery to move forestry and wildfire ideas into actionable practice, supporting a community of practice through platforms and resources for science communication.
• Post Wildfire Reforestation and Recovery Service (POWRR) A CFRI expertise service collaborating with partners to synthesize and share scientific knowledge on post-wildfire forest and watershed management and recovery, creating outcome-based decision support tools and risk assessments for pre- and post-fire landscapes.
• Spruce Beetle Epidemic and Aspen Decline Management Response (SBEADMR) Collaborative Program
• Forsythe II Multiparty Monitoring Program
• Upper South Platte Partnership (USPP) Program A collaborative partnership of government agencies, water providers, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, and fire protection districts working toward sustainable and resilient landscapes and fire-adapted communities in the Upper South Platte watershed, which supplies 80% of Denver's water.

Quantifiable outcome

• 486 Forest Management Units managed across 75,000+ acres
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability2 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

18 partnerships are on record, tiered secondary and core.

• Big Thompson Watershed Health PartnershipsecondaryStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026CFRI collaborates with the Big Thompson Watershed Health Partnership on community readiness workshops and watershed health initiatives. The partnership published a Community Readiness Workshops Summary in 2026.
• Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes (SWERI)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2022CFRI is one of three SWERI institutes established by Congress through the Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act of 2004 (alongside institutes in Arizona and New Mexico). In 2022, all three SWERI began a national project from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to increase capacity for cross-boundary forest treatment and wildfire data management and application. The SWERI ReSHAPE project developed TWIG — an open-access national tool connecting fuel treatment and wildfire data.
• The Nature ConservancysecondaryStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020The Nature Conservancy is referenced as a collaborative partner in SBEADMR and other forest management projects. Their expertise in conservation and land management contributes to collaborative decision-making processes.
• Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018CFLRP funded the Front Range and Uncompahgre Plateau restoration programs starting in 2010. CFRI joined the partnership and engaged with broader forestry and federal stakeholder groups. CFRI's RMRS-GTR-373 restoration framework developed in 2018 became the basis of forest management on the Colorado Front Range.
• Forsythe II Multiparty Monitoring GroupcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2017The Forsythe II Multiparty Monitoring Group was formed in 2017 in response to the Forsythe II Environmental Assessment and Final Decision. CFRI hosts the group's website as a platform for sharing meeting notes, field trip notes, and other resources. The group conducts ongoing meetings, field trips, and collaborative monitoring of forest management treatments on the Colorado Front Range.
• Taylor Park Adaptive Management GroupsecondaryStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2017The Taylor Park Environmental Assessment and Adaptive Management Group was modeled after the SBEADMR AMG approach developed by CFRI and partners. This demonstrates the replicability and value of the CFRI collaborative adaptive management model.
• Wilder Highlands Mountain Pine Beetle ResponsesecondaryStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2017The Wilder-Highlands rapid Categorical Exclusion proposal to target mountain pine beetle-affected lodgepole pine forest on the Gunnison Ranger District was modeled after the SBEADMR approach, contributing to the expansion of CFRI's collaborative adaptive management methodology.
• Upper South Platte Partnership (USPP)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Since 2015, the Upper South Platte Partnership has been working with a 'stronger together' approach as a collaboration between government agencies, water providers, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, and fire protection districts. Partners share a vision of sustainable and resilient landscapes, healthy forests, proactive and engaged fire-adapted communities, with safe, effective, and efficient fire response and management in the Upper South Platte watershed (which supplies 80% of Denver's water). CFRI collaborates with USPP on forest management, adaptive processes, and science support.
• National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management StrategysecondaryStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Building on the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy framework from 2015, CFRI expanded in staff and engagement across fire-adapted communities and fire response actionable strategies. Integrating across all three legs of the Cohesive Strategy (restoration, hazardous fuels reduction, and fire response) opened new opportunities for CFRI and partners.
• US Forest Service (Grand Mesa, Uncompaghre, and Gunnison National Forests)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014CFRI supports the USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station and the Grand Mesa, Uncompaghre, and Gunnison National Forests in implementing adaptive management strategies in beetle-impacted spruce-fir forests through the SBEADMR program. CFRI staff works with Dr. Mike Battaglia of the USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station and the Sibold Biogeography Lab at CSU to implement field monitoring efforts. The USFS has funded an independent science advisory team through SBEADMR.
• SBEADMR Adaptive Management GroupcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014The SBEADMR Adaptive Management Group (AMG) was originally convened by the Public Lands Partnership (PLP) and built on successful collaboration between long-standing local collaborative, CFRI, and the US Forest Service. Members include county commissioners, timber industry representatives, conservation groups, water resources, recreation, wildlife, education, and at-large community members. The AMG serves in an advisory role to assist GMUG National Forests with implementation and monitoring of SBEADMR projects within the adaptive management framework.
• Public Lands Partnership (PLP)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014The Public Lands Partnership (PLP) originally convened the SBEADMR Working Group and Adaptive Management Group. PLP created the citizen science collaborative forest reconstruction work model on the Uncompahgre Plateau in 2008 that established CFRI's model of actionable knowledge. PLP is a long-standing local collaborative group that has worked successfully with CFRI and the US Forest Service.
• USFS Rocky Mountain Research StationcoreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2014CFRI collaborates with Dr. Mike Battaglia and researchers at the USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station to implement field monitoring efforts across National Forests. The Rocky Mountain Research Station supports the science team for SBEADMR and produces science-based information that aids the Grand Mesa, Uncompaghre, and Gunnison National Forests in implementing adaptive management strategies.
• Sibold Biogeography Lab at Colorado State UniversitycoreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2014CFRI supports Dr. Jason Sibold's lab at CSU in producing science-based information for the SBEADMR project. The lab leads efforts to understand spruce and aspen regeneration dynamics following disturbances such as spruce beetle outbreaks, aspen decline, harvesting, and wildfire. CFRI and the Sibold Lab co-implement field monitoring efforts.
• Western Colorado UniversitysecondaryStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Dr. Jonathan Coop, Professor at Western Colorado University, serves as a collaborative partner in the SBEADMR Science Team. His academic expertise contributes to the independent advisory group ensuring best available scientific information is incorporated into the SBEADMR adaptive management process.
• Colorado Parks and WildlifesecondaryStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Dr. Jake Ivan, Wildlife Researcher at Colorado Parks and Wildlife, serves as a collaborative partner contributing wildlife research expertise to the SBEADMR Science Team and Adaptive Management Group. Research includes studying impacts of salvage logging on Canada lynx habitat and prey species (snowshoe hare).
• Bird Conservancy of the RockiessecondaryStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Bird Conservancy of the Rockies participates in the Forsythe II Multiparty Monitoring and CFLRP wildlife monitoring efforts, contributing bird monitoring data and analysis to inform forest management decisions. Present in meeting presentations and working group materials.
• Colorado State University (Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship, Warner College of Natural Resources)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2005CFRI is hosted by the Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship and the Warner College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University. CSU is a land-grant university whose mission to provide teaching, research, public service, and engagement CFRI strives to uphold. The hosting arrangement provides CFRI with access to academic resources, cutting-edge research knowledge, student employees, and institutional infrastructure. Tony Cheng served as CFRI Director from 2008-2024 and is also a Professor in the Department.

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station: The federal Forest Service research station that CFRI collaborates closely with on SBEADMR and other programs. Operates as a much larger, broader federal research entity with overlapping forest ecology, fire, and watershed science capabilities across the Rocky Mountain region.

Regional players

• Watershed Research and Training Center: Northern California-based research and training organization focused on watershed health, fire recovery, and rural workforce development. Comparable applied science and community-based forestry work, though serves a different geography (Klamath/Siskiyou region) than CFRI.

Others

• Forest Guild: National organization of forest professionals advancing ecological forestry. Comparable in its bridging role between forest science and on-the-ground practice, and a potential peer/collaborator for CFRI's collaborative adaptive management work.
• National Forest Foundation: Congressionally-chartered nonprofit partnering with the USFS on forest restoration and stewardship. Overlaps with CFRI in forest restoration programming and federal agency collaboration, though operates at national scale and as a fundraising/grantmaking vehicle rather than a research producer.
• Pinchot Institute for Conservation: Independent, nonpartisan research institute focused on forest policy, management, and conservation. Operates in an adjacent space to CFRI with overlapping themes around collaborative forest governance and applied science translation, though with a national policy focus rather than regional implementation.
• Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute: USDA Forest Service research institute based at the University of Montana focused on wilderness character, fire ecology, and disturbance ecology. Comparable in being a federally-affiliated academic ecology research entity, though with a different thematic emphasis.

Direct peers

• New Mexico Forest Restoration Institute (New Mexico Highlands University): The third SWERI institute established by Congress in 2004, hosted at New Mexico Highlands University. Shares identical legislative foundation and mission with CFRI, and collaborates through the SWERI network on national projects like ReSHAPE/TWIG.
• Ecological Restoration Institute (Northern Arizona University): Sister SWERI institute established by the same 2004 Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act, hosted at Northern Arizona University with the same congressional mandate to bridge research, management, and stakeholders for forest restoration in the Southwest. Directly comparable in mission, governance structure, and funding model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

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Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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