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Denver Urban Field Station

The Denver Urban Field Station (DUFS) is a collaborative research and practice group rooted in place-based research throughout the Rockies and Intermountain West. It facilitates opportunities to explore connections between people and nature in semi-arid cities, towns, and developing regions. Like other USDA Forest Service Urban Field Stations, the station represents part of an active and highly-connected local, regional, and national network of public, non-profit, and private sector partners. Science producers and users come together to define research questions, integrate data, and co-produce shared stewardship solutions to issues in urban social and ecological systems, from urban cores to the wildland-urban interface (WUI). 

Stewardship in semi-arid urban areas

Illustration with mountains, buildings, people, and symbols of science (e.g., microscope) and natural resources (e.g., water tap).
Photo Credit
©Calley Schubert of Peak Facilitation Group via Canva.com

Some of the most pressing natural resource stewardship issues within the region come from impacts of rapid growth and development. The Denver Urban Field Station works to address many of these issues, including:

  • Vulnerability of water supply due to climate change and population growth
  • Distribution of environmental amenities and liabilities
  • Introduction of new species and pests
  • Degraded air and water quality
  • Rising surface temperatures linked to urban heat island effects
  • Fragmentation of wildlife habitat
  • Expansion of the wildland-urban interface and the associated environmental and social conflicts, including wildfires
  • Conflicts over land use and water
  • Increased pressure and impacts to ecosystems from recreation

The station recognizes the role urban residents, forests, and ecosystems all play in addressing these issues. It is not a physical place but an extensive network of interdisciplinary scientists and partners who develop research, curate data, and advance and deliver science to improve quality of life and natural environment in urban and urbanizing areas. It is science-forward shared stewardship in action!

The field station is housed in the Colorado Front Range, but its research encompasses the entire Rocky Mountain region and addresses issues shared across communities in the semi-arid Intermountain West. In this way, the Denver Urban Field Station fills a geographic niche in the network of Urban Field Stations.

Core research areas

Extreme heat in cities

Extreme heat events are occurring more often, not only in locations accustomed to hot weather, but in more temperate cities that may lack the infrastructure to mitigate extreme weather for their residents. Urban heat islands describe areas with significantly higher surface temperatures compared to rural areas. Within cities, some residents face greater risk of exposure than others, and exposure to extreme heat can have negative impacts to health, safety, and well-being.

View of Denver skyline from South Table Mountain
Photo Credit
U.S. Department of Energy

With local partners, researchers at the field station consider urban planning, land cover patterns, distributions of extreme heat and air pollutants, remotely sensed data, and human health and activity to examine disparities in exposure to air pollution and heat. They hope to determine what types of land cover drive urban environmental hazards, where the hazards are highest, who in the city is most disproportionally at risk, and how agencies can mitigate these risks through the active management of urban land cover.

Human values, culture, and health

Much of the region’s culture is tied to its mountains and streams. Therefore, research at the field station investigates economic, cultural, social, and human health benefits of nature in urban and community environments, including:

  • Benefits of nature to urban residents and impacts of access (and lack thereof), including human health outcomes and impacts from disasters and hazards
  • The role of nature in art and cultural identity
  • Qualities of city and regional parks, trails, and the services they provide

Urban and wildland urban interface ecosystems

Intensive human land uses have altered vegetation at scales large enough to affect regional and local climates, vegetation productivity, and wildlife communities. Research in this area explores geographic and bio-physiological aspects of urban ecosystems under changing conditions. Aspects include tree growth and maintenance, tree physiology and morphology, species adaptations, heat islands, land cover change, forest ecology, and water and stream systems in urban areas.

Governance, planning, and design

Federal, state, tribal, and local policies guide governance of landscapes and natural resources across urban areas and communities that buffer natural areas (also known as the wildland urban interface). However, these policies often conflict across jurisdictions. Research in this area explores models and emerging trends in governance and planning, often involving multiple interest groups, agencies, and sectors.

Group stewardship and civil engagement

Stewardship and civic groups play an important role in conservation and restoration activities. Research in this area aligns with the Forest Service’s Shared Stewardship Strategy and the agency’s interest in expanding its use of conservation finance tools. It also includes studying aspects of environmental stewards: characteristics of organizations, geographic patterns, and social networks. 

Measurements taken at a bus stop in Denver.
Photo Credit
Travis Warziniack

Researchers recorded heat measurements at bus stops in Denver to get a sense of how urban residents experience heat during commutes on public transport.

Urban heat islands research

From June to late August in 2023, the Denver Urban Field Station deployed two separate research teams to collect urban forestry data in Denver and Fort Collins, Colorado. The complementary studies examine connections between people and nature and the role vegetation plays in heat mitigation in semi-arid regions.

Heat in city transit

The first team of researchers focused on how extreme heat disproportionately affects transit riders in the Denver Metropolitan area. At bus stops around the city, the researchers collected micro-climate data. Specifically, the study utilized infrared imagery and handheld heat stress trackers to record various micro-meteorological measurements. University partners also conducted social surveys with bus riders to evaluate thermal comfort. The surveys captured how transit riders experience heat on their commutes and their aesthetic preferences. During their field season, the team developed a dataset to evaluate the severity and potential threatening heat that urban transit riders face daily.

MaRTa cart, the biometeorological machine.
Photo Credit
Aubrey Benson

MaRTa, the biometeorological machine used by researchers to measure heat as an individual urban resident might experience it in their front yard or at the bus stop.

Landscaping could reduce heat in cities

The second team of researchers in Fort Collins focused on how vegetation composition and configuration impact microclimatic conditions around homes. They identified various types of front yards based on landscape design and directional orientation. Accompanying the crew was an advanced lab cart named MaRTa, a biometeorological machine developed at the RMRS headquarters. The all-in-one instrument allowed for easy movement and captured measurements that will allow the team to evaluate microclimates across yard types found in semi-arid urban environments. This study can help public and private landowners to leverage ecosystem design to regulate temperature in the areas surrounding their homes.

 

Publications

Collaborative Arts Program: Creative engagement with science in social-ecological systems

Headshot of DUFS 2023 artist in residence Franklin Cruz.
Photo Credit
Franklin Cruz

The Urban Field Station Collaborative Arts Program is a virtual, community-centered artist residency hosted by the USDA Forest Service, The Nature of Cities, and local partners. Each year, selected artists engage with land managers and scientists as they explore, conceptualize, and communicate about urban social-ecological systems through works of art and imagination. The program aims to promote understanding of and creative engagement with new knowledge by: (1) Facilitating creative and transdisciplinary collaboration between artists, scientists, and land managers in the creation of new artworks; and (2) Curating events and public engagements that explore ideas that emerge from creative works and collaborations resulting from the program. The program supports all types of artistic approaches.

 

In 2023, the Denver Urban Field Station hosted its first artist in residence, Franklin Cruz. Cruz developed his project "Ways of Knowing" to create discussion performances with dancers and climate change experts. Each artist asked climate change experts a question about a topic about which they hoped to understand better. Then the artist would improvise a dance solo to represent their interpretation of the conversation via movement of their body. Then, climate change experts asked the artists how their piece related to the conversation, which led to more dialogue into the nuance and practice of both art and science. 

STEW-MAP

Based on methodology developed by the New York City Urban Field Station and implemented in 12 communities around the world, the Denver STEW-MAP is designed to paint a picture of the region’s environmental stewardship “landscape,” documenting where the many private and public sector organizations work, how they are connected, and from where they source the information and tools that enable on-the-ground stewardship action and education. In this way, the project adds a social layer of information to the region’s wealth of biophysical information on green infrastructure (e.g., urban tree canopy, parks and open space, riparian areas). It will also uncover gaps in action, knowledge, and resources, which will inform the continued development of the Denver Urban Field Station and influence future applied research projects and priorities. For more information, visit the Denver STEW-MAP project page.

Publications

  • Lindsay K. Campbell, Erika Svendsen, Michelle Johnson, Natalia Piland, Dexter H. Locke, Nancy Falxa Sonti, Morgan Grove, Michele Romolini, Heather McMillen, Rachel Dacks, Bryce DuBois, Jesse Sayles, Tischa A. A. Munoz, Laura Landau, Lorien Jasny, Krista Heinlen, Maria Arroyave, Camille McCarthy, David Bloniarz, Brian Goldberg, Gerald Bauer, Travis Warziniack, Sophie Plitt, Julio Onofre, Nicole Heise Vigil, Arantxa Zamora-Rendon, Alejandra García Castro, Nicole Harmelin García, Bryan Flores. 2024. Reflecting on Local Ecological Stewardship, Care, and Action across Two Decades of Research

Partners

  • Benjamin Crawford, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Denver
  • Priyanka deSouza, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Denver
  • Jay Diffendorfer, Research Ecologist, U.S. Geological Survey
  • Stacy Erikson, Urban Watershed Revitalization Coordinator, Environmental Protection Agency
  • Peter Ibsen, Research Ecologist, U.S. Gelological Survey
  • Melissa McHale, Associate Professor, University of British Columbia
  • Mike Swanson, City Forester, City and County of Denver
  • Austin Troy, Director of Presidential Initiative on Urban & Placed-Based Research, University of Colorado Denver

Projects

Publications

Articles

Last updated July 14, 2026
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