GOCO funds the restoration of Colorado’s rivers, streams, wetlands, and critical habitat through the RESTORE Colorado Program (Restoration and Stewardship of Outdoor Resources and the Environment). Established in 2019, RESTORE is a strategic partnership designed to fund large-scale habitat restoration and stewardship projects across prioritized habitats. Funding partners include GOCO, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), Gates Family Foundation, Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
Colorado has long been a national leader in private land conservation with some of the country’s most impressive publicly owned and managed lands. The partners mentioned above developed RESTORE to add to our state’s available conservation tools, supporting wildlife habitat restoration, expansion, and improvement at scale and providing opportunities for the proactive management of our public and private conserved lands. Our collaborative funding approach supports larger, more impactful projects.
For those completing projects on the ground, RESTORE serves as a single point of application, creating an efficient, one-stop shop for much-needed funding. What’s more, funding from a combination of state, federal, and private sources allows for the most flexibility to help finish the work at hand.
In 2024, approximately $4.5 million may be available for projects focusing on the following habitats and statewide priorities:
- Watershed resilience (wetlands, riparian and upland habitats including forests)
- Eastern Colorado grasslands
- Sagebrush rangelands
- Big-game winter range and migration routes