CSU students have been learning about the natural world at the Mountain Campus, 9,000 feet above sea level and 52 miles up the Poudre Canyon from Fort Collins, for over a century. After the 2020 Cameron Peak Fire scorched more than a third of its 1,600 acres, Warner College of Natural Resources alumnus Travis Croft (B.S.,’20) worked with faculty to begin researching post-fire regeneration in areas that had also burned in the 1994 Hourglass Fire.
More hands-on study will take place on the campus adjacent to Rocky Mountain National Park when the new Donald and Esther Harbison Research and Education Center opens in Summer 2023. The facility was made possible by a gift from the late Dona Hildebrand in honor of her parents, who met at the Mountain Campus before graduating in 1926.
PHOTO: Night sky at the Mountain Campus, Joe A. Mendoza, CSU Photography