Press

Front Range Plant Finder is a free tool that helps Colorado Front Range gardeners pick plants that actually survive our clay, hail, and dry winters. It is an independent project by Nicholas Julia, built on public data: the 2024 Front Range Tree Recommendation List, the public city tree inventories, USDA PLANTS, and university extension sources.

Press contact

Nicholas Julia, founder

Working on a story? This reaches me directly. I reply fast and am glad to do a quick fact-check on deadline.

Email the newsroom[email protected]

Download

Free to reuse under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, with credit and a link back to the study.

Dataset, CSVFront Range planting dataPer-city counts, shares, and ratings behind the study, in one file.Chart, SVGMost-planted by ratingStudy chart with the source baked in, free to reuse with credit.Chart, SVGAsh by ageStudy chart with the source baked in, free to reuse with credit.

Credit: Front Range Plant Finder (coloradogardening.co), "Did the Front Range Plant the Wrong Trees?", CC BY 4.0. Please link back to the study page. Need a PNG or a wordmark instead? Email [email protected] and I will send them.

The research

Our data studies count what Front Range cities actually plant and check it against what survives here. Every number is traceable to public sources you can pull yourself, so please cite the study page (it owns the figures), not this page.

Front Range Planting by the Numbers (Part 1)Four city tree inventories joined to the 2024 recommendation list, mapped block by block, and compared to peer US cities.Is the Front Range Fixing Its Trees? (Part 2)Whether the planting mix is shifting, read by trunk diameter and by city policy.

See the data studies hub for the home of all of it.

Fact sheet

What it isA free Front Range plant reference and "help me pick" tool for trees, shrubs, groundcover, and perennials.

Who runs itNicholas Julia, founder. An independent project, not a nursery or an agency.

CoverageThe Colorado Front Range, from Colorado Springs to the Wyoming border, foothills to plains.

Data licenseCC BY 4.0 for the study dataset, with credit and a link back to the study.

SourcingThe 2024 Front Range Tree Recommendation List (developed by sixteen Colorado green-industry organizations), the public city tree inventories, USDA PLANTS, CSU Extension, Denver Botanic Gardens, and Plant Select.

Getting the trees story right"Not Recommended" means stop planting new ones and replace them as they decline, not that the trees are dying; an existing ash you treat is still fine to keep. And the Front Range canopy is more balanced than its monoculture reputation: the real risk is concentrated in the mid-life ash, not canopy-wide. Both points are quantified on the study page.

Contact[email protected]