RESTORE Colorado Program Announces $2.8 Million in Grants to Advance Wildlife and Habitat Restoration

DENVER, CO (June 12, 2026) – The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) today announced $2.8 million in new grants to support wildlife habitat restoration and community-driven conservation projects across Colorado. The grants also leverage $3.6 million in matching contributions from local communities, generating a total conservation impact of $6.4 million statewide.

Through the Restoration and Stewardship of Outdoor Resources and Environment (RESTORE) Colorado program, these grants will support 10 projects that improve the health and resilience of Colorado’s most important landscapes, including river corridors and wetlands, the grasslands of eastern Colorado, sagebrush rangelands, big-game winter ranges and working landscapes. RESTORE Colorado is a partnership between NFWF and Great Outdoors Colorado, Occidental, the Gates Family Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and Terra Foundation.  

“RESTORE Colorado shows what’s possible when public agencies, private landowners and philanthropic partners align around shared conservation goals,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF. “These investments are helping restore critical wildlife habitat at scale while supporting local economies and the communities that depend on these landscapes.”

Colorado hosts some of the most impressive landscapes and wildlife habitat in the country. At the same time, a rapidly growing human population and increasing demands on public and private lands have strained wildlife and their habitats in the region. The projects announced today will support at-scale habitat restoration, capacity building, expansion and improvement projects to ensure the long-term sustainability of lands that Coloradans rely on.

“GOCO is proud to partner with NFWF and our fellow RESTORE Colorado funders to make meaningful investments in the landscapes and wildlife that define our state,” said GOCO Executive Director Jackie Miller. “By pooling resources, we can support more than any single funder could alone, strengthening ecosystems that will benefit wildlife and Coloradans for generations.”

Projects funded this year will:

• Restore rivers, streams and wet meadows using low-tech, process-based restoration methods that improve water storage and habitat
• Advance beaver-based restoration and coexistence strategies to enhance riparian systems and biodiversity
• Reintroduce native fish species, including Rio Grande cutthroat trout, to their historic range
• Restore grasslands and forests to improve habitat connectivity for species such as elk, mule deer and pollinators
• Remove or modify fencing to improve big-game migration corridors

Collectively, these efforts will strengthen resilience, support working lands and provide lasting benefits for both wildlife and communities across Colorado.

RESTORE Colorado launched in 2020 by a consortium of public and private funders to address habitat restoration needs in the state. To date, the program has awarded grants to 78 conservation projects, investing nearly $22 million and leveraging nearly $35 million in matching contributions to generate a total, on-the-ground impact of more than $56 million. Learn more about these achievements in the RESTORE Colorado five-year report. For a complete list of grants awarded through RESTORE Colorado this year, click here.

About the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) works with partners to foster sustainable and impactful conservation solutions so that people and nature thrive together. Chartered by Congress in 1984, NFWF has grown to become the nation’s largest conservation foundation. Since its founding, NFWF has funded more than 23,900 projects that have generated a total conservation impact of more than $12 billion. Learn more at nfwf.org. 

About Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO)
GOCO invests a portion of Colorado Lottery proceeds to preserve and enhance the state’s parks, trails, wildlife, rivers, and open spaces. Created by Colorado voters in 1992 through a constitutional amendment, GOCO has since invested $1.7 billion in 5,900 projects across all 64 counties. Learn more at GOCO.org.

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Contact: 

Matt Winter, 202-857-0166, Matt.Winter@nfwf.org