FireForest Screening
2025-02-20 17:30 - 19:00 (America/Denver) | Colorado Plus Brewpub, 6995 West 38th Avenue, Wheat Ridge, CO, 80033, United States
Join us for a screening, appetizers, and a cash bar, followed by a panel discussion about the film, forest restoration, and wildfire mitigation on February 20 at Colorado Plus Brew Pub and Taphouse in Wheat Ridge, CO. It’s an important time to examine our relationship with forests. A new film, called Fireforest, is coming to your community, and it helps us do just that. The film tells the story of how forest restoration treatments enabled firefighters to stop a portion of the Cameron Peak Fire from moving into communities in northern Colorado. Amid a crisis that often seems overwhelming, Fireforest helps us understand how fire shapes our forests and how we can prepare them to receive it. Register for the screening today! This event is sponsored by Jeffco Open Space, Society for Ecological Restoration Rocky Mountains, and Jefferson Conservation District.
Use the Eventbrite link to reserve your tickets! : https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fireforest-screening-tickets-1109581380779?aff=oddtdtcreator

SER Rocky Mountain Virtual Chapter Meeting
2025-02-27 19:00 - 20:30 | CO
Please join us for an SER Rocky Mountains Chapter Updates on February 27, at 7:00 pm.
Agenda

SER2025 planning update. Note registration is open!! https://ser2025.org/
Announce nomination period for 3 Board positions and schedule for elections.
First reminder for Make A Difference Week 2025
SER Connect Overview
Chapter virtual meetings 2025. Suggestions from members on the call (or by email!) how we can set Teams (or Zoom, or whatever) meetings that give you opportunities to hear other members
Chapter Direction 2025! Please see some introductory ideas below and share your thoughts with the Board
Restoration Partnerships
Micro-Communities

Use the Microsoft Teams Link below to join
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DETAILS

BOARD OPENINGS

We have 2 Chapter Officers and 1 Committee Chair up for election this spring. Please consider nominating someone for these positions below (2 year terms with duties as described in our by-laws)

Treasurer: The Treasurer shall be responsible for the receipt and disbursement of funds of the Chapter and shall submit financial reports to the Board of Directors at all Chapter meetings and an annual financial report at the end of the fiscal year.
Secretary shall be responsible for recording the minutes of all meetings and the issuance of meeting minutes and of the maintenance of the membership records.
Outreach Committee Chair shall organize public lectures, workshops, and festivals and shall work with the Treasurer to solicit external support for such activities

Our agenda will include an update on the Ser 2025 International Conference. Registration is now open! Go to https://ser2025.org/ for information on that.
Serving on our Board is a great way to be involved in the development of the Society and the Board and, in doing so, supporting your fellow restoration ecologists!

WYOMING RESTORATION SUMMIT – hosted by TNC Wyoming

The workshop organizers are being extremely gracious in helping me organize a meeting of SER members who work in Wyoming to discuss Wyoming restoration issues, and Wyoming member issues. Info on the workshop can be found at
https://preserve.nature.org/page/163782/event/1
Date: April 23-24, 2025 Location: Lander
The Nature Conservancy, in partnership with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, invites practitioners to the Wyoming Sagebrush Restoration Summit. The 2025 meeting focuses on upland sagebrush habitat in Wyoming, and will be an in-person event. This year’s themes are: restoration following surface disturbance, native seeds and seed supply, invasive annual grasses, and conifer encroachment.
Click here to subscribe for updates
(or contact Anika Mahoney, Restoration Technician. anika.mahoney@tnc.org

WORKING UP TO SER2025 BUT LOOKING BEYOND

Given our investment in the SER 2025 Conference, the Chapter Board has emphasized outreach over the past year. We have done member events including Pinedale WY, and also tag-teamed with other organizations to have information tables at their meetings, such as the Colorado Native Plant Society (Durango) and Colorado Conservation Districts (Colo Springs). We will be continue to do this to encourage attendance at the conference by not only members but other individuals or groups who are involved in restoration work but haven’t joined SER – yet. The Conference is going to be fantastic, but it is not an end to itself. I am seeing it as a great way to explore areas that we could develop as a chapter. These are
Building Restoration Partnerships
Building on one of Brock’s initiatives during his term as president, we are going to work harder at developing partnerships with organizations that are implementing and directing ecological restoration. This is an effective way of raising awareness, encouraging sound restoration practices and maintaining communications with you as members AND a much broader audience. I see it as a path towards working with these partners to conduct periodic Restoration Partnering Workshops where we could explore and kickstart work on issues such as common disturbance agents, focal ecosystems or sub-regions within the Chapter, science needs, and coordination across organizations, or even other SER Chapter areas. We aren’t looking for formal agreements, but avenues to mutually promote each other’s work. The direction of these partnerships will be a product of the groups involved. If you want to suggest your company, organization, or agency to be involved, contact Greg!
Micro-communities
Not in the formal sense described at https://www.ser.org/page/microcommunities, but along the same lines. In many informal conversations I have had with members since I joined the Board in ’22, many of you have suggested things you are interested in (related to restoration) and / or like to see the chapter engaged in. First response is, the Chapter is US!! Every one of us has a lot to juggle and it is great that you are contributing as members – just by doing the great work you do. But what are some other things we could try to help us achieve some of our Chapter objectives?
I am proposing this: For non-Board members, identify your interest in any of these topics and we will connect you with other members interested. We will focus on activities that have more than a couple of folks expressing interest. Some basic instructions are:

Develop the link to ecological restoration and chapter objectives
Draft some goals, outcomes and objectives of what we want and could do with this topic – we need to be clear about the Chapter’s role and obligation.
Have at least one member of your group present out at the Chapter meeting we will have as part of SER 2025

For any of tese, we will connect you with partners who are more directly involved in the topic area. Based on how these develop, we can explore turning these into a Sub-Committee per our Charter, and / or propose a new Committee for the Chapter.
I have listed a number of topics raised by members, and / or topics I see as relevant strategies to help us with our mission to raise awareness, support members, and promote high quality restoration. Feel free to suggest others!!

Youth
Education programs with NGOs, Protected Areas, Extension

Native Plant Material Coordination
What level could we engage in? Who are the users and what are the needs?

Recognizing communities & partners
This came from a couple of different angles. Ideas for thanking partners who host events. Ideas for acknowledging work done by our restoration partners

Bridge to other disciplines
By resource discipline and by program area, so hydrologists, social scientists, soil scientists, and wetland specialists, range managers

Mentoring
How could we set this up? Need to think through time and effort commitments, volunteer or reimbursed? Quality Control

Researcher-Practitioner Connections
This could be as simple as using SER Connect, but a plan would help!

Trainings
Interest in monitoring training has been raised. Suggest others like emerging hardware and software technologies, seed treatments…. OK to generate a big wish list!

Fundraising
If anything, we would like to be seen as a group that can facilitate restoration – all facets. Being able to contribute cash to support partner efforts would help. So, not looking for donations but ideas for how we can identify and work with funding sources.

Restoration and Climate – related Adaptation
Damaged sites are great places to test adaptation strategies. Having better information on data tools, decision frameworks and case studies, or chapter-specific ecosystem scenarios will promote field testing by practitioners.

Expanding coverage
Ideas include regional co-chairs for the Outreach Committee

NOT YET BUT SOON: Students and Emerging Professionals – we are waiting on developments this spring with SER’s uber committee that should facilitate chapter level efforts.
Please indicate your interest in any of these, or make suggestions through SER Connect!
Questions? (Likely). Contact Greg Eckert at gregeckert1@gmail.com

SER Rocky Mountain September 2025 Chapter Meeting
2025-09-10 16:00 - 17:00 | Virtual
Join us Wednesday, September 10 at 4pm MST for a Chapter Meeting! We will be discussing:

SER2025 Planning and Chapter Opportunities
Open Board and Chair Positions
Western Slope and Wyoming Positions

Please use the Teams Meeting Link and Information Below!
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Meeting ID: 266 861 471 982 4
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Dial in by phone
+1 480-645-9961,,708020839# United States, Phoenix
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Phone conference ID: 708 020 839#
For organizers: Meeting options | Reset dial-in PIN
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SER Rocky Mountain Chapter Networking Lunch
2025-10-01 12:45 - 13:45 | Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th St., Denver, CO, 80202, United States
Join us during the SER2025 International Conference for an opportunity to meet and network with other Chapter members!
Wednesday, October 1, 2025 12:45 to 1:45 pm
Capital Rooms 1-7
We will have one room with other Regional Chapters using the Capital Rooms – LOOK FOR SIGNS
This will mostly be an informal gathering to chat about things with other members of our chapter; but we WILL have a few announcements related to chapter activities coming up this fall and next year!

SER2025 World Conference Rocky Mountain Chapter Social
2025-10-03 16:30 - 20:00 | Schoolyard Beer Garden, 1115 Acoma Street, Denver, CO, 80204, United States
Join us to mix and mingle during the SER2025 World Conference!
Where: Schoolyard Beer Garden (about a 20-minute walk from the Hyatt Regency)
When: Friday, Oct 3 at 4:30
Other Chapters will also be there! What a great opportunity to meet local and long-distance colleagues!
