Suding

Spotlight: Hunter Geist-Sanchez is pioneering restoration methods for Colorado grasslands and reconnecting with his ranching roots

Gabe Allen — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 20:58:52 +0000

Spotlight: Hunter Geist-Sanchez is pioneering restoration methods for Colorado grasslands and reconnecting with his ranching roots Gabe Allen Mon, 07/21/2025 - 14:58

Gabe Allen

Hunter Geist-Sanchez's summer field crew hikes to a field site near the National Renewable Energy Lab's Flatirons Campus. Left to right: Ava Boettiger, Zade Baldwin, Hunter Geist-Sanchez, Rose Young. (Gabe Allen)

All summer long, INSTAAR masters student Hunter-Geist Sanchez wakes up at dawn to meet a rotating cast of labmates and undergraduate research assistants at a grassy mesa bordering the National Renewable Energy Lab’s Flatirons Campus. The team spends long hours setting up experimental plots, measuring soil moisture and erosion, simulating grazing cattle with a weed whacker and, most of all, mapping plant species.

All the work is in service of the Suding Lab’s grassland diversity and grassland resilience projects. The overarching goal is to cultivate knowledge and management strategies that will help conserve Western grasslands as the climate becomes hotter and drier. This summer, funding from INSTAAR's Summer Scholars Program allowed Geist-Sanchez to expand his undergraduate research team to three members.

Hunter Geist-Sanchez shows undergraduate field technicians a map of a field site near the National Renewable Energy Lab's Flatirons Campus. (Gabe Allen)

Geist-Sanchez is relatively new to this work, but his passion for it is apparent.

"No one cares about grass, but I think grass is pretty great,” he explained during a recent day of field work. “It’s hard to really appreciate the beauty until you spend a lot of time in a certain place. Then you get it.”

Perhaps a piece of Geist-Sanchez’s love for grasslands is hereditary. His family has deep roots in the San Luis Valley, where his grandparents grew up working on local farms and ranches. His great uncle and cousins still own and operate a ranch in the area.

Though Geist-Sanchez has lived his whole life in front range cities, his extended family keeps him connected to Southern Colorado rangelands. Recently, his masters project has been a frequent topic of conversation with still-ranching family members.

“Hopefully this research helps them with restoration on the property,” Geist-Sanchez said. “My great uncle asks me about it all the time.”

For many, 10 or 12-hour stints of data collection in the blazing sun would seem a hefty price to pay for good science. But, Geist-Sanchez seems unfazed by long days in the field. For him, they are a chance to put distractions aside and revel in the details of an ecosystem. It’s a habit that he formed long before he entered academia.

A love of nature

Geist-Sanchez grew up splitting time between parents in Aurora and Fort Collins, with more family spread around Front Range cities. Growing up, his siblings and cousins were mostly captivated by sports and video games — things that Geist-Sanchez also had a passing interest in. But, his true passion was always nature.

“In all my free time, I would go to the library and read Nat Geo books and stuff like that,” he said. “I was really fascinated with wildlife growing up, and no one else was really like that. I knew from pretty early on that I was different.”

Geist Sanchez’s early education in the natural sciences didn’t all come from books. As a kid, he looked forward to family camping trips to Great Sand Dunes National Park, along the Poudre River and to other natural areas across the West. Most of all, he looked forward to spending time with his grandmother on a plot of family land in the San Luis Valley.

“My mom would drop me and my cousins off down there for weeks at a time,” he said. “Those are really fond memories.”

The property was stunning and rugged. To take a bath, Geist-Sanchez remembers filling up buckets from the well and boiling the water on the stove. Days were spent going on hikes and helping his grandmother tend the garden.

For Geist-Sanchez, it was idyllic.

“I just always loved being outdoors,” he said.

After high school, Geist-Sanchez went on to earn a degree in ecosystem science and sustainability from Colorado State University. As an undergrad, he took an unusually active role in several restoration ecology projects. Specifically, he worked with research groups testing new methods for restoring out-of-use agricultural fields and cheatgrass-invaded grasslands.

“After that, I knew I wanted to do more restoration. It’s really difficult work and I was fascinated by how we might be able to improve outcomes,” he said.

After college, one of Geist-Sanchez’s mentors connected him with Katharine Suding, who was looking for a grassland research assistant. After a year in that role, Suding asked Geist-Sanchez to join the lab as a graduate student and take the lead on the lab’s grassland resilience project. Geist-Sanchez jumped at the opportunity — it was a perfect way to sink deeper into his passion for restoring Colorado’s natural systems.

Restoring bare patches

Hunter Geist-Sanchez plants surveyor flags at the Hogan Ranch Property in 51�Թ��. (Gabe Allen)

Restoration ecologists are looking for new methods to combat desertification as the West becomes hotter and drier. In his masters work, Geist-Sanchez has zeroed in on bare-patches, arid spots lacking vegetation that tend to grow over time.

The first step is to figure out how bare patches form and what leads to expansion. To investigate this question, Geist Sanchez is looking at thermal imagery of the landscape, measuring soil characteristics and cataloging the species that grow in and around the sites.

“One of the questions I’m interested in is, ‘What are the mechanisms behind this bare ground spread,” Geist-Sanchez said.

Next comes the question of restoration: how can land managers bring plants back to these sites so that they can once again become a functional part of the ecosystem? To address this, Geist-Sanchez is planting a mix of forb and grass seeds at the sites.

Importantly, he has balanced the seed mixes to represent plants with specific survival strategies. Plants that arise early in the season may be able to take advantage of spring moisture, and then offer shade later in the summer. Plants with large seeds might be able to survive periods of drought or heat by relying on energy stores.

These hypotheses are based on previous research, but only time will tell their efficacy.

“I guess we’ll have a better idea by the end of the season,” Geist-Sanchez said.

For now, bare patches are generally a small-scale problem in 51�Թ�� grasslands. But, if desertification becomes more extreme in the future, research like Geist-Sanchez’s will become even more important for both natural areas and rangelands.

“We don’t have extreme desertification here yet, which is great,” Geist Sanchez said. “If we ever start to see something like the dust bowl, which stemmed from extreme agriculture and land-use changes, I hope land managers will be able to apply this research. I want to be able to hand this off and expand on it.”

If you have questions about this story, or would like to reach out to INSTAAR for further comment, you can contact Senior Communications Specialist Gabe Allen at gabriel.allen@colorado.edu.

Geist-Sanchez is following his life-long love of nature to develop new methods for preserving Colorado natural areas and rangelands. As a sixth-generation Coloradoan, he hopes his research can help keep grasslands sustainable as the West heats up.

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Rainy spring may be bad news for fire season. Here’s what you can do about it (51�Թ�� Today)

Gabe Allen — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 19:13:19 +0000

Rainy spring may be bad news for fire season. Here’s what you can do about it (51�Թ�� Today) Gabe Allen Tue, 06/17/2025 - 13:13

Grassland fires are becoming more frequent and more dangerous across the country. Ecologist Katharine Suding has spent her career understanding the ecosystems that produce them. She shares insights in a Q&A.

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Get to know INSTAAR’s 2025 summer scholars

Gabe Allen — Thu, 29 May 2025 20:04:37 +0000

Get to know INSTAAR’s 2025 summer scholars Gabe Allen Thu, 05/29/2025 - 14:04

Gabe Allen

INSTAAR 2025 summer scholars Harry Allbrook (left) and Hunter Geist-Sanchez. Photos courtesy of Harry Allbrook and Hunter Geist-Sanchez.

Each year, INSTAAR selects two graduate students for the INSTAAR summer scholarship, which provides funding for ongoing research over the summer months. These scholars are engaged in multi-year research efforts in the Earth sciences, and the scholarship amplifies their ability to produce high-impact, rigorous work.

In 2025, PhD student Harry Allbrook and MS student Hunter Geist-Sanchez were awarded the scholarship. Allbrook studies marine microbial communities in Julio Sepúlveda’s lab. Geist-Sanchez is a restoration ecologist studying plant communities from a rangeland management perspective under Katharine Suding.

This week, INSTAAR sat down with Allbrook and Geist-Sanchez to discuss their summer plans.

What are you working on this summer?

Harry Allbrook: I’m analyzing data from semi-controlled mesocosm experiments, where we simulate marine environments within an enclosed space. In particular, I’m exposing marine microbial communities to environmental stressors by manipulating oxygen, PH and nutrient levels, and seeing how they respond.

This summer, I will transform raw measurements (from liquid chromatography mass spectrometry analyses) into lists of molecular identities using open-source analytical methods. This will allow me to investigate the phenomenon of “lipid remodeling” in these mesocosms, whereby microbes adapt their cell membranes in response to environmental stress.

Microbial membranes serve as a source of nutrition for higher trophic organisms, like the fish essential to marine fisheries and indigenous communities. They also serve as fingerprints of ecosystem health, which are preserved in geologic sediments for thousands of years.

Hunter Geist-Sanchez: I’m managing two research projects. In the first, I’m hoping to identify plant species that can improve rangeland restoration efforts. Specifically, I’m testing whether certain species are more successful in bare ground interspaces within semi-arid and arid rangelands along the Front Range. If we can identify species with traits that promote establishment in these bare areas, we may be able to reverse ongoing degradation in these systems and instead promote vegetation recovery.

The second project is a long-term drought study, now in its eighth year, which stems from a partnership with the international Drought-Net network and 51�Թ�� Open Space & Mountain Parks. In this study, we are manipulating precipitation to simulate extreme drought and excess rainfall, respectively. We also incorporate seasonal livestock grazing. The goal is to better understand the interactions between drought, excess precipitation and grazing on plant life.

Rangelands make up about one-third of terrestrial ecosystems in the U.S. and provide vital services, such as food, clean water and outdoor recreation. Climate change is increasing temperature and precipitation variability, which makes understanding these dynamics critical to preserving the ecological, cultural, and economic value of these systems.

Suding lab members set up equipment at a research site for Drought-Net in South 51�Թ��. From left: Hunter Geist-Sanchez, Sam Ahler, Sarah Elizabeth Stockman and Tom Merchant. Photo courtesy of Hunter Geist-Sanchez.

Harry Allbrook loads equipment aboard the German research vessel RV Sonne in the Port of Talcahuano in Chile. Photo courtesy of Harry Allbrook.

How will the summer scholarship support this work?

Harry Allbrook: The scholarship will enable me to complete a vital step in my thesis project. I’m also looking forward to developing educational outreach tools (“microcosm in a mason jar”) that enhance ocean literacy and share my team's work with middle-school students.

Hunter Geist Sanchez: With my summer funding covered by the scholarship, I’m able to use other grant funds to hire undergraduate research assistants and purchase essential equipment. This includes soil temperature and moisture sensors as well as soil nutrient testing tools to assess how drought conditions affect nutrients in the soil.

I’ve hired two current CU undergraduates and a 2025 CU graduate to assist with both projects. They will get hands-on experience in ecological research, preparing them for a career in rangeland health and management.

What do you like to do when you’re not doing research?

Harry Allbrook: When I'm not doing research, I love to rock climb, cook, collect vinyl records (particularly electronic music) and paint with watercolors!

Hunter Geist-Sanchez: Outside of research, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, hiking and doing other outdoor activities, cooking, and traveling!

To support INSTAAR's summer scholarship for graduate students, you can make a donation to our general fund here.

If you have questions about this story, or would like to reach out to INSTAAR for further comment, you can contact Senior Communications Specialist Gabe Allen at gabriel.allen@colorado.edu.

A Q&A with PhD students Harry Allbrook and Hunter Geist-Sanchez, INSTAAR’s 2025 summer scholarship recipients. The scholarship will go toward the students’ continued research in marine biology and grassland restoration throughout the summer.

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An apple a day? It’s the 51�Թ�� way (Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine)

Gabe Allen — Mon, 12 May 2025 22:04:54 +0000

An apple a day? It’s the 51�Թ�� way (Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine) Gabe Allen Mon, 05/12/2025 - 16:04

The 51�Թ�� Apple Tree Project, led by INSTAAR fellow Katharine Suding, has broken ground on a new apple orchard on 30th Street in 51�Թ��. The orchard will provide shade, fruit and a site for agroecology research. It is supported by a $90,000 sustainable CU grant.

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A brief history of Katharine Suding's groundbreaking career in restoration ecology (The Franklin Institute)

Gabe Allen — Mon, 05 May 2025 20:25:36 +0000

A brief history of Katharine Suding's groundbreaking career in restoration ecology (The Franklin Institute) Gabe Allen Mon, 05/05/2025 - 14:25

The Franklin Institute recently gave INSTAAR senior faculty fellow Katharine Suding the Bower Award for achievement in Science citing her transformative contributions to the field of restoration ecology. This mini-documentary tells her story.

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INSTAAR faculty among those awarded undergraduate research grants (UROP)

Gabe Allen — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 20:44:19 +0000

INSTAAR faculty among those awarded undergraduate research grants (UROP) Gabe Allen Wed, 04/30/2025 - 14:44

The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program committed $77,000 in grants for CU undergraduates to work with INSTAAR faculty this summer and next school year. The awards will catalyze opportunities for students to contribute to critical research in earth and environmental science.

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Earth Day: 6 sustainability stories from INSTAAR in 2025

Gabe Allen — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 23:41:24 +0000

Earth Day: 6 sustainability stories from INSTAAR in 2025 Gabe Allen Tue, 04/22/2025 - 17:41

Gabe Allen

INSTAAR researchers investigate fundamental questions about ecosystems, climate systems and landscapes.

Today marks the 55th annual Earth Day, a global celebration of our planet, its natural systems and the idea of a sustainable future. In honor of the occasion, INSTAAR is sharing stories from the first four months of 2025 about INSTAAR’s environmental research.

As mountain glaciers melt, risk of catastrophic flash floods rises for millions (The Conversation US)

Last month, INSTAAR faculty research scientist Alton Byers and Wesleyan University professor of earth science Suzanne OConnell wrote a guest article in the Conversation US. The pair, a mountain geographer and earth scientist respectively, described how melting glaciers are amplifying the risk of catastrophic flooding in mountain communities around the world. Some governments and organizations, including the U.N., have focused efforts on research into mitigation tactics and early effective warning systems.

Franklin Institute selects Katharine Suding for the Bower Award for Achievement in Science

Next month, INSTAAR faculty fellow and professor of distinction in ecology and evolutionary biology Katharine Suding will officially receive the Bower Award for Achievement in Science from the Franklin Institute. The award honors prominent scientists and innovators who have changed the world for the better. Suding is a preeminent restoration ecologist who has left an indelible mark on the concepts of ecosystem resilience, restoration and biodiversity.

Desert reservoirs capture and store organic carbon, according to new research

Dams have long been a controversial topic among environmentalists. While they can sometimes harm aquatic ecosystems, they can also provide benefits, like increased water storage. Recently, a group of INSTAAR researchers uncovered another potential benefit of certain reservoirs. In a recent paper, they describe how one large reservoir in New Mexico captures and stores carbon beneath layers of sediment during droughts and flash floods.

Drone experiment reveals how Greenland ice sheet is changing (51�Թ�� Today)

Kevin Rozmiarek is a drone enthusiast, but he’s not just a hobbyist. He’s using unmanned aircraft to do science. In a recent publication, Rozmiarek and his colleagues documented changes in Greenland’s ice sheet. Their study relied on samples of atmospheric water vapor collected by drones, an approach that could improve simulations of sea level rise.

International research collaboration uncovers key driver of Himalayan glacier melt

This winter, INSTAAR research scientist Karl Rittger lent his talents to an intercontinental team of scientists seeking to understand exactly how and why Himalayan glaciers are melting. Rittger’s unmatched methodology for analyzing dust-covered snow from satellite imagery led the team to key insights. They found that dust storms were picking up pollution from heavily populated areas and depositing it on the mountains.

New research demystifies carbon cycling in freshwater lakes around the world

Back in 2019, INSTAAR faculty fellow Isabella Oleksy, then a PhD student, put out a call to collaborators for data on phytoplankton activity in freshwater lakes. In the end, researchers from all over the world contributed to the dataset. Oleksy and collaborators then used the data to refine a mathematical model of primary productivity for freshwater lakes. The new model could help earth scientists better understand the carbon cycle, which could lead to better climate predictions.

INSTAAR researchers investigate fundamental questions about ecosystems, climate systems and landscapes. These six stories highlight the environmental research that the institute is doing in 2025.

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Katharine Suding named a 2025 Franklin Institute Bower Award winner (Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine)

David J Lubinski — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 00:48:15 +0000

Katharine Suding named a 2025 Franklin Institute Bower Award winner (Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine) David J Lubinski Fri, 02/14/2025 - 17:48

51�Թ�� distinguished professor Katharine Suding was recognized for making “transformative contributions to restoration ecology by increasing our understanding of degraded ecosystems and their recovery dynamics.”

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Franklin Institute selects Katharine Suding for the Bower Award for Achievement in Science

David J Lubinski — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 21:41:28 +0000

Franklin Institute selects Katharine Suding for the Bower Award for Achievement in Science David J Lubinski Thu, 02/06/2025 - 14:41

Gabe Allen

The Franklin Institute named INSTAAR Faculty Fellow Katharine Suding the recipient of the Bower Award and Prize for achievement in Science today, citing her “transformative contributions to restoration ecology.”

Katharine Suding

Each year, the Bower Awards go to outstanding scientists and innovators who have led paradigm shifts in their respective fields. Past winners include Jane Goodall, Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein and Marie Curie.

“These are some of the greatest minds and most influential pioneers of our time,” Franklin Institute President and CEO Larry Dubinski wrote in a press release.

Suding has pioneered theoretical shifts, experimental methods and collaborative efforts with land managers since she entered the field of restoration ecology more than 25 years ago. Her work has influenced ecologists around the world. Suding’s 2004 paper “Alternative states and positive feedbacks in restoration ecology,” remains the most highly-cited article in the field to this day.

Though her theoretical contributions to the field have had a global impact, much of Suding’s work is locally-focused. At INSTAAR, she led the Niwot Ridge Long-term Ecological Research Program from 2013-2023. It is an ongoing National Science Foundation-funded project that has produced insights into alpine ecology for more than 40 years. She also recently formed a collaboration with local municipalities in 51�Թ�� that applies insights from grassland ecology research toward mitigating wildfire risk.

On May 1, Suding will join nine other 2025 Franklin Institute Laureates for a ceremony at the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial in Philadelphia. INSTAAR sat down with the eminent restoration ecologist for a Q&A on the eve of the big announcement.

What was your path to restoration ecology?

I grew up in Evergreen, Colorado, and I was always really interested in the natural world. I especially loved the open spaces that we have around here and, later in my career, I think that’s why I always sought out grasslands.

Anyways, because of my interests, it made sense to pursue biology and ecology during my undergrad at Williams. When I got to graduate school, I was really interested in theory and quantitative approaches, but I also wanted to be able to work with land managers and provide something useful. That’s when I started to get interested in restoration.

Suding stands under a favorite apple tree, 51�Թ�� Open Space. Credit: Matt Talarico, Impact Media Lab.

At the time, it was a pretty new field — it really started in the late 80s and early 90s. One of the premises back then was that if you know how a system works and how all the pieces of the web of life fit together, then you should know how to put those pieces back into a degraded system and restore it. An often-repeated quote from the 80s was that "land restoration is the acid test of our ecological understanding.”

It was pretty appealing to be able to take ideas from the basic science side of things and use them for restoration. And, if that framework did work, it would create a really important role for ecology in terms of providing solutions to some of the negative impacts that humans have had on the environment.

But, I soon realized that this concept was a very simplified, human-centered way of thinking about things. So, one of the first things I started thinking about was shifting our understanding from thinking about ecosystems as linear to thinking about nonlinear dynamics. Maybe, when a system gets stuck in a degraded state, it’s actually stuck and not changing at all. And, if that’s true, you might actually be able to cross a threshold and cause really rapid recovery.

We were bringing in ideas from all kinds of complex system theories, like economics or even marriage dynamics. Really, we were thinking that maybe there’s a more productive way to approach restoration that takes into account alternative stable states.

You’re receiving this award, in part, because you played a major role in changing some of the fundamental theories in the field of restoration ecology. You just referenced some of the ideas in your now famous paper “Alternative states and positive feedbacks in restoration ecology.” What was the next big theoretical shift?

Yeah, so I think this is where you start to get into ideas that are a little more controversial. First, there’s this idea of novel ecosystems. It’s the idea that, in restoration, you might never fully get back to a historical reference state, for instance you might never be able to get rid of certain exotic species. Instead, you might be dealing with a new ecosystem that has no analog, but might still have some value. You might still have an ecosystem that benefits both nature and humans, but has changed forever.

Of course this makes things not so black and white. Some worry that it creates a slippery slope and that people could take advantage of it and say that anything they do is restoration.

But, I think it’s probably going to become less controversial as time goes on. We have to provide ways that people can actually use these ideas in the world. And, these concepts have also spurred growth for things like research into ecosystem services — how nature can provide services. Things like meeting the demands of a productive landscape for rangeland or increasing water holding capacity or controlling flooding.

We can accept that we’re not going to go back to the past, but still set strong goals and maintain strong ideals, like fostering biological diversity and developing nature-based solutions to problems.

I think a lot of people that are just learning about restoration now, like undergrads, are kind of surprised that this was even controversial. The reality is that everything is changing.

Suding's colleague Julie Larson checks instrumentation for the Drought Net Experiment, 51�Թ�� Open Space. Credit: Suding.

Suding's colleagues Laurel Brigham and Jane Smith prepare for tundra fieldwork, Niwot Ridge, Colorado. Credit: Nancy Shackelford.

When you look back at your career so far, what are some things that you are proud of?

I hope I have given people some ways to think about management a little bit out of the box. Ways to break negative feedback that aren’t just going with the status quo. I think that has resonated with some people.

I also hope that I've allowed people to think more intentionally about the goals for particular natural systems. Maybe, instead of beating yourself up because you'll never meet certain ideals, maybe you can consider the value that that piece of land still has. Really thinking about how management goals can shift without losing the conservation mandate.

What questions or problems drive your work today?

Locally, I think the Fire question is super important. We’re working on ways to balance managing fire risk with also supporting the incredible diversity we have in grasslands and their ability to store carbon in the soil. It’s a complex problem without a single overarching goal, but hopefully we can find some more balanced solutions.

One other thing that I’m curious about is potentially finding the best way to get Bison back onto our local grasslands. There’s a lot of potential in terms of both ecological health and cultural significance. This is still in the very early stages though, so who knows what will happen.

The UN declared this the decade of ecosystem restoration, and there’s been some debate over whether that means it’s just a decade of increased tree planting and reforestation, or if grasslands fit into that. These are sites that have huge conservation value on their own.

I think we need more appreciation of what we've been calling old growth grasslands. We can't see all the complexity, because it's below ground. But it's there. There's all sorts of crazy underground roots and dynamics that you could see if you flipped it over. I think it's as amazing as an old growth forest.

Suding heads out for fieldwork on 51�Թ�� Open Space. Credit: Matt Talarico, Impact Media Lab.

If you have questions about this story, or would like to reach out to INSTAAR for further comment, you can contact Senior Communications Specialist Gabe Allen at gabriel.allen@colorado.edu.

INSTAAR Faculty Fellow Katharine Suding received the Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science today for her “transformative contributions to restoration ecology.” INSTAAR sat down with the eminent ecologist for a Q&A on the eve of the big announcement.

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Katharine Suding recognized as Eminent Ecologist 2023 (Journal of Ecology)

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Katharine Suding recognized as Eminent Ecologist 2023 (Journal of Ecology) Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/08/2023 - 00:00

The Journal of Ecology has announced Katharine Suding as their Eminent Ecologist award recipient for 2023. Awards are given to those considered hugely influential within their fields of research and to have made outstanding contributions not just to Journal of Ecology, but to ecology in general. For the award, Suding assembled a virtual journal issue, wrote a blog post, and was interviewed.

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Suding

Spotlight: Hunter Geist-Sanchez is pioneering restoration methods for Colorado grasslands and reconnecting with his ranching roots

A love of nature

Restoring bare patches

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Katharine Suding named a 2025 Franklin Institute Bower Award winner (Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine)

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Franklin Institute selects Katharine Suding for the Bower Award for Achievement in Science

What was your path to restoration ecology?

When you look back at your career so far, what are some things that you are proud of?

What questions or problems drive your work today?

Off

Katharine Suding recognized as Eminent Ecologist 2023 (Journal of Ecology)

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Suding

Spotlight: Hunter Geist-Sanchez is pioneering restoration methods for Colorado grasslands and reconnecting with his ranching roots

A love of nature

Restoring bare patches

Related Articles

Rainy spring may be bad news for fire season. Here’s what you can do about it (51�Թ��� Today)

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Get to know INSTAAR’s 2025 summer scholars

What are you working on this summer?

How will the summer scholarship support this work?

What do you like to do when you’re not doing research?

Off

An apple a day? It’s the 51�Թ��� way (Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine)

Related Articles

A brief history of Katharine Suding's groundbreaking career in restoration ecology (The Franklin Institute)

Related Articles

INSTAAR faculty among those awarded undergraduate research grants (UROP)

Related Articles

Earth Day: 6 sustainability stories from INSTAAR in 2025

As mountain glaciers melt, risk of catastrophic flash floods rises for millions (The Conversation US)

Franklin Institute selects Katharine Suding for the Bower Award for Achievement in Science

Desert reservoirs capture and store organic carbon, according to new research

Drone experiment reveals how Greenland ice sheet is changing (51�Թ��� Today)

International research collaboration uncovers key driver of Himalayan glacier melt

New research demystifies carbon cycling in freshwater lakes around the world

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Katharine Suding named a 2025 Franklin Institute Bower Award winner (Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine)

Off

Franklin Institute selects Katharine Suding for the Bower Award for Achievement in Science

What was your path to restoration ecology?

When you look back at your career so far, what are some things that you are proud of?

What questions or problems drive your work today?

Off

Katharine Suding recognized as Eminent Ecologist 2023 (Journal of Ecology)

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Rainy spring may be bad news for fire season. Here’s what you can do about it (51�Թ�� Today)

An apple a day? It’s the 51�Թ�� way (Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine)

Drone experiment reveals how Greenland ice sheet is changing (51�Թ�� Today)