Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 48.69
Liaison Tina Evans
Submission Date Aug. 20, 2024

STARS v2.2

Colorado Mountain College
OP-9: Landscape Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.46 / 2.00 Adrian Fielder
Assistant Dean of Instruction
Spring Valley
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total campus area:
1,244 Acres

Figures required to calculate the total area of managed grounds:
Area (double-counting is not allowed)
Area managed organically, without the use of inorganic fertilizers and chemical pesticides, fungicides and herbicides 33.92 Acres
Area managed in accordance with an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program that uses selected chemicals only when needed 0 Acres
Area managed using conventional, chemical-based landscape management practices 12.44 Acres
Total area of managed grounds 46.36 Acres

If the total area of managed grounds is less than the total campus area, provide:

A brief description of any land excluded from the area of managed grounds:

The area that has been excluded from the total managed grounds is infrastructure (buildings, parking lots, etc.), and unmanaged and unmaintained lands (open fields and forests).


Organic program

Percentage of grounds managed organically:
73.17

If reporting an organic program, provide:

A brief description of the organic landscape management program:

Each CMC campus is different. The CMC campuses that manage their grounds organically are the Glenwood Center, Spring Valley, Carbondale, and Buena Vista. These campuses manage grounds organically by avoiding chemical pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides. For example, Spring Valley has an Integrated Weed Management Plan (IWMP) to protect native organisms from "invasive" weeds and from the herbicides normally used to manage them, through proactive planting of native plant species throughout the grounds, mechanical removal of select noxious weeds and on-site composting of animal manure and yard waste as a soil amendment and as the basis for actively-aerated compost tea (AACT) applications of all turf areas and trees.


Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program 

Percentage of grounds managed in accordance with an IPM program:
0

If reporting an IPM program, provide:

A copy of the IPM plan or program:
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A brief description of the IPM program:

No recent IPM plan is available, aside from the Integrated Weed Management Plan included above.


Optional Fields 

A brief description of the institution's approach to plant stewardship:

Each campus utilizes xeriscaping which consists of plants that are native to the area and require little to no irrigation. Low-flow drip irrigation is applied when necessary. Some areas utilize rock and cobble landscaping.


A brief description of the institution's approach to hydrology and water use:

CMC uses irrigation for all of its managed grounds, except for xeriscaped grounds which require little to no irrigation. Low-flow drip irrigation is provided for xeriscaping when necessary.


A brief description of the institution's approach to landscape materials management and waste minimization:
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A brief description of the institution's approach to energy-efficient landscape design:
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A brief description of other sustainable landscape management practices employed by the institution:
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Website URL where information about the institution’s sustainable landscape management program is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Data Sources: THe total campus area and area of managed grounds for each campus were acquired from Director of Facilities' CMC operations data PDF uploaded above. In addition, outreach to all campus facilities managers was necessary to see if their campus was managed organically or conventionally. Total Campus Area Explanation: As shown in the spreadsheet "CMC-Operations-Data-Sean-Nesbitt", the total campus area equates to 1280 acres. CMC is reporting only 1244 acres since the Buena Vista location is leased out space and is not a campus. 1280 total acres - 36 acres (Buena Vista) = 1244 total acres


The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.