High Park Burn Scar (Wildland Restoration)

Wildland Ecology Technologies (“WET”) is a 501(c)(3) environmental restoration and education organization working to heal landscapes impacted by wildfire, drought, pollution, and ecological disruption while rebuilding reciprocal relationships between people, land, and water. Our work is grounded in the belief that ecological restoration, education, and food systems resilience are inseparable - and that long-term climate resilience requires hands-on, community-based stewardship.

WET’s origin comes from a lived relationship with forest ecosystems in Colorado. Growing up on her grandparents’ forest land fostered an early, direct connection to living systems for  Founder and Director Rachel Shelton - time spent in the woods, learning from the land, and experiencing nature as a relational system rather than a backdrop. As her life shifted toward indoor, technology-focused work, that connection gradually faded. In 2020, during the Cameron Peak Fire, everything changed. Standing in Bellvue, Colorado as ash fell across the porch during the uncertainty of the pandemic made ecological crisis immediate and personal. Climate change was no longer abstract; it was visible, embodied, and unfolding in real time. That moment became the catalyst for building a restoration practice rooted in action rather than observation.

Since then, WET has focused on post-wildfire watershed recovery in Colorado, particularly within the Bellvue burn scar of the 2012 High Park Fire. Historically, this landscape functioned as a connected montane watershed with wet meadows, riparian corridors, beaver-influenced hydrology, and soils capable of holding and slowly releasing water. Today, much of that system has been disrupted by high-severity fire effects, resulting in hydrophobic soils, increased surface runoff, channel incision, reduced groundwater recharge, and the loss of distributed wetland function. The landscape that once slowed and stored water now often moves it rapidly downhill, intensifying erosion, downstream sedimentation, and drought and wildfire vulnerability.

WET’s restoration approach is designed to reverse these hydrological failures through nature-based infrastructure, using man-made technology for ecological good. Across Colorado burn scars spanning more than 1,000 acres, we have constructed over 70 beaver dam analogs (BDAs), along with additional water retention structures that reintroduce the physical processes of wetland formation. These structures slow water movement, reconnect floodplains, raise local water tables, and support sediment deposition and vegetative recovery - rebuilding the conditions necessary for resilient, fire-adapted wetland ecosystems.

Our project work is organized into three core categories: Wetland Restoration, Wildfire Mitigation, and Native Species Rehabilitation (Tree Planting). Wetland Restoration focuses on reestablishing hydrological function through BDAs, soil and groundwater recharge, and floodplain reconnection. Wildfire Mitigation centers on reducing future wildfire risk and severity by increasing landscape moisture retention, restoring healthy riparian corridors, and breaking up fuel continuity through ecological design. Native Species Rehabilitation focuses on reintroducing climate-adapted native trees and plants to stabilize soils, rebuild habitat complexity, and restore long-term ecological diversity.

These field efforts are paired with community-based education and applied ecological science. Youth STEM education programs (such as Colorado State University’s student club - The Society for Beaver Believers, and CSU’s Stem4Kids programs) bring students into direct engagement with restoration sites, where they learn watershed dynamics, wildland restoration practices, field monitoring, and ecological data collection through hands-on participation. This transforms abstract environmental science into lived experience and cultivates the next generation of land stewards.

WET also works at the intersection of ecology and emerging technology. Current and future initiatives include drone-based ecological surveys, LiDAR-informed terrain modeling, and 3D water flow simulation to better understand watershed dynamics and scale restoration strategies. Since 2020, our combined restoration work has contributed to the sequestration of hundreds of tons of CO2 while improving habitat connectivity and water retention across degraded landscapes.

Our work also extends beyond Colorado. In New York, we steward recovering wetlands near the GE Moreau Superfund Site, applying the same principles of ecological repair and community collaboration in a different environmental context. Across regions, our approach remains consistent: restore ecological function, strengthen community relationships to land, and build systems of long-term resilience.

WET operates within a broader ecosystem of regenerative practitioners, land stewards, educators, and organizations such as Ma Earth and the Colorado State Forest Service, who are advancing collective approaches to ecological repair and land-based climate solutions. Within this network, our work contributes on-the-ground implementation - turning ecological theory into measurable landscape change.

At its core, WET is an effort to transform ecological grief into grounded restoration practice: rebuilding wetland hydrology in places like Bellvue, Colorado, restoring native species, reducing wildfire risk, and training communities to actively participate in the healing of the ecosystems they depend on.

Funding supports Wildland Ecology Technologies’ efforts to restore ecosystems impacted by wildfire, drought, and pollution through science-based, community-driven land stewardship. Funding would enable the expansion of wetland restoration projects across more than 1,000 acres of Colorado burn scar by constructing beaver dam analogs and other water retention structures that slow runoff, recharge groundwater, reconnect floodplains, and reduce erosion. Resources would also support native tree and plant restoration, wildfire mitigation initiatives, and the rehabilitation of critical wildlife habitat. In addition, financial support strengthens youth STEM education programs by providing hands-on learning opportunities in watershed science, ecological monitoring, and restoration practices, helping cultivate the next generation of environmental stewards. Funding would further advance the organization’s use of innovative technologies - including drone-based ecological surveys, LIDAR terrain modeling, and 3D water flow simulations - to improve restoration planning, measure ecological outcomes, and scale nature-based climate solutions. Together, these investments would enhance carbon sequestration, improve water security, reduce future wildfire risk, and build long-term resilience for both ecosystems and communities in Colorado and beyond.