We help people protect land and water

Colorado’s 1041 Regulations: A Means to Water Equity?

An ICS analysis of 1041 permitting practices across Colorado’s 64 counties begs the question: can this tool provide a mechanism to protect agriculture, restore natural systems, and more equitably apportion the water we need? Colorado faces a water constrained future....

Reclamation Funds ICS Water Optimization Study

An ICS-led water optimization study will explore opportunities for the City of Thornton and Larimer and Weld counties to strategically repurpose—and possibly reirrigate—farmland following a large municipal water transfer. In 2019, the City of Thornton commissioned...

Mitigating the Economic Impacts of Dry-Up

As water on Colorado’s Front Range moves from farms to cities, an ICS economic study charts a more promising course for agriculture. The purchase of 5,540 Bessemer Ditch Company shares from Pueblo County farmers by the Board of Water Works of Pueblo (Pueblo Water)...

ICS Maps Course for Spur Water Policy Institute

Colorado State University selected CDR Associates, LRE Water, and ICS Consulting to initiate planning for a new water policy institute at the future Spur campus at the National Western Center in Denver. “The Spur campus is a place made for the public, and a place to...

Harvard Grant Supports ICS Water Fund Feasibility Study

Harvard University is helping ICS clients explore how social impact capital can be used to optimize limited irrigation water supplies in the American West. A grant from the university’s Loeb Fellowship Alumni Council is supporting an ICS-led collaboration among...

A Western River with too Much Water? ICS Explores

Can it be, in the midst of drought, with intense competition for limited water supplies, that a major tributary flowing through one of the Intermountain West’s largest, fastest growing cities, has too much water? Descending an incredible 9,475 vertical feet in just...

ICS Enterprise Launch: Frost Ranch Sportsmen Club

ICS helped Frost Livestock Company launch a private sportsmen club for fowl, small game, and big game hunters on its 24,000-acre, Frost Ranch property. Frost Ranch Sportsmen Club, LLC, a subsidiary enterprise of the livestock company, is an important component of two...

ICS Helps Launch New Babbitt Center

The intimate connection between land and water is often discussed in academic circles but not well integrated into land use and water management policy and practice at the local level. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (LILP) and the Sonoran Institute (SI) asked...

ICS Guides Gates Family Foundation Strategic Plan

The Gates Family Foundation has committed more than $350 million to Colorado philanthropic endeavors since its creation. In 2011, under the leadership of Tom Gougeon, the Foundation initiated a fundamental shift in its grant-making approach, devoting 60% of its...

State of the Rockies Kicks off with ICS Keynote

ICS Principal Scott Campbell kicked off the 2015-2016 Colorado College State of the Rockies Project, The Scales of Western Water, as its keynote speaker. Campbell christened the thematic undertaking by examining landscape-scale approaches local, state, and national...

Rockefeller Tags ICS for Resiliency Planning Expertise

Homes in the wildland-urban interface facing catastrophic fire. Commercial districts in flood zones. Coastal cities confronted by rising sea levels and increasingly devastating storm surge effects. Between 2011 and 2013, there were 67 presidentially declared disaster...

Mission

Protecting the land and water resources on which our lives and livelihoods depend.

About

ICS solves complex land and water management problems. We lead skilled interdisciplinary teams, employ insightful analytical models, utilize collective impact approaches, and align political, institutional, and economic forces to make critical conservation work possible.

Clients

ICS provides strategic consultation, planning, and project management services to landowners, governments, NGOs, and partnerships. We protect land and water resources; build resilient communities, foster environmental stewardship, and create strong, sustainable economic futures.

Our Practice Areas

Land

Our planning and project management services help clients protect open land, preserve agriculture, safeguard habitat, and establish conservation networks that deliver multiple benefits to people and nature.

Integrated Solutions

ICS delivers integrated land use and water management solutions for a more sustainable world. We link land use practice with watershed health to inform new ways of designing cities, producing food, procuring water, and protecting nature. Our integrated solutions promote resilience in an era of rapid global change.

Water

Our systems approach to water management delivers viable alternatives to unsustainable practices and builds equity between water users. Our alternatives support agricultural livelihoods, enhance regional economies, and restore freshwater ecosystems.

Our Services

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Planning

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Spatial Analytics and GIS

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Economic Impact Assessments

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Decision Support Systems

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Policy

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Financial Modeling

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Irrigated Lands Preservation

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Water Markets

Get In Touch

1518 Winfield Ave
Colorado Springs, CO 80906
(303) 981-8015