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SPIRIT of the Front Range May 2026
SPIRIT of the Front Range
The Commons — 03 —

★ What we're building toward · SPIRIT supports it, does not control it

The Front Range Commons.

A community body — forming now — where the people who live on the Front Range can make collective decisions about how to take care of where they live. Anyone who lives here can join.

● The Commons photographed for SPIRIT
03.i

The short version

A way for us to take care of this place together.

The Front Range Commons is a way for the people who live on the Front Range to make collective decisions about how to care for where we live. Anyone who lives here can join. Members can propose projects, share resources, and vote on how community-raised money gets used.

Members elect a Wisdom Council — especially elders and Indigenous neighbors — who in turn pick Common Stewards to handle the day-to-day work.

SPIRIT is the scaffolding that makes this possible. SPIRIT handles the legal pieces and the paperwork — what a nonprofit can do that a community body cannot. The Commons does the actual work of caring for this place.

Money flows in three steps. The first funds raised cover SPIRIT's basic operations. The next pay the Common Stewards. Everything beyond that — at least 50% of every dollar — goes into a community grant pool, where members decide together which local projects get funded.

Fort Collins Boulder Denver Colorado Springs Pueblo Cache la Poudre Boulder Creek South Platte Arkansas N E S W THE FRONT RANGE CORRIDOR a transitional ecology where mountains meet grasslands LEGEND city watershed
fig. 1 · the corridor
The short version — 03.1 —

The words we use

Begin with the words.

★ language is the first thing we share

01

Bioregion

noun

A region defined by its land, water, and life rather than by political lines — a watershed, an ecosystem, the human and natural communities that depend on each other. The Front Range is one: a long, narrow corridor where the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains, defined by its rivers, its in-between ecology, and the communities that call it home.

02

The Commons

noun

What we share and are responsible for together. Not an abstraction — the water you drink, the air you breathe, the soil that grows your food, and the relationships that hold the community.

03

Commoning

verb

The everyday practice of caring for what we share. A commons is the garden. Commoning is the gardening — the regular work of tending and looking after a shared thing together.

04

Why Bioregional?

a fair question

Because at this scale, we can actually see the results of our care — and ecological reality forces us to work together across our differences. A watershed isn't something you can leave. A wildfire isn't something you can opt out of.
The words we use — 03.2 —

The next generation of civic life won't come from legislatures or Silicon Valley. It will come from communities that learn to take care of what they share, where they live.

03.iii

How they work together

SPIRIT supports and protects the Commons, but does not control it.

SPIRIT

The Scaffolding

  • ● Nonprofit (501(c)(3))
  • ● 5-person starting team
  • ● Decisions by consent
  • ● Leadership by appointment
  • ● Handles legal & financial work
  • ● Designed to be replaced

THE COMMONS

The Community

  • ● Open to everyone who lives here
  • ● Members elect a Wisdom Council
  • ● Common Stewards do the day-to-day
  • ● Community-decided grant rounds
  • ● Makes decisions for the bioregion
  • ● Holds the actual stewardship
◇ Visit the Commons site →
Two bodies, one project — 03.3 —