Scenarios for Pollinator Habitat at Denver International Airport

Abstract

Denver International Airport (DEN) is the 6th busiest airport in the United States, serving 58 million passengers in 2016. This rapid growth has made the airport an economic engine of the region. In order to capitalize on this economic resource, Michael Hancock, the mayor of Denver, envisions creating an Airport City of mixed use, retail, office, and industrial development on the airport’s property along Peña Boulevard, which connects the airport to downtown Denver. However, this corridor is also strategically located to provide a habitat connection between the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge and the prairie on the airport’s property. In order to understand the tradeoffs between these two landuses, we created four scenarios of future development on the property. Two of the scenarios prioritize the Airport City (AC), while the other two prioritize the Habitat Corridor (HC). For each of these priorities, we created one scenario that maintains the airport property’s current boundaries and one that imagines an expanded boundary. Based on these four scenarios, we developed four alternative landscape futures, and modeled the pollinator abundance in each. Our results suggest that pollinator abundance is higher in landscapes that have more restored prairie. Expanding the property boundary increased pollinator abundances as well, particularly when the expansion region was prairie. Based on these findings, we recommend that any future development plans include the restoration of shortgrass prairie with native plant species to enhance pollinator habitat.