The High Altitude Revegetation Committee was formed in 1973 and held its first Workshop in 1974.  In the 1970’s, the changing governmental regulatory picture centered mostly on mining disturbances and a groundswell of interest in studying and protecting natural environments served as the impetus to organize this Committee.  At that time, very little formal research on the subject of rehabilitating disturbances at high altitudes had been performed.  Some forward-looking individuals from private companies, government and academia created the High Altitude Revegetation Committee which has the mission of conducting research, and gathering and disseminating information that would promote understanding of restoration and revegetation techniques that could be applied to disturbances at high elevations.  In the early years a dearth of experience with plant materials that could be successfully established at high elevations led much emphasis to be placed on the vegetation aspects of rehabilitation.  The types of activities studied and visited over the years include hard rock and strip mining, ski areas, road building, reservoirs, energy resource developments, resort and housing developments, recreation sites, parks, rangelands and forests, always with emphasis on methods and materials that would provide quality restoration and revegetation.  The emphasis of the activities of this group continues to evolve with the times in order to address the changing needs of our membership for information that is important to their work and their current interests.

To carry out our educational mission, the Committee organizes a three-day Workshop in the spring of each even numbered year, and an annual two-day Summer Field Tour.  Our Workshop is an invited-speaker conference with two days of presentations, poster papers and commercial exhibits. The Summer Tour is planned around visits to several high elevation projects or disturbances where we can see reclamation-in-action or the results of completed projects.  The membership of the group is about 3000, and we typically have Workshop attendance of 225-275, and Summer Tour attendance of 75-100. The Committee currently operates through the Warner College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University, and consists of a diverse group dedicated to taking the necessary action to plan and successfully carry out these activities.