About Us

Mission

The Mission of the Cresset Center is to inspire the ecological and social imagination of the residents of the northern front range of Colorado, and beyond, by creating a sanctuary for bio-diverse agriculture, wildlife, community education, cultural exchange and the arts on the historic Henry H. Uhrich Farm.

There are five key aspects to our vision:

Farmland, River Corridor and Habitation Protection
Organic and Biodynamic Farming
Eco-friendly Building and Landscape Design, and Historic Farmstead Preservation
Education in Farming, Ecology, Spirituality and the Arts
Community Building and Cultural Exchange

The Farm

The Cresset Center is located on the historic Henry H. Uhrich Farm, and is being developed in close partnership with the farm’s owners, the Uhrich/Calkins/Burns family, which has owned the property since 1918. The farm includes 120 acres of mixed topography including approximately 60 acres of tillable land, 60 acres of mixed pasture, wetlands, bluffs, beautiful frontage along the Big Thompson River and extraordinary views of the front range. The land has been farmed biodynamically and/or organically for the last 22 years with good soil fertility. Crops grown include rye, barley, corn, alfalfa, hemp and vegetables. The farm also has a small flock of sheep and goats. In 2022 the owners placed a conservation easement on the farm that will protect from development in perpetuity.

Leadership

Day-to-day leadership and management of the Cresset Center is in the hands of Dana Burns, who is the co-owner and manager of Uhrich Farm, LLC, and Robert Karp, who is the Administrative Director of the Cresset Farm Development Initiative (CFDI) which serves as the 501(c)3 non-profit vehicle for the Cresset Center. A Memorandum of Understanding between CFDI and the Urich Farm creates a healthy legal framework for this collaboration between a non-profit organization and a for-profit farm.

Dana and Robert are supported in this work by Zuri Burns and Frank Agrama, who serve as the events and communications coordinators for the Cresset Center, and by the board of CFDI, of which Dana is a member, along with Anita Comer, Pat Gans, Tom Altgelt and John DeBerard.