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St. Vrain Forest Health Partnership

Total Project Area: TBD

The St. Vrain Forest Health Partnership is a collaborative of 100+ partners including fire districts, agencies, towns, and community representatives. We are working to increase the fire resilience of our forests for the benefit of our communities, forest ecosystems, and water quality.

The St. Vrain Forest Health Partnership is bringing together diverse partners and community members to collaboratively plan and implement landscape-scale forest restoration in the 625,000 acre St. Vrain Watershed that will prepare the land and the community to receive wildland fire as a natural part of the ecosystem.

The St. Vrain Forest Health Partnership is part of several county and regional collaboratives that exchange resources and work together towards a strategic approach across this broad landscape, including the  Boulder County Fireshed  and  Northern Colorado Fireshed Collaborative .

In the heart of this watershed, Button Rock Preserve is the primary water source for 100,000 domestic water users in the county and provides regional recreation to over 60,000 visitors annually. The watershed includes Allenspark, Lyons, and the City of Longmont and they are all participating in the Partnership.

“We have had over 30 stakeholder representatives come together to build a common vision for the future of the forested landscape in the St. Vrain. This is an incredible opportunity to build consensus and a plan for landscape scale forest restoration in advance of the USDA Forest Service’s formal NEPA process for the federal land portion of the St. Vrain Watershed. The partnership’s next phase includes building agreement on priority areas for treatments, planning for their restoration and how we will monitor and adjust our plans once the work on the ground gets underway.” – Jessie Olson, Executive Director of the Left Hand Watershed Center, who is leading the St. Vrain effort.

 

Restoration is being planned across the St. Vrain watershed and partners across this landscape are coordinating to ensure a unified approach.

Vision

The Partnership’s vision is to achieve a healthy and resilient watershed that can sustain wildfire and other natural disturbances while protecting communities, keeping water supplies clean and reliable, and supporting diverse native flora and fauna for current and future generations.

The St. Vrain Forest Health Partnership is working to restore current forest conditions (left) to desired future conditions (right) to support resilience to wildfire for the benefit of our communities, forest ecosystems, wildfire, and water quality.

Mission

The mission of the Partnership is to bring together diverse partners and community members to collaboratively plan and implement cross-jurisdictional landscape-scale forest restoration in the St. Vrain Watershed that will prepare the landscape and community to receive wildland fire as a natural part of the ecosystem.

View the St. Vrain Forest Health Partnership plan >>

View the St. Vrain Forest Health Partnership StoryMap >>

We are here to:

  • Keep you informed about work in your neighborhood and across the landscape
  • Answer your questions and connect you with the right people when needed
  • Work with you to ensure that the forest health restoration projects benefit your rivers, forests, and communities
  • Collaborate with private landowners to coordinate, plan, and support cross-boundary forest restoration

 

Former Boulder District Ranger Angela Gee (now Assistant Director of Cooperative Fire Protection) discusses how public engagement at multiple points is critical to this project.

St. Vrain Forest Health Partnership Members