NoCo Fireshed News
Good Disturbance: The Key To Thriving Forests
This article is as printed in the Estes Valley News on Feb. 12, 2025
By: The Estes Valley Watershed Coalition
This is the first article in a four-part series on the fascinating dynamics of forests and fires in the Estes Valley.
One of the most impactful ways the Estes Valley Watershed Coalition (EVWC) supports the vibrant water and thriving wildlife of the Estes Valley is by investing in healthy forests – but what does that truly mean?
Forsythe II Prescribed Burn
The Forsythe II Project is a collaborative prescribed fire project happening across Forest Service lands, Boulder County, and private landowners.
New “United by Fire” podcast explores the catastrophic 2020 wildfire season
United by Fire is a ten-part series about living with wildfire in a warming world. Through in-depth interviews and storytelling, “United by Fire” explores the catastrophic 2020 wildfire season, when the East Troublesome and Cameron Peak Fires tore through Colorado and challenged what we thought we knew about wildfire behavior.
A framework to simplify and understand condition-based management
CBM focuses on maintaining responsiveness and flexibility from planning to implementation in natural resource management and has recently been applied for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance.
Salt Cabin Prescribed Burn Project
The Canyon Lakes Ranger District of the Roosevelt National Forest completed the decision for the Salt Cabin Prescribed Burn Project located south of Rustic and Highway 14. This project will improve timber stands by thinning and prescribed burning to reduce natural fuel build-up and hazards.
Empowering Our Communities: The Larimer County Community Mitigation Grant Program
The recent announcement of the 2024 cycle Community Mitigation Grant awards offer a good time to showcase the bona fide energy and community spirit contributing to resilience within our communities. After a careful evaluation process a total of 19 deserving recipient communities in Larimer County were awarded varying amounts distributed from a total funding pool of $100,000.
Magic Feather Prescribed Burn
The goal of this project is to restore the ponderosa pine and mixed conifer stands to a more natural state, including reducing surface and crown fuel loading across the landscape, retaining and encouraging old-growth qualities, and improving wildlife habitat.
Prescribed Fire Is In All of Our Hands
Prescribed fires take the hands of many to plan and complete successfully. An “all hands” approach is needed to plan meetings, study forests, create maps, process paperwork, test fuel moisture, analyze weather, measure perimeters, dig fire breaks, and ignite drip torches.
NoCo Fireshed Members Lead Congressional Staff Field Trip to the Clear Creek & Boulder Ranger Districts
Last week, members of the Northern Colorado Fireshed Collaborative helped lead congressional staffers on a field trip to the Clear Creek and Boulder Ranger Districts within the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forests. The multi-day tour touched on many issues that impact public and private lands within the Fireshed boundary, including the Wildfire Crisis Strategy, recreation, prescribed fire, Farm Bill housing authority, the Great American Outdoors Act and mixed land-use issues.
Forged in the NoCo Fireshed: Collaborative Stages of Readiness Framework
These four stages of readiness produced by CFRI, provide a roadmap for how collaboratives can grow from new partnerships into long-term, landscape-scale implementation efforts.
The Mechanics Behind Prescribed Burning
The moment a prescribed fire is ignited is just the tip of an unseen iceberg of research, partnership, and preparation, stretching back months or years before drip torches are lit.
Prescribed Fire Treatment Effects on Cameron Peak Fire
After the Cameron Peak Fire, the incident management team created this video to describe how fuels treatments around the communities of Red Feather and Crystal Lakes helped firefighters to confront the Cameron Peak Fire.