A recent survey by The Watershed Center, found strong public support for a wide range of wildfire risk reduction strategies, particularly those focused on proactive forest management in the St. Vrain watershed.

Since 2023, The Northern Colorado Fireshed Fund, in partnership with the National Forest Foundation, has awarded over $2.3 million to support community-led wildfire resiliency work in landscapes across Northern Colorado. In the latest grant cycle, the Fireshed Fund awarded over $1,045,000 to community groups to make our forests more resilient, our communities safer, and keep our water supplies reliable.

More than 60 acres of some of Rocky Mountain National Park's most heavily trafficked terrain was set aflame intentionally as firefighters worked a prescribed burn.

Every prescribed fire plan is a unique recipe of specific and precise conditions that must be in place prior to ignition. Customized for the unique components, conditions, and needs of each individual burn unit, ingredient choice is guided by fuel types and density, soil moisture, topography, aspect, access, infrastructure, natural fire breaks, safety, and project goals.

“Why can’t we just cut it and skip the fire part?” Here’s a quick primer on why partnering with fire instead of banishing it again will always provide better outcomes for nature, society, and the future of both.

Guest Post by Daniel Bowker, Forests Program Manager, Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed

During 2023 and 2024, the Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed (CPRW), the Larimer County Conservation Corps (LCCC), and The Ember Alliance (TEA) partnered on an ongoing wildfire mitigation project on the Ben Delatour Scout Ranch in northern Larimer County, just west of the community of Glacier View Meadows.

Forests across Colorado provide invaluable social, economic, and ecological benefits, and ensuring their resilience requires coordinated efforts. The Colorado Forest Resilience Planning Guide offers a framework for agencies, private landowners, and local collaboratives to align their forest management strategies, leverage resources effectively, and sustain forest health.

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?

The Forsythe II Project is a collaborative prescribed fire project happening across Forest Service lands, Boulder County, and private landowners.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.  

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.

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 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.