Financing Wildfire Resilience in Colorado

Key partners in developing and implementing nature-based wildfire and watershed health interventions include:

• Public Agencies
  • U.S. Forest Service
  • Colorado State Agencies
    • Forest Service
    • Department of Parks and Wildlife
    • Department of Natural Resources
    • Colorado Water Conservation Board
  • Neighboring Water Providers
  • Watershed Groups
    • Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed
    • Trout Unlimited
    • The Freshwater Trust
    • American Rivers
    • The Nature Conservancy
  • Workforce Development NGOs
    • Rocky Mountain Conservation Corp
    • Colorado Youth Corps Association
    • Southwest Conservation Corps
  • Academics
  • Private Property Owners in the relevant watershed areas

Partnering with federal and state forest managers is often an essential first step, since most forested watershed land is owned by the federal and state government. Working with these agencies can be a pathway for Colorado water providers to gain access forested land to implement nature-based solutions and can be an important way to co-fund these investments. For example, the City of Greeley, Colorado, has a “Participating Agreement” with the United States Department of Agriculture and U.S. Forest Service to implement watershed recovery and restoration projects in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests as well as the Pawnee National Grassland areas affected by the Cameron Peak Fire. This agreement authorizes Greeley to install nature-based wildfire recovery and resilience projects on federally owned land. It also establishes that Greeley and its federal partners will share in the cost of implementing these projects.

Connecting with private property owners can similarly give water providers access to private lands where nature-based resilience interventions need to be implemented; private property owners are also key partners because having their support for selected intervention types, e.g., thinning or prescribed fire, can help navigate implementation challenges. Building relationships with private property owners will likely involve a variety of engagement strategies and approaches, such as:

• Watershed tours
• Community meetings
• Open houses
• Individual landowner or business meetings
• Targeted mailers to property owners in priority areas
• Attending Homeowners Association meetings
• Free property assessments by a local forester

Private property owners in forested watershed areas may include residential properties, commercial timber harvesters, or recreational properties, e.g., camp or ski resorts. These private properties encompass only a small portion of watershed land, however. Most watershed land is owned by federal or state agencies.

Neighboring water providers are also key partners because watersheds often provide water to more than one municipality or district; working together on resilience interventions leverages shared resources to meet shared goals.

Colorado’s watershed groups provide important avenues for convening and organizing the various stakeholders. For example, Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed is a partnership between landowners, government land management agencies, water utilities, and non-profits working to address wildfire and other challenges in the Poudre River watershed. Through this partnership the Coalition supports watershed-scale resilience planning, project prioritization, stakeholder outreach, and project implementation. Read more about Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed below.

Other key project implementers are workforce development organizations, e.g., the Rocky Mountain Conservation Corp, that provide essential on-the-ground staff to install nature-based interventions. To help grow this crucial industry, the Colorado Strategic Wildfire Action Program, administered by the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, awards Workforce Development Grants that can cover crew time and/or direct funds. The objective of these grants is to develop a pipeline of individuals entering Colorado’s mitigation and forestry workforce, and complete resilience projects. Read more about the workforce development program here.

Academic institutions can provide needed research, analysis, and education to help water providers make the case for nature-based investments. For example, Colorado State University is a leader on wildfire and watershed health research.