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This article describes a collaborative, community-based wildfire hazard mitigation project involving the National Park Service, Colorado State Forest Service, Larimer County , and the Windcliff subdivision. It illustrates effective wildland urban interface fire mitigation across ownerships and jurisdictions. It also shows that such projects endure and evolve over time bringing in new participants - they are not simply one-time treatments. Wildland health is as significant as fire protection in this and other Colorado National Fire Plan projects. That outlook is shared by public land managers and private landowners.
Like many Coloradans, they come from cities and towns from coast to coast. They moved to Colorado for the beauty and the climate and they can't imagine living anywhere else. They also didn't imagine that they'd spend so much of their time limbing and cutting trees to reduce fuels around their homes and in their neighborhood. But they're not complaining. They know their work will pay big dividends in terms of forest health and reducing the potentially catastrophic effects of wildfires.
The fuels reduction efforts of an energetic group of residents in the Windcliff subdivision started 10 years ago. Since then, they've embarked on an ambitious plan to mitigate hazardous fuels on each lot and the common areas. They've not only invested time and energy, they've invested funds to keep the process moving. Over the next three years, they will invest $50,000 and will apply for grant funds to leverage their investment. And they are coordinating their efforts with the YMCA of the Rockies and Rocky Mountain National Park .
Their love and concern for the land they now call home has provided the impetus to get the work done. And the work has provided an opportunity for these dedicated landowners to create a real sense of community. Ask any of them and they'll quickly tell you that having a common goal has brought them together and fostered a true sense of community. "The work we're doing here has brought us together. I've been in more people's homes here in the last year than 10 years in Pennsylvania," said Jackie Reed, a Windcliff resident who got her first glimpse of the Estes Valley when she vacationed at the YMCA of the Rockies several years ago.
They'll also tell you that convincing homeowners about the need to mitigate hazardous fuels hasn't always been easy. When Tony Simons, Larimer County wildfire safety specialist, and Mike Babler, Fort Collins district forester, Colorado State Forest Service, first approached Windcliff residents about the benefits of reducing fuels in the subdivision, some of the landowners were skeptical. They thought Simons and Babler were going to advise them to cut all their trees. "At first, I was worried that they would want us to cut too many trees, but they understood when I said I wanted to keep as many trees as possible," Reed said. Several presentations and many discussions later, the homeowners realized that Babler and Simons were advocating a forest management strategy that promotes healthy forests across ownerships. With Rocky Mountain National Park adjacent to their subdivision, it was a strategy that made sense: thin vegetation to discourage insect and disease epidemics, encourage vegetative diversity, improve wildlife habitat, and create an aesthetically pleasing environment-one that has been mitigated to protect against catastrophic wildfires.
Despite their accomplishments, Joe Walsh, a retired fire chief, Windcliff resident and chair of the Windcliff HOA mitigation committee, will not rest until all the homeowners in their subdivision have reduced hazardous fuels on their properties and the neighboring subdivisions have a mitigation plan in place. Next on his agenda is working with the YMCA of the Rockies and surrounding subdivisions to procure land on which to build a fire station and then raise $150,000 to build it.
The YMCA of the Rockies, which is bordered by Rocky Mountain National Park on three sides, has also been working with Larimer County, the Colorado State Forest Service and the National Park Service to implement a mitigation plan in designated areas. The YMCA, which resides on 860 acres of mostly forested land, was founded in 1907. The last time any major mitigation work was completed on the property was in the 1940s. Currently, John Landkamer, superintendent of buildings and grounds, and John Grasso, association safety coordinator, for the YMCA of the Rockies , are targeting 125 acres for treatment in the next two years, and they're coordinating with the NPS, which will treat the adjacent land. "If the National Park Service doesn't treat their land, it wouldn't pay for us to treat ours," Landkamer said.
As with so many private landowners, funding and staffing are the major impediments to getting the mitigation work done. But grant funding through the National Fire Plan has helped, as have the fires that occurred last summer and late this fall. "When the Big Elk Fire occurred, awareness about the need to reduce fuels increased. As a result, we developed an evacuation plan and have been able to assign staff to help with mitigation work," Grasso said. "The staff loves the work and appreciate the importance of what they're doing."
Nonetheless, because of the costs associated with mechanical treatment, they have been doing all the work manually. Their next goal is to get everyone in the area working together so they can hire a contractor to mechanically treat larger areas. They also will continue to work with the NPS to conduct prescribed burns where it's safe and desirable to do so.
In addition to reducing the risk of catastrophic fire and contributing to the overall health of forested lands in the area, they'll also be doing their part to protect the Wind River watershed, an important source of drinking water in the Estes Valley .
Next, Windcliff residents, the YMCA of the Rockies , Larimer County , the Colorado State Forest Service and the Rocky Mountain National Park will embark on a plan to involve all six subdivisions along the Highway 66 corridor to engage in a comprehensive fuels treatment program. Only then will they feel like they have done all they can to protect valuable natural resources and the residents and visitors of the Estes Valley who treasure them.
Contact: Katherine Timm, Public Information Officer, Colorado State Forest Service
303-445-4361
kmtimm@lamar.colostate.edu |
