In 2020, Chaffee County finalized its next-generation Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), kicking the community into high gear to reduce wildfire risk across federal and non-federal lands.
The 2022 CWPP Annual Report states, “Heavy fuel loads in Chaffee County’s forests combine with a warmer, drier climate and bigger wind events to create a high risk of wildfire."
To address these issues, the NFF is one of many Forest Health Council members that’s deeply engaged in the work to decrease the risk of severe fire to community assets with up to 30,000 acres of targeted forest treatments by 2030. Chaffee County’s CWPP prioritizes forest treatment areas and shows that cross-boundary work on public and private land is needed to meet this goal.
In 2021, the NFF developed the Upper Arkansas Forest Fund (UAFF), a nascent tool conceived from the need to combine innovative funding with innovative implementation mechanisms. The UAFF allows the NFF to pool funds from federal and state programs, private companies, foundations, and individuals, allowing us to best utilize the various types of funding. We have secured over $9 million in funding to date. Significant funding has come from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Colorado State Forest Service, RESTORE Colorado Program and the Chaffee Common Ground Fund. The Rocky Mountain Restoration Initiative also prioritized the effort, adding further momentum.
As we continuously raise and pool funding sources, the second part of the UAFF kicks in – innovative contracting mechanisms to advance cross-boundary work. In close partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and private landowners, the NFF is working to accomplish cross-boundary work at a landscape scale. We invest funds in partners such as the Colorado State Forest Service, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, and Colorado Firecamp to play unique roles in project design, layout, and preparation. The NFF then contracts with timber companies and other vegetation management operators to complete fuels reduction – primarily mechanical thinning, mastication, and hand thinning – with wood products being utilized whenever possible to support local businesses.
NFF’s unique contracting tools allow us to achieve truly seamless cross-boundary treatments at a scale larger than is typically possible. For example, the Riverside Upland Habitat Restoration Project commenced in the fall of 2022 across land managed by private landowners and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Through a first-of-its-kind agreement between NFF and the BLM, the NFF was able to contract and complete treatments across hundreds of acres of BLM and private land, while the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies administered the day-to-day project needs.
Through the UAFF, the NFF and partners are implementing the Chaffee CWPP and contributing to landscape-scale efforts to create a more resilient Upper Arkansas River Watershed.
The future is bright, even as we commit to working through the challenges that come with the dramatic scaling of conservation work. As described in Envision Chaffee County’s 2022 CWPP report:
“More than 5,000 acres of forest have been thinned since 2020, while more projects enter the planning pipeline. The work helps protect not only homes but also water resources, wildlife habitat, and infrastructure, and it improves firefighter safety in the event of a fire. Treatments to date on private lands total 877 acres, a 35-fold increase in three years. Forestry staff and sawyer support have been added to accelerate planning and treatments on private property, where homeowners generally show a strong willingness to participate. To be successful, these treatments must accelerate by another 500 acres per year, growth of about 50%.”
All photos from Riverside Upland Restoration Project.
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