Opportunity is Knocking
You’re invited to sponsor, exhibit, and participate in the 2023 Colorado Wildland Fire Conference (CWFC): Accelerating Adaptation and Managing Expectations. This on-site event will take place April 11 -14, 2023 at the Fort Collins Marriott.
Being a sponsor of the 2023 CWFC provides a cost-effective way for your organization to connect face-to-face with professionals working proactively to improve wildfire outcomes in Colorado communities and landscapes. Learn more, then choose your sponsorship level and sign-up to support this important Colorado event. The event's collaborative planning team is also working to open up full conference registration in the next few weeks - stay tuned!
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Fire Adapted Colorado's new Training Specialist: Steve Orr
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Welcome Aboard
Training Specialist Steve Orr joined the FACO team in late October. He joins FACO staff after 22 years with West Metro Fire Rescue in Lakewood, CO, where he was deeply involved in the wildland fire program. Steve was instrumental in starting West Metro’s wildfire mitigation program and served as a wildfire mitigation specialist/coordinator for 8 years. A longtime member of both FACO and FAC Net, Steve served on the FACO board in 2015/1016. He understands the challenges facing wildfire mitigation professionals and hopes to provide valuable and practical tools, connections, and skills for FACO members that will lead to better outcomes.
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Membership Directory Migration Underway
You've probably heard that FACO is developing a new website. Here's how FACO members can help:
- SUBMIT 4 photos for your organization's directory listing
- Let us know about any other changes you would like us to make
- Plan to contribute Network Impact Stories in Q4/22 and going forward - we want to Celebrate your Successes!
SUBMIT your photos and other updates, if any here.
Please use the photo naming convention organization_pic#_description (example faco_1_staffphoto, faco_2_inthewoods)
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Correction
Last Month we welcomed new member Glacier View Fire Protection District and we inadvertently listed their CWPP partnership as being with the Big Thompson Watershed Coalition.
The Glacier FPD website lists Daniel Bowker, Forester at Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed, (CPRW) as one of the many partners who assisted with the GVFPD CWPP. We appreciate the catch Hally Strevey. We're looking forward to working with Megan Maiolo-Heath to help us share the great work being done by the CPRW.
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ASIP Course Underway in Grand Junction Today!
Following demand from many FACO members, Two Rivers Wildfire Coalition and Grand Junction Fire are hosting NFPA's two-day Assessing Structure Ignition Potential workshop in Grand Junction today (Nov. 9 & 10). This training had coordination support from Fire Adapted Colorado and funding from the Colorado State Forest Service.
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Regulating the Wildland-Urban Interface in Colorado
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Fire Adapted Colorado hosted the Community Wildfire Planning Center's Regulating the Wildland-Urban Interface in Colorado -Three Case Studies: Colorado Springs, Eagle County, Ouray County Webinar on November 7th. Over 180 land use planners, fire response and mitigation professionals, real estate and insurance agents, and elected officials attended the live event. It was clearly a high-impact event for FACO and our partners.
Thanks for the Excellent presentations Molly, Ashley, Ben, and Eric!
- Molly Mowery, AICP, Executive Director, CWPC
- Ashley Whitworth, COS FD Wildfire Mitigation Program Administrator
- Ben Tisdel, Ouray County Commissioner, District 2
- Eric Lovgren, Community Mitigation Manager, Eagle County & FACO Chair
View the recording above. The presentation slides are available here. The full report as well as other resources can be found on the CWPC website.
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WUI Planning Resources available from the Community Wildfire Planning Center
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Marshall Fire / Boulder County
A Facilitated Learning Analysis (FLA) reviewing the Marshall Fire was recently released by the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC). Read the News Release and the web version of the Analysis here. This was requested by Mountain View Fire Department, Louisville Fire Department, and Boulder County and focused on specific stories and lessons learned related to: weather, fire behavior, agency participation and coordination, response communications and mobilization, and evacuations.
The Marshall fire destroyed nearly 1,100 homes and businesses in Boulder County last winter and caused more than $2 billion in losses, making it by far the costliest in Colorado history, the state insurance commissioner said. Source: Insurance Journal, Nov 7, 2022.
Congratulations Boulder County Wildfire Partners!
COUNTY ISSUE 1A (Countywide Wildfire Mitigation Sales and Use Tax and Revenue Change) has been approved by Boulder County voters, with a 72.70% voting in favor of establishing a 0.1% countywide sales and use tax for the purpose of funding countywide wildfire mitigation efforts to proactively address the increasing risk of climate-driven wildfires in two programmatic areas.
- to conduct strategic forest and grassland management projects (using Fireshed partnerships) to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire, protect drinking water supplies and create more resilient forest and grassland ecosystems.
- to help and extend the Wildfire Partners program to residents in east county and continue work in the mountains to prepare for wildfires by making homes more fire-resistant using community partnerships, individual technical assistance, and financial assistance.
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Prescribed Fire Survey
Rural Voices for Conservation Network (RVCC) and its partners at Colorado State University, the University of Michigan, the Fire Learning Network, and the Watershed Research and Training Center are launching a national survey to gather information about prescribed fire implementation capacity, insurance access, and barriers. Read more and take the survey here.
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Monday, November 14, 2022 - Virtual - The Third Annual Rocky Mountain Regional Wildfire Smoke Symposium. Schedule & Speaker information.
April 11 - 14, 2023 - Colorado Wildland Fire Conference: Accelerating Adaptation and Managing Expectations at the Fort Collins Marriott. Conference session April 12 & 13, with pre- and post-con workshops and tours! Full conference registration in the next few weeks - stay tuned!
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Wildfire Ready Watersheds
Wildfire impacts don’t stop when the flames do. The Wildfire Ready Watersheds seeks to provide high-level guidance for helping communities predict what and where post-fire impacts will affect downstream assets. Importantly, the Program also seeks to help identify actions that may be taken to reduce the impact of these landscape processes on infrastructure and natural resources – both before, and after, a wildfire occurs. The Wildfire Ready Watershed Program hopes to support pre-and post-wildfire planning and response efforts in your community.
Collaboration is Key to Investing in our Biomass Business Community
SOURCE: Center for Collaborative Conservation, by Tim Reader.
'Our partnership is providing needed investment capital to our forest products business community so that they can “Retool” to help address our landscape-scale forest restoration, forest health, and hazardous fuels reduction needs. Businesses that are receiving financing through our program are increasing their utilization of biomass from our forest management treatments, lowering their costs, becoming more competitive and profitable, developing new products, hiring new workers, and in many cases providing safer working environments for their employees. This and successfully paying back their loans, with interest, so that other biomass utilization businesses can benefit from our program financing.' Continue reading the article here.
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Forest Business Development
The Forest Business Loan Fund (FBLF), established by Colorado House Bill 09-1199 (HB-1199), provides lending capital to businesses that “harvest, remove, use, and market beetle-killed and other timber taken from private, federal, state, county, or municipal forestlands as part of wildfire risk reduction or fuels mitigation treatment.” The purpose of the FBLF is to help retain forest-based businesses, maintain and/or increase local jobs, and contribute to the stability of local economies.
Wood Innovations Grants provide funding for advanced computer numerical control systems that can produce state-of-the-art prefabricated mass timber building materials, to renewable energy systems that run on wood chips, these grants are helping address critical issues like climate change and helping sustain local economies.
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