Our Work
Forest ProgramReducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire damage to communities, forests, and water through forest management.
Much of the forest within our watershed is at risk to large-scale and high severity wildfire such as the High Park Fire of 2012 and other recent events in our region. The Big Thompson watershed has been identified as a high wildfire threat area and a high priority forest management zone on the Colorado Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal website. Working with other agencies, organizations and community partners, the Big Thompson Watershed Coalition is embarking on wildfire risk reduction and forest restoration projects. Our forest management projects aim to lessen potential negative impacts of large-scale catastrophic wildfires to our communities, water supplies, and ecosystems by restoring historical forest structure and composition as well as reducing hazardous wildfire fuels.
Forest
Forest Program Goals
Reduceing regional wildfire severity
Protecting water supplies for downstream users
Building community resilience through tours and workshops
Restoring healthy forest conditions
glen haven forest
Pre-restoration forests are overly packed with young trees which act as fire fuels. Photo by Evan Barrientos Photography
Snags, or dead trees, were left across the project to provide wildlife habitat. Photo by Evan Barrientos Photography.
Round Mountain Forest Health Demo Project
The Round Mountain project site, owned by the City of Loveland, is a publically loved and visited portion of the National Recreation Trail. It shows great potential as a highly accessible and visible demonstration site for forest management in the Big Thompson canyon.
Storm Mountain Community Wildfire Preparedness
BTWC partnered with graduate students from Colorado State University’s Conservation Leadership program to address community wildfire planning in Storm Mountain, a community in the Big Thompson watershed. This project focused on community engagement to understand preferences, values, and needs relating to wildfire preparedness planning in order to make recommendations for the community.
Defensible Space Demonstration Project
In 2020 BTWC was awarded an Action, Implementation, and Mitigation grant by Collaboratives & Coalitions Inc, to support defensible space demonstration sites with landowners of the Cedar Park and Storm Mountain communities of Drake, CO.