Wildfire Resilience in Nederland & Timberline

Throughout September, The Boulder Watershed Collective will facilitate a series of four in-person mapping workshops. Participants will be provided with maps to draw areas across the CWPP landscape with values associated with wildfire-related or personal values, describe actions or initiatives they recommend to support those values, and rank and prioritize actions across the landscape.

As part of this in-person gathering, we will also solicit feedback from community members about their recommendations for localizing wildfire ready actions to support the CWPP’s eventual recommended project priorities, and inform the formation of a community-led wildfire council. 

One of the primary objectives of this project is, through comparisons with CWPP core team planning maps, to directly overlay maps of community priority actions with core team priority actions to help inform the overall prioritization process by identifying areas of high and low agreement.

See below for a flier. Register and find more information about exact locations of each workshop  here .

The purpose of this meeting was to bring community members up to date regarding the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) update process, sharing information about the timing, process, and purpose of the CWPP. Below is a link to a video recording of the meeting.

It was great to hear your perspectives and thoughtful questions at the meeting. Some of the themes that came up from attendees included:

• Nuance in approaching CWPP planning and community engagement, particularly for a community nestled in high elevation lodgepole pine ecosystems.
• Aligning and reflecting community priorities regarding home hardening and forest management. 
• Effectively communicating the objectives and monitoring efforts of forest management to residents.

At this meeting, we asked folks to write down any questions or comments that were not answered in real time so that we could capture concerns or ideas that we did not have time to discuss. So far, we have received the following questions and comments:

"Based on some comments regarding prioritization of defending homes vs. "cutting down trees," I think it would be helpful to educate the public on how managing dead trees/pine beetle kill/fuels/tree reduction in certain areas directly affects home/neighborhood risk. Seems to be a disconnect/failure to see whole picture of mitigation in a community."

This is a really good point. It isn't always just either/or; sometimes defending homes & neighborhoods requires cutting trees too! 

"I have met many people who moved to various 'mountain' developments and had no clue about fire-adapted habitats. Thus, what experts know needs to get presented again + again. This should include information that some ecosystems would naturally burn to the ground every 100 years or so, and when did it last burn."

Also a really good point, and speaks to the conundrum of having human habitation within the lodgepole ecosystem, which seems to manifest as a conflict in objectives/priorities (protecting human life & safety priorities vs. an ecosystem functioning as it would without humans). This one is so hard to navigate because there is no single solution that meets the objectives/priorities of both at once. 

"I am wondering who contracted the CWPP update process with the Boulder Watershed Collective. Is this contract with the county or with the two fire districts?"

The funders of the CWPP update include:

• Town of Nederland
• Nederland FPD
• Timberline FPD
• United Power 
• A grant from  AIM 
• Boulder Watershed Collective.

 The Ember Alliance  was the contractor selected by the Core Team and they are contracted through the Boulder Watershed Collective. The Core Team includes all the agencies listed above and Boulder County, Colorado State Forest Service, Arapaho Roosevelt National Forest.

If any community can come together to reimagine a wildfire resilient future for all, the Nederland Fire Protection District can. With a diversity of strong values and engaged residents, communities like Nederland have it within them to address the most pressing issues facing society today. Through an engaging and thoughtful process of reimagining the wildfire future of in and around the Nederland Fire Protection District (NFPD), including portions of Timberline Fire Protection District (TFPD), community members generously shared with us an opportunity to understand local concerns, values, and priorities, and consolidate them into actionable next steps.  

Through a collaborative effort between the NFPD, the Town of Nederland, and the Boulder Watershed Collective (BWC), and with funding from Wonder Labs' Reimagining 2025:  Living with Fire Design Challenge , the NFPD's Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) will be updated throughout 2023. CWPPs across the US were created in response to the federal Healthy Forests Restoration Act (2003), which extended benefits to communities with wildfire protection plans in place, and offered opportunities for establishing community-led priorities for fuels treatments, home mitigation, risk assessment, and collaborations with state and federal forest management efforts. 

The NFPD's original CWPP was created in 2008 with an  update  following in 2011. As the new update is developed, BWC, the Town, and the NFPD want to ensure that community values, priorities, and concerns are represented. The purpose of this project was to create opportunities for the residents in and around the NFPD to reflect on the current state of wildfire resiliency in the community, as well as envision what a wildfire resilient future would look like. This process of reimagining was developed as a result of our participation in the Wonder Labs Living with Fire Design Challenge. This Story Map tells the story of that process, synthesizing what we learned from the diverse voices of the Nederland community.

Community visioning workshops were held on June 19th and September 1st. Additionally, a youth-specific visioning workshop was held on September 23rd, 2022 with members of the Nederland Youth Advisory Board and TEENS, Inc. All three workshops were rooted in the idea of reimagining, with the goal of learning what community members believe to be an ideal future state, as well as discovering actionable pathways toward that vision. This allowed people to focus on positive outcomes and deeply explore their meanings of wildfire resilience. Community members were able to work backwards through a process called backcasting (shown on the right), eventually working from their reimagined future toward action items that can be taken in the near or immediate future that will help the community on its path toward this reimagined state. 

Interviews were conducted from June to September, with 38 participants. These hour-long discussions focused on how interviewees defined wildfire resilience and what actions they recommended for their community to become more wildfire resilient. We wanted to incorporate voices in this process that have not typically been heard in wildfire-planning efforts, such as community members that are elderly, unhoused, and Indigenous.

The overall engagement effort through workshops and interviews, laid the groundwork for a community-led path forward to wildfire resilience. Below are images from the community engagement process. 

Data from the engagement process was qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed by identifying patterns and themes in the language used by workshop and interview participants. The results of this analysis crafted a narrative of what a projected and reimagined wildfire future might look like in the NFPD. Below are some examples from a community visioning workshop.

This key dimension comes from community members’ awareness that home mitigation is a collective responsibility that fosters trust and reciprocity between neighbors. Homes that are well mitigated for wildfire not only protect their own property, but also lessen fire risk to adjacent properties and increase the chances of protection as the NFPD triages during a fire event. Effective and widespread mitigation of local properties can decrease the risk of some of the catastrophic impacts from wildfire that we explored in the projected future.

One of the primary indicators of success for this key dimension is that a high percentage of Nederland homes meet   Wildfire Partners   certification. Everyone in the community has the information and education needed to foster appreciation and understanding of reasons and methods of wildfire mitigation. Community members know where to access resources such as information and funding if they need it. Furthermore, resources are available to learn chainsaw use skills, empowering all residents to take action on their own property if they are physically able. Saws and Slaws, discussed above in the Collective Community Action key dimension, also contributes to home mitigation and defensible space by providing resource sharing opportunities and ensuring that elderly, low income, and physically disabled community members are able to mitigate their homes. These resources are also available for retrofitting older homes for improved protection from fire. 

• Compile a list of funding sources for home mitigation assistance, to be maintained and shared in an accessible and known location. 
• Share information promoting the importance of home mitigation and forest health through many channels, including in the local newspaper, local social media sites, and online. 
• Implement chainsaw classes and firewise trainings for those who want to mitigate but do not have the knowledge or skills. 
• Assign Nederland’s community wildfire champion to find appropriate grant funding for home mitigation efforts. This person could also coordinate larger sources of state and federal funding for mitigation efforts on open space and county lands, and coordinate support for elders and others who are physically limited.
• Neighborhoods can coordinate meetings to share knowledge and work together.

This key dimension comes from community members highlighting their collective responsibility in catalyzing a wildfire resilient future. Collective community action means that every member of the community understands their role and actively engages in it.

You know, I live in Nederland and my community is always talking about it. My neighborhood is always talking about wildfire.

Successful achievement of this key dimension is indicated by strong community engagement, where community members support each other, and the town and fire department provide support in the form of information and resources for community members to take action on wildfire resilience. This is done through robust engagement online, in print, and in person. Communication is kind and supportive between all parties. Individual neighborhoods are engaged through neighborhood groups that have pre-plans for emergency response and support each other in home mitigation efforts.

• Start community involvement programs such as Saws and Slaws or coordinated chipping and slash collection for residents.

• Use social media platforms or local news outlets to foster the coordination and recruitment of community members. 

• Appoint a community or neighborhood champion to lead the coordination and organization of residents around wildfire resilience efforts.  

• Start a text string that provides information about daily fire bans or evacuation status to keep residents informed and actively engaged. This could be done within neighborhoods or across neighborhoods and could be implemented by a community of neighborhood ambassadors. 

• Plan engaging educational events with fire professionals to increase the engagement levels of the community, such as school programs to increase awareness among Nederland’s youth.

• Provide letters to all homeowners about available resources to help overcome barriers such as the lack of funding, time, or skills. 

• Update policies around building codes, home mitigation, and fire bans to meet the urgency of protecting homes from catastrophic wildfire. Understanding that these policies require funding, time, and other resources, community members must be supported in overcoming these barriers through more funding opportunities or programs such as Saws and Slaws.

• Ultimately, to get everyone taking the actions needed to achieve a wildfire resilient future, resources need to be invested into the community members that make up the NFPD.  

Hey, let's all meet. Let's talk about what we're going to do next, lets all just make sure we all have contacts and know who each other is, and who has animals and small kids and who might need help moving and might have mobility challenges, And I think that model is really successful too.

This key dimension represents the community-wide priority for managing the land in a way that protects ecosystem health and mitigates the damage caused by wildfires. Community members are generally aware of the wildfire risk they face and feel that ongoing land management is critical to living in the forest. 

Land management incorporates home mitigation, defensible space, and surrounding forest management. There is a set number of protected lands, both public and private. A comprehensive approach to forest management is used, which ultimately attempts to reintroduce fire back to the landscape. This comprehensive forest management approach includes mechanical thinning and surface fuel removal in high-risk areas, preferably with low-impact methods that reduce unwanted access roads. The United States Forest Service (USFS), Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS), and Parks & Open Space are supported in their effort to create healthier forests through input from locals who have a strong connection to the landscape they call home. Education initiatives to decrease human-caused fires on public and private lands are robust and far-reaching. Every home is well-mitigated because of readily available funding, information, resources, and support from the community.

• Education campaigns about the different forest management strategies would help to increase support for forest management and involvement from the community. Any of the above information could be relayed to community members through short clips on the local news or the town’s social media pages, on single pages for the refrigerator, or through the public school system. 

• Implement joint forest management projects between the community and agencies to amend relationships with forestry officials. 

• Create resources such as a GIS program to assess properties for forest health mitigation needs according to wildfire zones. This could be done by a community wildfire champion that would enter data by assessing properties. 

• Create a map that includes all property ownership including Federal, State, County, City, Town, and private landowners to help increase collaboration across entities for land management projects such as collaborating with Boulder County on the NFPD’s CWPP. 

This key dimension addresses community concerns for their beloved natural landscapes. Living in the woods is a strong value in Nederland. A wildfire resilient future in the NFPD area consists of clean air and water, habitat for wildlife, and resilient forests.

Achieving this key dimension is represented by thriving wildlife. Species counts are healthy due to protected riparian areas, water resources, and increased habitat connectivity. The trees in the forest are resilient through composition and age diversity, low levels of surface fuels, and active forest management. The community is involved in these efforts by helping to clear forests, plant trees and other native plants, and protect species. Rights of nature and watershed ordinances have been defined and implemented to ensure long-term conservation.

• Reintroduce beavers to the landscape. As a keystone species, beavers reduce the density of forests and increase the amount of natural wetland habitat. 
• Produce maps showing the location of wildlife corridors overlaid with zoning maps to determine where to increase protection efforts. 
• In home mitigation efforts, homeowners should consider a balance between meeting home mitigation standards and leaving some plants on the property that provide habitat or food for wildlife. 
• Remove dead trees, clean up surface fuels, thin dense forest stands, and determine the cause of tree mortality along Boulder Canyon Drive. The community advocated for involving residents in these efforts through face-to-face time with experts, education initiatives about public land preservation, and involving community members meaningfully in forest health plans, including efforts to monitor the impacts of forest management. 
• Initiate a volunteer-led effort, in collaboration with the Boulder County Parks and Open Space, CSFS, or USFS, to increase the diversification and resiliency of trees in the forests.

This key dimension reflects community members’ concerns about safety during a wildfire. Community members understand that because wildfire is a natural part of this landscape, the risk will never fully disappear. A safe and effective fire response includes evacuation plans, suppressing a wildfire, and protecting homes and lives to the best of the community’s ability.

Achieving this key dimension means that the fire districts have the funds and support they need to implement emergency communications and evacuation plans that are timely and understandable. This includes funding and support from the town, county, and state and federal governments. The fire districts are equipped with resources such as equipment, volunteers, and paid staff. There are enough evacuation and egress routes out of town to accommodate entire neighborhoods being evacuated at once. Neighbors are prepared to support each other in evacuating quickly and safely and understand where they need to go when instructed by emergency personnel to evacuate. Vulnerable populations are a priority and the community supports efforts to keep these populations safe during a wildfire. Throughout our conversations and workshops, community members expressed a deep and sincere appreciation for the NFPD.

• Increase the number of routes out of town. Some ideas for these routes include the Big Springs egress, a bridge across the creek on the east end of town, or capitalizing on the location of the Barker Reservoir.
• Update signage on homes to be large and reflective so the fire department can easily identify homes during a wildfire. 
• Hold recurring evacuation drills at the town, neighborhood, and household level to increase preparedness in case of a wildfire and ensure that residents have go-boxes ready, are set up for emergency notifications, and know where to go and how to get there if a wildfire occurs. 
• Improve signage for fire bans to ensure clarity and protect the community. One idea was to place a sign on each of the three entrances into town for the day’s wildfire risk and the current level of fire ban in effect. 
• Create a map of and give access to private cisterns to increase water resources during a wildfire. 
• Create a map of all neighborhoods in the NFPD and TFPD with updated addresses and information about risk to aid the fire department in planning for and triaging during a wildfire. 
• Increase the number of paid firefighters to better represent their value in the community.
• Assign a community wildfire champion who can apply for grants for the NFPD/TFPD firefighters and equipment. 

This Story Map, in conjunction with a research paper based on interviews, and final report for BWC, the Town of Nederland, and the Fire Protection Districts, are the final deliverables for this phase of community engagement on the part of the CU Boulder Masters of the Environment graduate team. From here, BWC, the Town, and the fire protection districts will work together to incorporate these key findings and priority action items into a new draft of the CWPP. Over the coming months,  Wonder Labs  has provided funding for further opportunities to provide input on the plan as the first draft is created. A final draft of the CWPP is expected to be complete in 2023. To stay in touch with the  continued work that BWC is doing in Nederland, follow this  link .

Thank you to our Academic Advisor, Dr. Lydia Lawhon; Maya MacHamer and Erin Fried at the Boulder Watershed Collective; Shefali Juneja Lakhina and Anukool Lakhina for providing grant funding for this research through Wonder Labs’ Reimagining 2025: Living with Fire Design Challenge; The Nederland Fire Protection District; The Town of Nederland; The Nederland Board of Trustees; Town of Nederland Advisory Boards & Commissions; TEENS, Inc.; The Nederland Community Center; The Nederland Community Library; workshop and interview participants; local businesses who let us hang up flyers; folks at The Mountain-Ear; the broader Nederland Community; and all others who have supported this project! We sincerely appreciate everyone who took the time to engage with us. Thanks for reading!