Grand County Community Wildfire Protection Plan

This story map for the Grand County CWPP allows you to explore the plan through maps, graphics, and other visual resources

SWCA Environmental Consultants

Introduction

Welcome!

This is a story map, or interactive graphic tool, that is devoted to the development of the Grand County Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). To learn more about how to navigate this story map, please see the  How to Navigate  heading.  

The story map will be updated as new information becomes available. Please visit the story map regularly for information on how the public can engage in this process by clicking on the  Public Involvement  heading in the navigation bar.  

Use the 3D viewer to the right to explore current wildfire incidents. To explore the 3D view, click on the map to activate and use the left button on your mouse to move directionally and the right button to move three-dimensionally.

You can also view current wildfire information through Inciweb’s website.  Click here to view the map. 

Project History 

As wildfire severity increases, communities need a plan to help prepare for, reduce the risk of, and adapt to wildland fire events. Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs) help accomplish these goals by providing recommendations that are intended to reduce, but not eliminate, the extreme severity or risk of wildland fire.  

Development of the CWPP is rooted in facilitated collaboration among local, state, and federal officials, as well as non-governmental stakeholders and private citizens. The 2023 Grand County CWPP  identifies potential priority areas where mitigation measures are needed to protect from wildfire the irreplaceable life, property, and critical infrastructure within the County. This document is advisory, not mandatory.   

National Cohesive Strategy  

The plan has been aligned with the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (Cohesive Strategy) and its Phase III Western Regional Action Plan by adhering to the nation-wide goal “To safely and effectively extinguish fire, when needed; use fire where allowable; manage our natural resources; and as a Nation, live with wildland fire.” (Forests and Rangelands 2014:3).  

The primary, national goals for achieving this vision are:  

  • Restore and maintain landscapes: Landscapes across all jurisdictions are resilient to fire-related disturbances in accordance with management objectives. 
  • Fire-adapted communities: Human populations and infrastructure can withstand a wildfire without loss of life and property.  
  • Wildfire response: All jurisdictions participate in making and implementing safe, effective, efficient risk-based wildfire management decisions. 

Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) 

This CWPP has been, and all future updates will be developed in response to the federal Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) of 2003.  

The 2023 Grand County CWPP meets the requirements of the HFRA by addressing the following: 

  1. Collaborative action by multiple agencies at the state and local levels in consultation with federal agencies and other interested parties. 
  2. The identification and prioritization of fuel reduction treatments accompanied by recommended types and methods of treatments to protect at-risk communities and pertinent infrastructure. 
  3. The suggestion of multi-party mitigation, monitoring, and outreach. 
  4. Recommendation measures and action items that residents and communities can take to reduce the ignitability of structures. 
  5. Input from the public on the draft CWPP 

Acknowledgements  

We would like to formally thank the Core Team and all stakeholders for contributing their time and expertise throughout the planning process. Your participation has contributed to creating resilient landscapes, implementing public education, reducing structural ignitability, and ensuring safe and effective wildfire response. 

Public Involvement

Join the Community-Driven Planning Process  

A key element in the CWPP planning process is the discussion generated among community members regarding priorities for local fire protection and forest management (Society for American Foresters [SAF] 2004). But the work doesn’t stop when the plan is developed! We need help from you to reduce risk within your community. Check out the  Mitigation Strategies Tab ,  Homeowner Resources Tab , and/or the  Grand County Wildfire Council  website for additional details and resources for reducing wildfire risk.

Scheduled Events   

None at this time.

Previous Events

In conjunction with the County, SWCA hosted a live (and recorded) online CWPP Q&A events with local first responders, emergency managers, and project managers. The webinars took place on Tuesday December 13 th  from 5-6pm MT and Tuesday January 10 th  from 4-5pm MT.  These public meetings were a primary vehicle for you to give your feedback on your wildfire concerns in the County and ensure that the plan addresses them.

Communication Tools   

  • The  Arc GIS Hub Site  and Story Map are the primary communication tools to provide project information as well as gather input from the public.  
  • Please visit this site often for updates on public engagement. 
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Fire Environment

The fire environment describes the conditions which influence wildfire behavior. Here we describe the wildland urban interface (WUI), fire regimes, and fire history.

Wildland Urban Interface (WUI)

A WUI is composed of both interface and intermix communities and is defined as areas where human habitation and development meet or intermix with wildland fuels (U.S. Department of the Interior [USDI] and U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA] 2001:752–753).  

  • Interface areas include housing developments that meet or are in the vicinity of continuous vegetation. 
  • Intermix areas are those areas where structures are scattered throughout a wildland area where the cover of continuous vegetation and fuels is often greater than cover by human habitation. 

In the WUI, fire can move readily between structural and vegetative fuels, increasing the potential for wildland fire ignitions and the corresponding potential loss of life and property. Combined with the collective effects of fire suppression policies, resource management practices, land use patterns, climate change, and insect and disease infestations, recent human expansion of the WUI into areas with high fire risk has created an urgent need to modify fire management practices and policies, and to understand and manage fire risk effectively in the WUI (Pyne 2001; Stephens and Ruth 2005).  

 



Fire Regimes

Fires are characterized by their intensity, the frequency with which they occur, the season in which they occur, their spatial pattern or extent, and their type. Combined, these attributes describe the fire regime.   

The fire regime within Grand County includes Lodgepole Pine Forests, Spruce-Fir Forests, and Sagebrush Shrublands and Sagebrush Steppe.

Vegetation

Vegetation zones within the county are primarily a function of elevation, slope, aspect, substrate, and associated climatic regimes. Since a broad range in elevation and topography exists across the county, characteristics in vegetative communities are quite variable across the county. 

According to the Southwest Regional Gap Analysis Project (SWReGAP) (2022) the dominant vegetation types in Grand County are Inter-Mountain Basins Big Sagebrush Shrubland, Inter-Mountain Basins Sagebrush Steppe, Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest, and Rocky Mountain Subalpine Mesic Spruce-Fir Forest. Other types of land cover (alpine tundra, agricultural areas, and water bodies) also exist in the focus areas and are not described in more detail as they do not play a significant role in fire behavior. 

See the map on the right for a spatial representation of vegetation within the county.

Fire Behavior Fuel Model

The maps to the left depict vegetation types and the corresponding fuel models in the planning region. The fuel map translates vegetation types into fire behavior fuel models that can be used to predict the type of fire behavior that can be expected in the event those fuels undergo combustion.   

The fuels in the planning area are classified using Scott and Burgan’s (2005) Standard Fire Behavior Fuel Model classification system, where each vegetation and litter type is broken down into 40 different models. The general fuel groups are classified as: 

  • (NB) Non-burnable 
  • (GR) Grass 
  • (GS) Grass-Shrub 
  • (SB) Slash-Blowdown 
  • (SH) Shrub 
  • (TL) Timber Litter 
  • (TU) Timber-Understory 

 

To toggle between the two maps, move the slider back and forth.    

Click on image above to enlarge.

Click on image above to enlarge.

Recent Fire History

Most of the fires in the county have been less than 10 acres. However, the larger fires, while few in number, comprise most of the burned acres in any given year. In 2018, the Silver Creek Fire burned approximately 20,000 acres of land. In 2020, two fires, the Williams Fork Fire and the East Troublesome Fire, burned more than 208,000 acres of land. These large fires, especially the East Troublesome Fire, were mostly stand-replacing events.

Use the time slider application to view historic wildfire perimeters over time.

Click the play button to start the animation.

Recent Fire Occurrence

An analysis of Grand County’s wildland fire history (1931–2020) (LANDFIRE 2022) shows that fires have mostly occurred in the county’s forested areas. However, larger forest fires have spread into the rangelands and there have also been incidents isolated to the rangelands. There is a low number of recorded fires in Grand County prior to 2010. However, after 2010, Grand County has experienced numerous wildfires.

Click on the columns of the charts to filter the fires shown on the map. Re-click on the columns to remove the filter from the map.

Fire Ignitions  

Humans have been the primary cause of wildfire ignitions; however, natural ignitions are also common. Since 2014, humans have been responsible for 71.2% of the fires that have occurred within Grand County and have a known ignition source, with many of these human-caused ignitions occurring near the county’s towns and municipalities. This high percentage is likely to due to the high number of recreationists in Grand County and the large proportion of WUI within the county; ATV use, railroad sparks, campfires, garbage burns, and other similar sources of ignition are becoming an increasing concern.

Fire Season

Colorado’s fire season has been estimated to occur between mid-May and mid-October (Wei et al. 2017). Grand County’s recent fire history reflects this, as most fires occurred within the period of June through September, which is when high temperatures and drier conditions are more probable across the county. While ignitions are less likely in October, these late-season ignitions can result in large and destructive wildfires, such as the East Troublesome Fire, which started on October 14, 2020 (NPS 2021).  

Photo Credit: Philip Brinkmann

Environmental Challenges

Fire Planning and Decision Support

Wildfires have continued to grow in size and severity over the last decade, which has led to the need for fire managers to institute more robust pre-fire planning as well as adapt and improve decision- making tools in order to reduce risk to fire responders and the public, and assess impacts on ecological processes.   



Fire Response

Fire management in Colorado is accomplished through a cooperative interagency partnership among federal, state, and local entities. Wildlandfire response is directed and managed by regional interagency fire centers in Colorado. These dispatch centers are part of the larger Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center. The dispatch centers in Colorado include the Fort Collins, Craig, Grand Junction, Montrose, Durango, and Pueblo Interagency Dispatch Centers. Wildfire response in Grand County is largely an interagency cooperative effort (Geographic Area Coordination Centers [GACC] 2022). The Fort Collins and Craig Interagency Dispatch Centers serve lands located in Grand County. 

Always call 911 if you see smoke and are not aware of any local burns. Early wildfire detection can make all the difference!  

Local Response 

State Response  

Federal Response  

Interagency and Mutual Aid 

Evacuation Route Risk Analysis and Evacuation Resources 

The results of SWCA’s evacuation route and road entrapment analysis are shown in the map on the left. 

Please note that the public should follow the latest guidance from trusted sources, such as official government agencies, in regard to evacuation orders, especially as emergency response plans change rapidly. Current evacuation orders should always be adhered to and supersede all information presented in the CWPP.

Potential Operational Delineations (PODs) 

Potential Operational Delineations (PODs) are fire management/planning units that are spatially delineated based off of potential control features (such as roads, rivers, waterbodies, major fuel changes, etc.) which can potentially be used as a fire containment feature. PODs are developed collaboratively by a variety of fire managers, scientists, and stakeholders (USFS 2022j).  

Risk-Hazard Assessment

Disclaimer:

The purpose of this risk assessment is to provide a community- and landscape-level overview of wildfire risk and is not recommended for use at smaller scales (such as for a property level analysis).  It is also not recommended for use in determining insurance rates or policies.  This risk assessment is a model, and as such has inherent biases, missing data, and other shortcomings, though every effort has been made to include the best available data and use the most robust scientific processes.  Also note that just because an area is shown as high or low risk does not mean that that area will be burned or not burned in a wildfire—a low risk area can still be affected by wildfire if the conditions are right. This risk assessment is also not intended for use during active wildfire events, but rather only as a tool for pre-fire planning. 

Although many definitions exist for hazard and risk, for the purpose of this CWPP these definitions follow those used by the firefighting community:  

Hazard is a fuel complex defined by kind, arrangement, volume, condition, and location that forms a special threat of ignition and resistance to control.  

Risk is defined as the chance of a fire starting as determined by the presence and activity of causative agents (National Wildfire Coordinating Group [NWCG] 1998). 

The Composite Risk-Hazard Assessment combines the findings from a field-based Community Hazard Assessment (using NFPA Wildland Fire Risk and Hazard Severity Form 1144) and a Desktop Risk-Hazard Assessment using modeled inputs. 

Risk Rating  

The Risk-Hazard Assessment is highly influenced by fuels and the WUI. Generally, forested regions composed of conifer fuels that fall within the WUI that have yet to experience recent wildfire display the highest risk to wildfire. For example, unburned forested regions that fall within the WUI east of Grand Lake display extreme risk from wildfire. Similar patterns are observed in the unburned conifer forests that surround Granby, Fraser, Winter Park, Hot Sulphur Springs, and Kremmling. Undeveloped rangelands in the WUI typically display high risks from wildfire. Fuels in these areas are typically comprised of GS (grass-shrub fuels), where bunchgrass species and sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) typically comprise the fuels. These fuels can yield high rates of spread but relatively short flame lengths. Regions with the lowest risk from wildfire usually fall outside the WUI. These areas are usually composed of recently burned forests and rangelands, alpine areas, agricultural plots, water bodies, and large tracts of aspen forests. Overall, risk reduction efforts should be focused on the forests and rangelands within theWUI that place communities at high to extreme risk from wildfire. 

Community Hazard Assessments 

Based on the NFPA 1144 Community Hazard Assessments, each area received a numerical score and associated adjective rating for risk from low to high.

Explore the map to the right to view the community summaries. Click on a community polygon and click the pdf logo in the pop up to view the pdf.

Click on the below link to access the result summaries for each community.

Risk to Lifelines 

FEMA defines a lifeline as something that “enables the continuous operation of critical government and business functions and is essential to human health and safety or economic security” (FEMA 2020). In other words, lifelines are “the most fundamental services in the community that, when stabilized, enable all other aspects of society to function” (FEMA 2020). The relevant FEMA lifelines in Grand County include those listed below. Note that many of these lifelines overlap with the county’s HVRAs, which have been incorporated into our Risk-Hazard Assessment. 

  • Safety and security  
  • Food, water, and shelter  
  • Health and medical 
  • Energy  
  • Communications 
  • Transportation 

Try the interactive legend.  Explore data by selecting values in the legend to filter map layers. Features that match the filter criteria are emphasized on the map. Click a legend item to apply a filter. 

Values at Risk

This section provides information on community values within the county that may be at risk from wildfire. The CWPP seeks to develop mitigation measures that protect these vulnerable assets.  

The Core Team used the county’s Risk-Hazard Assessment in addition to critical infrastructure data to develop a preliminary list of values at risk from wildland fire – this list is not exhaustive or final. The data is also supplemented with Highly Valued Resources and Assets (HRVA) data, which is a dataset that is being gathered nationwide and available through IFTDSS. Values at risk can include natural, social, and cultural resources.  

It is important to note that although the identification of values at risk can inform treatment recommendations, a number of factors must be considered in order to fully prioritize areas for treatment. These factors include appropriateness of treatment, land ownership constraints, locations of ongoing projects, available resources, and other physical, social, or ecological barriers to treatment.  

 

Natural

Socioeconomic

Cultural

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Mitigation Strategies

The 2023 Grand County CWPP has been aligned with the  Cohesive Strategy  and its  Phase III Western Regional Action Plan  by adhering to the nation-wide goal “To safely and effectively extinguish fire, when needed; use fire where allowable; manage our natural resources; and as a Nation, live with wildland fire” (Forests and Rangelands 2014:3).   

In order to do this, the CWPP recommendations have been structured around the three main goals of the Cohesive Strategy: restoring and maintaining landscapes, fire-adapted communities, and wildfire response.  Many ofthese community-specific recommendations can be implemented at the homeowner or community level. 

Restore and Maintain Landscapes

Goal 1 of the Cohesive Strategy and the Western Regional Action Plan is: Restore and Maintain Landscapes: Landscapes across all jurisdictions are resilient to fire and other disturbances in accordance with management objectives. 

Recommendations to restore and maintain landscapes focus on vegetation management and hazardous fuel reduction. Fuels management on public and private land in the WUI is key to the survival of homes during a wildfire event. Recommendations initially focus on areas adjacent to structures (defensible space), then near community boundaries (fuel breaks, cleanup of adjacent open spaces), and finally in the wildlands beyond community boundaries (larger-scale forest health and restoration treatments).  

Fire management cannot be a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Treatment approaches and methods will be site-specific and should be adapted to best meet the needs of the landowner and the resources available. Moreover, each treatment recommendation should address protection of Values at Risk (VARs), particularly the protection of threatened and endangered species.   

Areas of Concern

Proposed treatment areas have been delineated based on the Risk-Hazard Assessment and Core Team input. Many of these treatment recommendations are general across the communities because similar conditions and concerns were raised for all communities that border wildland areas.  

Fire-Adapted Communities

Goal 2 of the Cohesive Strategy/Western Regional Action Plan is: Fire-Adapted Communities: Human populations and infrastructure can withstand a wildfire without loss of life and property.  

Recommendations to create fire adapted communities focus on public education and structural ignitability. Just as environmental hazards need to be mitigated to reduce the risk of fire loss, so do the human hazards. Lack of knowledge, lack of positive actions (such as home hardening), and negative actions (such as no vegetation maintenance) all contribute to increased risk of loss in the WUI.  

Carrying out fuels reduction treatments on public land may only be effective in reducing fire risk to some communities; if homeowners have failed to provide mitigation efforts on their own land, the risk of home ignition remains high, and firefighter lives are put at risk when they carry out structural defense. It is important to note that no two properties are the same. Homeowners and communities are encouraged to research which treatments would have the most effect for their properties.  A list of action items that individual homeowners can do to reduce the risk of structural ignitability be found here .  

Reduction of structural ignitability depends largely on public education that provides homeowners the information they need to take responsibility for protecting their own properties. Please see the  Homeowner Resources  tab for additional resources to make your community fire adapted.  

Actions for Homeowners

Defensible Space

Defensible space is perhaps the fastest, most cost-effective, and most efficacious means of reducing the risk of loss of life and property. Although fire agencies can be valuable in providing guidance and assistance, creating defensible space is the responsibility of the individual homeowner. Assisting neighbors may be essential in many cases. Homeowners should consider assisting the elderly, sharing ladders for gutter cleaning, and assisting neighbors with large thinning needs. Homeowner actions have been found to also motivate neighbors to act, increasing the scope of the wildfire mitigation across a community (Evans et al. 2015).  

Effective defensible space consists of creating an essentially fire-free zone adjacent to the home, a treated secondary zone that is thinned and cleaned of surface fuels, and (if the parcel is large enough) a transitional third zone that is basically a managed forest area. These components work together in a proven and predictable manner. 

Zone 1: Keeps fire from burning directly to the home; 0-5 feet around structure.

Zone 2: Reduces the adjacent fire intensity and the likelihood of torching, crown fire, and ember production; at least 30 feet from structures 

Zone 3: Provides the same at a broader scale, keeping the fire intensity lower by maintaining a more natural, historic condition; to the edge of your property, or at least 100 feet 

Safe, and Effective Wildfire Response

Goal 3 of the Cohesive Strategy/Western Regional Action Plan is: Safe and Effective Wildfire Response: All jurisdictions participatein making and implementing safe, effective, efficient risk-based wildfire management decisions. 

Educating the public so they can reduce its dependence on fire departments is essential as these resources are often stretched thin due to limited personnel.  

Monitoring and Evaluation Strategies

The information on this tab is designed to ensure that CWPPs remain current and facilitate long-term sustainability of the Plan.  

Risk reduction work on the ground, for the most part, is often not attainable in a few months—or even years. The amount of money and effort invested in implementing a plan such as this requires that there be a means to describe, quantitatively or qualitatively, if the goals and objectives expressed in this plan are being accomplished according to expectations.

The most important part of choosing a monitoring program is selecting a method appropriate to the people, place, and available time. Several levels of monitoring activities meet different objectives, have different levels of time intensity, and are appropriate for different groups of people.  

Timeline for Updating the CWPP

The HFRA allows for maximum flexibility in the CWPP planning process, permitting the Core Team to determine the time frame for updating the CWPP; it is suggested that a formal revision be made on the fifth anniversary of signing and every 5 years following. The Core Team members are encouraged to meet on an annual basis to review the project list, discuss project successes, and strategize regarding project implementation funding. Updates to the Story Map are encouraged more frequently to provide the public the most up to date information on wildfire planning and mitigation.  

This Story Map will remain as a conduit for information exchange between the County, CWPP Core Team, and County residents. As revisions are made to the CWPP over time, the Story Map will be revised to accommodate those revisions.   

Post-Fire Recovery

The following information pertains to recovery after the passage of a wildfire. Pre-fire planning for post-fire recovery is important to ensure a community is prepared to address post-fire effects during the vulnerable post-fire period.  

There are many facets to post-fire recovery, including but not limited to: 

  • Ensuring public health and safety—prompt removal of downed and hazard trees, addressing watershed damage, and mitigating potential flooding. 
  • Rebuilding communities and assessing economic needs.  
  • Restoring the damaged landscape—restoration of watersheds, soil stabilization, and tree planting. 
  • Reducing fire risk in the future—identifying hazard areas and implementing mitigation.  

Recovery of the vegetated landscape is often more straightforward than recovery of the human environment. Residents impacted by the fire need assistance making insurance claims; finding temporary accommodation for themselves, pets, and livestock; rebuilding or repairing damaged property; removing debris and burned trees; stabilizing the land for construction; mitigating potential flood damage; repairing infrastructure; reconnecting to utilities; and mitigating impacts to health.  

Returning Home  

Insurance Claims 

Community Safety: Post-Fire Floods and Debris Flows 

Mobilizing Your Community 

Communication 

Post-Fire Land Rehabilitation and Resources 

Long-Term Community Recovery 

On non-federal land, recovery efforts are the responsibility of local governments and private landowners. Challenges associated with long-term recovery include homes that were severely damaged or were saved but are located in high-severity burn areas. Furthermore, homes saved but located on unstable slopes or in areas in danger of flooding or landslides present a more complicated challenge. Economically, essential businesses that were burned or were otherwise forced to close pose a challenge to communities of all sizes. Given these complications, rebuilding and recovery efforts can last for years, with invasive species control and ecosystem restoration lasting even longer (CUSP 2016). It is critical that a long-term plan is in place and there is sufficient funding and support for all necessary ecosystem and community recovery. To learn about more post-fire recovery resources,  visit the After the Flames website here.    

Additional resources regarding post-fire return and recovery can be found in Appendix H of the CWPP.  

Homeowner Resources

Local

Grand County Wildfire Council 

Grand County Office of Emergency Management 

State

Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC)

Colorado State Forest Service  

Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control 

West Region Wildfire Council  

Misc.

National

National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)  

Protecting your Home

Preparation and Evacuation   

Wildfire Risk to Communities  

International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC)

Misc.  

Homeowner Funding Opportunities  

 Source: Grand County Fire Council 

Agency: Colorado State 

Grand County is offering landowners potential funds for PRE- and POST-fire land management actions such as fuel breaks and defensible zoning projects around their houses. 

“The Grand County Wildfire Council (GCWC) is offering private landowners and collective groups of private landowners the opportunity to apply for cost-share funding in an effort to implement recommendations outlined in approved Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs).” 

“DEFENSIBLE SPACE & FUELS REDUCTION (single landowner): Cost-share reimbursement opportunity (up to $1050/acre treated) for homeowners or groups of homeowners to implement defensible space around their homes in wildland urban interface communities. Examples of eligible projects are: removal of common juniper shrubs, tree removal, tree thinning, tree limbing and pruning. (Projects that involve clearing or reducing vegetation around a structure/home.) For landowners removing fewer than 20 individual "hazard" trees, a maximum reimbursement of up to $52.5 per tree will be considered.  

(2) LANDSCAPE-SCALE FUELS REDUCTION (group of landowners): Cost-share reimbursement opportunity (up to $1050/acre treated) for groups of private landowners and/or communities to implement landscape-scale fuels reduction projects. Examples include shaded fuel breaks, greenbelt treatments and roadside thinning projects. (Projects that involve clearing or reducing vegetation, focusing on breaking up the continuity of horizontal and vertical fuels.) Actual amount to be reimbursed determined after project is completed.” 

 

Source: Forest Ag Program    

Agency: Colorado State Forest Service  

The Forest Ag Program is a voluntary program available to landowners with 40 or more acres of forested land who manage their land for harvestable wood products. The program is intended to incentivize forest management and fire resilient forests through property tax reductions for land managers. Landowners are required to complete a Forest Management Plan with a professional forester to ensure management activities are in line with landscape objectives and best management practices.   

  

Source: Forest Legacy Program    

Agency: Colorado State Forest Service  

The Forest Legacy Program is a federally funded initiative to assist in the acquisition or designation of conservation easements on privately owned forest land. The program was established to permanently protect portions of Colorado’s forest that contribute to the state’s ecological and scenic value while maintaining sustainable uses of forest resources such as recreation. Funds are primarily provided by the federal government with matching funds required by state funders or conservation organizations to purchase or secure forested lands. Conserved lands can be kept under private ownership or opened to public access through this easement program.   

  

Source: Forest Stewardship Program    

Agency: Colorado State Forest Service  

The Forest Stewardship Program is a voluntary initiative intended to broaden resource availability and technical assistance for privately owned forest land. The program connects landowners with professional foresters to identify property goals and develop a Stewardship Management Plan to improve overall forest health and landowner knowledge. The program goal is to expand forest stewardship principles to ensure proper management and connectivity of private forestland. Financial assistance may be available for landowners with a Forest Stewardship Plan.  

Contact Us

The CWPP will be a guiding document for fire and emergency managers, as well as agencies who manage land within the County. The CWPP is designed to serve county residents, and we encourage your interest and engagement in the process. For more information, please contact the Grand County Director of Emergency Management at  AKimbrough@co.grand.co.us   

How to Navigate

Click on the section headers across the top to view the story map content.    

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Click the play button to start the animation.

Photo Credit: Philip Brinkmann