Pitkin County Healthy Rivers Board approves grant request to fund watershed, wildfire action plan project
Project expected to be completed by summer 2026
Ray K. Erku/The Aspen Times
Pitkin County’s Healthy Rivers Board voted unanimously to approve a $28,000 grant request from the Roaring Fork Valley Wildfire Collaborative to fund a project that will produce a wildfire action plan for the valley’s watershed.
The project will identify high-risk areas and potential post-fire hazards in the Roaring Fork Valley’s water systems to create an action plan in the event of a wildfire.
Several town and city water sources come from single streams. In the event of a wildfire, ash could contaminate stream water, degrading the quality of the water system, and potentially making it undrinkable, said Roaring Fork Valley Wildfire Collaborative Executive Director Angie Davlyn during her Thursday presentation to the board in Basalt.
“In a very real scenario that a wildfire comes close to a town and spares lives and we feel very successful, there’s a good chance that the ash could degrade the quality of that water system,” she said. “So, if I’m close to a town, everyone survives, but the town is essentially done because there’s no reliable water.”
While the Roaring Fork Valley is at significant risk for wildfires, a state evaluation also noted the high susceptibility of the Roaring Fork Watershed’s water infrastructure in the event of a wildfire. This leaves residents, property, and natural resources vulnerable to this disaster but also to other post-wildfire hazards, like flooding and mudslides, Davlyn said.
Davlyn also said that the region has been pro-active in performing wildfire mitigation tasks, but there is a lack of a data-driven approach to identify the most critical threats and most opportune areas for a wildfire.
“Further, our historical work has been heavily focused on thinning vegetation and less on preventing hazards that could happen after a fire,” meeting documents state.
To bridge this gap, the Wildfire Collaborative applied for funding from several sources, including Pitkin County. Last week, Wildfire Collaborative signed a contract with the Colorado Water Conservation Board for $224,000 and more than $150,000 in technical assistance for this project, which Davlyn said is the first of its kind in this area.
These funds, however, require a 25% match before work can begin. The Wildfire Collaborative will provide half of the match through staff time, but the organization needs Pitkin County’s $28,000 to complete the match.
Fire Adapted Colorado also awarded $5,000, the town of Carbondale awarded $3,000, Roaring Fork Conservancy awarded $500, Holy Cross Energy awarded $3,000, and other municipalities, counties, and the Colorado River District awarded $5,000. These funds, along with Colorado Water Conservation Board’s $374,000 and Pitkin County’s $28,000, totals $446,500.
The Wildfire Collaborative is a multi-stakeholder nonprofit organization that covers four counties (Pitkin, Eagle, Garfield, and Gunnison), four fire districts (Aspen Fire, Carbondale Fire, Glenwood Springs Fire, and Roaring Fork Fire Rescue), and six municipalities (Aspen, Snowmass Village, Basalt, Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, and Marble).
Eagle, Garfield, and Gunnison counties have committed funds to the Wildfire Collaborative in the past, but they have not committed funding to this particular project yet.
Other partners include the Colorado State Forest Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Ruedi Water and Power Authority, Aspen Valley Land Trust, Watershed Biodiversity Initiative, Colorado River District, and Aspen Institute.
Once the action plan is developed, the Wildfire Collaborative will apply for additional funding from the Colorado Water Conservation Board to implement the plan’s strategies, which could include infrastructure improvements like building drainage or stabilizing bridges.
“I think it’s definitely a home run in terms of this board. In fact, if your organization did not already exist, I would have suggested this board consider one,” said Kirstin Neff, Healthy Rivers Board Vice Chair. “And I do want to note that these water-fire related action plans, there are a lot of watersheds that already have these that are already accessing money.”
This project, which is one of the organization’s first major ones, follows a busy wildfire season throughout the United States. Davlyn made it clear, however, that the mission of her organization, as well as the goal of the project, is to learn how to promote wildfire resilience, not to push anti-fire sentiments, as well as understand key relationships between water and fire.
“Resilience means living with fire. We know that wildfire is a part of this landscape, and that is a really important part to regenerate plants. It’s an important part of making our forests healthier for wildlife. But community resiliency means living with fire and proactively reducing its destructive consequences,” Davlyn said, who has been in her role for about a year now.
The Wildfire Collaborative began as a program of The Aspen Institute. It was with the institute for almost a year before separating and becoming a stand alone 501(c)(3). The Wildfire Collaborative still has a seat on the Aspen Institute’s board.
Regan Mertz can be reached at 970-429-9153 or rmertz@aspentimes.com.
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