Conservancy a Leader in Regional Fire Consortium
May 23, 2006
On May 18, during a meeting of The Nature Conservancy's Colorado Council, Colorado Governor Bill Owens endorsed the findings and recommendations of the Front Range Fuels Treatment Partnership Roundtable report (download - PDF, 3.19 MB, new window).
The Conservancy's Colorado chapter has been a leader in the Front Range Fuels Treatment Partnership Roundtable, a precedent-setting consortium of 30 organizations including representatives from environmental organizations, academic and scientific communities, local governments and federal and state agencies.
The Roundtable was created following Colorado’s record fire season of 2002, which included the devastating Hayman fire that consumed nearly 140,000 acres, destroyed 133 homes and 466 outbuildings, and left parts of four counties vulnerable to flash floods and mudslides.
“Our forests are out of balance,” said Brian McPeek, deputy director of The Nature Conservancy in Colorado. “This is a solvable problem, and we all have a role to play; however, the immensity of the situation is staggering. Most of Colorado’s forests are seriously stressed or already in peril of being altered or lost.”
“Our forests are out of balance... This is a solvable problem, and we all have a role to play.”
Brian McPeek
Deputy Director
The Nature Conservancy in Colorado
For the past two years, Roundtable members have worked together to develop a vision and roadmap addressing the significant and numerous risks and challenges wildfires pose to a 200-mile corridor that comprises Colorado’s Front Range.
“This is exactly the sort of collaborative effort that is necessary if Colorado is to move forward on the challenges of wildfire and forest health," Owens said. The findings in this report should not be limited to the Front Range, but should serve as a model for other areas. Most forested communities throughout Colorado face similar challenges, and the Roundtable’s report offers a realistic way forward,” Owens said.
The Roundtable found that approximately 1.5 million acres of forest may need to be treated, and much of that—60 percent—is privately owned. At an average cost of more than $400 per acre, the treatment could exceed $15 million annually over a 40-year period.
“While the challenge of treating 1.5 million acres is daunting, the combined goals of reducing fire risk and restoring Front Range forests are eminently achievable,” said McPeek.
The Roundtable report describes 10 initiatives to help solve this problem including biomass utilization, stewardship contracting, private landowner incentives and limited growth of wildland urban interface. The report is a first step to putting fire back into its natural place in the ecosystem.
For More Information:
- Where We Work: The Nature Conservancy in Colorado
Working with partners, local businesses, communities, and people like you, The Nature Conservancy has helped to protect more than 600,000 acres of critical natural lands across the state of Colorado.
- Places We Protect: Bar NI Ranch Prescribed Burn a Success
Despite challenging wind conditions, The Nature Conservancy completed a 23-acre prescribed burn on the Bar NI Ranch in southern Colorado.
- How We Work: Wildfires and Ecosystem Health
The Nature Conservancy is working together with policymakers, public agency staff and private landowners to reinstate fire into its natural place in our ecosystem.
- How We Work: Global Fire Initiative
The Nature Conservancy launched the Global Fire Initiative to help combat the threats that too much, too little or the wrong kind of fire pose to biodiversity conservation.
- Our Partner: Front Range Fuels Treatment Partnership
- Archive of our Saves of the Week and Success Stories
Read more about The Nature Conservancy's work to save the last great places on Earth.
