Boulder County awards $1.5M in wildfire-mitigation grants

BOULDER — The Board of Boulder County Commissioners has authorized the distribution of $1,577,698 in awards for the first cycle of the Strategic Fuels Mitigation Grant program, with the money coming from the wildfire-mitigation tax approved by voters in 2022.

Revenues from the tax were first collected in 2023 to help leverage other state, federal and local grants to fund forest and grassland fuels mitigation as well as Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) projects.

Forest thinning will be performed in many of the woodland projects, and goats will be utilized for grassland fuel mitigation on two of them.

“We are pleased to award these grants to our partners to help increase the pace and scale of wildfire mitigation and planning efforts in Boulder County,” County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann said in a prepared statement.

Thirteen grants were awarded to 11 organizations, including fire-protection districts, nonprofit groups, conservation districts, a homeowners association and local governments for fuels mitigation and planning projects. The awards were recommended by a selection committee, composed of five members solicited from a diverse group of stakeholders who have expertise in fuels mitigation, planning and wildland fires.

• The Allenspark and Boulder Mountain fire protection districts received $50,000 each for CWPP updates, as did the Town of Lyons and its fire-protection district.
• The Boulder Mountain district also received $410,812 for a fuels-reduction project.
• The Boulder Valley and Longmont conservation districts received $153,800 for a Gold Hill wildfire resilience project and $60,913 for a Ski Road forest restoration project.

• The Boulder Watershed Collective received $21,956 for its Copperdale community mitigation project.
• The City of Longmont received $100,000 for a spillway mitigation project.
• The Devil’s Thumb Homeowners Association received $50,000 for a grasslands mitigation project.
• The Four Mile Fire Protection District received $32,868 for its Eagle’s Drive/Canyonside fuelbreak project.
• The Lefthand Fire Protection District got $287,550 for the Upper Ceran St. Vrain fuels-mitigation project.
• The Sugarloaf Fire Protection District received $139,899 for the Arkansas Mountain fuels-reduction project.
• The Sunshine Fire Protection District received $169,880 for a Dry Gulch South fuels-reduction project.

Detailed information on each project is online here.

The next grant cycle will open to applicants in April. More information about the grant program is on the Strategic Fuels Mitigation Grant Program webpage or by contacting Meg Halford at [email protected] or 720-388-0264.