Peaks to People Water Fund is honored to receive the 2026 Larimer County Environmental Stewardship Award, recognizing our work to protect Northern Colorado’s forests, watersheds, water supplies, wildlife habitat, and communities.
Presented by the Larimer County Commissioners and the Environmental and Science Advisory Board, the award celebrates outstanding environmental stewardship in Larimer County. For Peaks to People, this recognition is especially meaningful because it reflects the power of partnership—and the growing momentum behind proactive, collaborative watershed protection.
Since it’s inception in 1995, the commissioners have presented these awards to a total of 112 community members, businesses, and organizations to congratulate them and celebrate their efforts to protect our climate and environment. “For 31 years, this tradition really reflects our community’s resiliency, the way that we face environmental challenges, and that we work together to face them,” said Larimer County Commissioner Jody Shaduck-McNally. “These awards are really a big deal, and recognize excellence in dedication, innovation, leadership, education, and sustainability. These recipients all embrace all of those values.”
In its award letter, Larimer County noted that Peaks to People’s work is “incredibly important” because it brings partners together to align priorities and deploy public, private, and philanthropic funding to accelerate forest restoration and reduce wildfire risk.
That is exactly why Peaks to People exists.
Protecting Water is a Shared Responsibility
A single severe wildfire can devastate forests, damage wildlife habitat, threaten homes and infrastructure, and contaminate drinking water supplies. In Larimer County, where clean, reliable water is directly tied to the health of our mountain forests, proactive investment in forest health is essential.
Peaks to People was created to meet that need—not alone, but by connecting those who depend on clean water with the landscapes and land stewards that provide it.
As a nonprofit water fund, Peaks to People helps aggregate and deploy public, private, and philanthropic funding to support forest restoration and wildfire mitigation in the Big Thompson and Cache la Poudre watersheds. Our role is to help ensure that investments are strategic, coordinated, and directed toward projects that deliver meaningful benefits for water quality, forest health, wildlife habitat, and community resilience.
Since 2015, Peaks to People and our partners have secured more than $8.5 million in new and leveraged funding, including $1.2 million directly invested by Peaks to People. In 2025 alone, this collaborative model helped generate more than $1.3 million to support high-priority forest restoration and wildfire mitigation projects.
These investments are translating into measurable results. To date, this collaborative model has helped fund nearly 2,900 acres of forest restoration, with more than 2,700 acres completed. The work has reduced severe wildfire risk across more than 700 acres, protected more than 1,400 acres of wildlife habitat, helped safeguard parks and open space, reduced wildfire risk for nearly 3,000 homes, and prevented an estimated 19,000 metric tons of sediment from entering water supplies.
The Award Belongs to a Larger Community
While this award recognizes Peaks to People, the work it celebrates belongs to a much larger community of partners, funders, landowners, agencies, businesses, and supporters who believe that protecting water requires shared responsibility.
Forest health, wildfire mitigation, and watershed protection cannot be solved by any single organization. They require trust, coordination, sustained investment, and a willingness to work across boundaries.
That spirit of collaboration is at the heart of Peaks to People’s work. In 2022, we convened the Big Thompson Watershed Health Partnership, bringing together local, state, and federal agencies, water providers, fire districts, conservation organizations, land managers, and community partners to align priorities and coordinate action across jurisdictions.
Through this partnership, Peaks to People has helped support shared planning, strategic investment, project development, and implementation. This foundation of trust and coordination helped position the region for a major milestone: the $10 million Protecting the Gateway to the Rockies Community Wildfire Defense Grant, secured in partnership with Larimer County and Big Thompson Watershed Health Partnership partners.
“When Peaks to People was established, we set out to change how forest restoration is funded and implemented. Instead of working on fragmented, isolated projects, we built a collaborative funding model. We connect downstream water beneficiaries with upstream forest action, aggregating public, private, and philanthropic resources to maximize our collective impact.
But the true power of this model isn’t just the mechanism—it’s the people. This award does not belong to Peaks to People alone; it belongs to the remarkable coalition of municipalities, businesses, public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and community members who step up every day to support our watersheds. It belongs to the more than 15 dedicated organizations within the Big Thompson Watershed Health Partnership who cross jurisdictional lines to protect our shared home.” Julie Dubin, Peaks to People Water Fund
Collaboration Turns Investment into Impact
Peaks to People’s work is innovative because it links downstream beneficiaries—communities, businesses, water users, and donors—with upstream stewardship. This braided funding model allows multiple funding sources to be aligned around shared priorities, increasing efficiency and impact.
Our science-based Watershed Investment Tool further supports this approach by helping identify projects that can deliver the greatest return on investment for reducing wildfire risk to water supplies. Together, the funding model, collaborative partnerships, and decision-support tools help ensure that limited resources are directed where they can make the biggest difference.
We are grateful to Larimer County, the Environmental and Science Advisory Board, and the County Commissioners for this recognition. We are even more grateful to the many partners and supporters who make this work possible.
This award is a reminder that environmental stewardship is not only about responding to today’s risks. It is about investing together in the forests, watersheds, wildlife habitat, open spaces, and communities that future generations will depend on.
Together, we are building a more resilient future for Northern Colorado—one watershed investment at a time.