Catastrophic wildfires along the front range of Colorado have been increasing in size, severity and frequency in recent years. The need to reduce the risk to people living in fire prone areas has become more important than ever as we struggle to adapt to yearlong fire seasons in a warming climate. A critical step in […]
Big Thompson Initiative Partner Profile Colorado Forest Restoration Institute Since 2016 Peaks to People Water Fund and the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute (CFRI) have been working together to assess forest conditions in Northern Colorado to ensure project selection meets the water funds goals and objectives. As a science-based outreach and engagement organization CFRI leads collaborations […]
Big Thompson Initiative Partner Profile and Projects Big Thompson Conservation District Peaks to People and Big Thompson Conservation District (BTCD) have been collaboratively working together on forest health projects since 2017. As our organizations have developed and grown so has our partnership. Like Peaks to People, BTCD is also working to improve water quality by […]
Forest investments must be continuous Despite the two largest wildfires in Colorado’s history burning more than 400,000 acres in Northern Colorado in 2020 there is still plenty of work that needs to be done to prevent the occurrence of future severe wildfires. The Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS) reports approximately 10% of Colorado’s 24 million acres of forest […]
Autumn Wildfires: A Curse and a Blessing The Cameron Peak and East Troublesome wildfires impacted more than 400,000 acres and encompassed over 625 square miles in the autumn of 2020. The timing of those fires were both a curse and a blessing. Late season wildfires such as these feed off of drier and more abundant […]
A Close Call for Estes Park, Colorado All eyes turned to Estes Park, Colorado on October 21, 2020 when the East Troublesome Fire, which originated west of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) near Grand Lake, jumped the continental divide and began moving eastward. Due to the location of the spot fie, multiple evacuation orders were […]
Peaks to People is pleased to announce that the 250-acre Pole Hill forest health project in the Big Thompson watershed is underway. We are co-funding this project with substantial funds also coming from the Natural Resource Conservation Service Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Northern Water and the Colorado State Forest Service. This project is located […]
The year of 1910 was one of the driest in recorded History. More than five million acres burned in the United States. Three million of those acres were torched in only two short days during the Great Fire. At least 85 lives were lost, 78 of them fallen fire fighters. An estimated 7.5 billion board […]