Summary by Katie McGrath Novak, Colorado Forest Health Council Member serving as “an individual employed by or associated with a forest collaborative organization”
This document summarizes points from the October 30th, 2024 Colorado Forest Health Council quarterly meeting that I believe are most relevant to Colorado’s place-based forest collaboratives. It is an interpretation of discussions from the meeting, but is not an official Forest Health Council document.
Additional resources:
- Meeting recording (coming soon!)
- 2024 Colorado Forest Health Council Annual Report
- 2024 Recommendations from forest collaboratives to the Colorado Forest Health Council
- Additional resources from the Colorado Forest Collaboratives Network (not official Colorado Forest Health Council resources):
- Colorado Forest Collaboratives Network (CFCN) resource page: Keeping up with the Colorado Forest Health Council
New Members Appointed to the CFHC
The CFHC welcomed two new governor-appointed members:
- Madelene McDonald – Watershed Scientist, Denver Water – to serve as “a member employed by a water supplier, including a municipal drinking water supplier and an irrigation water supplier, east of the continental divide.”
- Lyn Elliott – Vice President of State and Government Relations, American Property Casualty Insurance Association – to serve as “a member employed by or associated with the insurance industry.”
Colorado Outdoors Strategy
Speakers:
- Alison Lerch (Forest Health & Wildfire Mitigation Program Manager, Colorado Department of Natural Resources)
- Jody Kennedy (Regional Partnership Program Manager, Colorado Parks and Wildlife)
- Julie Shapiro (Senior Policy Director & Director of Center for Natural Resources, Keystone Policy Center)
About the Colorado Outdoors Strategy
- Initiated in 2020 via Executive Order by Governor Polis
- Vision: The Colorado Outdoors Strategy ensures future where our outdoors, people, community character, and way of life endure for generations to come.
- The Outdoors Strategy is a regionally rooted, statewide vision and action plan for conservation, outdoor recreation, and climate resilience.
The speakers emphasized that the Outdoors Strategy is designed as a tool / guiding star for partners to use, while allowing plenty of room for local community character and differences to shine through.
Three overarching goals of the Colorado Outdoors Strategy (in no particular order because all are interrelated, equally important, and affect one another):
- Climate-resilient conservation and restoration
- Exceptional and sustainable outdoor recreation
- Coordinated planning and funding
The strategy also includes data, mapping tools, and resources.
A comment period for the draft strategy closed on October 22nd; the draft is now under revision and the full strategy is expected to be launched in early 2025.
Learn more about the Colorado Outdoors Strategy:
- Visit the Colorado Outdoors Strategy webpage
- Read the DRAFT strategy (currently under revision): Full draft | Executive Summary
Q&A / Discussion
- Q: I didn’t see much related to river recreation in the presentation or in the advisory team representation.
- A: This falls under an example of things that regional partnerships are encouraged to consider at the regional level.
- Comment: I see opportunity to connect the CFHC’s Forest Resilience Planning Guide to the Colorado Outdoors Strategy, particularly as a resource for newly forming Regional Partnerships and as a resource for funders to understand how best support partnerships at different stages.
- Q: It is difficult to strike the balance between not being overly prescriptive, and allowing plenty of customization to local contexts, while also allowing enough prescriptiveness to make it a meaningful north star statewide.
- A: The strategy includes milestones, goals, and metrics that will be applied at a statewide level. State funders are also looking to the Colorado Outdoors Strategy so the funding piece will likely add some incentive.
- Q: How do the regional partnerships work together with other collaboratives (for example: Forest Collaboratives)? When do they convene together? What are they working toward together?
- A: We are aware of meeting/collaboration fatigue and hope that the Outdoors Strategy will provide enough direction that these groups can broadly align their goals and interests without creating too much additional workload.
Prescribed Fire Subcommittee Update
Speakers:
- Katie McGrath Novak (Coordinator, Colorado Forest Collaboratives Network)
- Jody Shadduck-McNally (Larimer County Commissioner)
About the Prescribed Fire Subcommittee
In 2023, members of the Colorado Fire Commission extended an invitation for members of the Colorado Forest Health Council to join forces in a joint Prescribed Fire Subcommittee. The Subcommittee now includes members of both the Colorado
Fire Commission and the Colorado Forest Health Council, as well as other statewide leaders in prescribed fire, fuels mitigation, and forest health. The purpose of the Prescribed Fire Subcommittee is “to better prepare Colorado’s fire service and communities for prescribed fire and to develop a stronger understanding of how Colorado’s fire service views and communicates with the public about prescribed fire.”
About the Colorado Prescribed Fire Strategic Plan
In 2024, the Colorado Fire Commission asked the Prescribed Fire Subcommittee to prepare a statewide strategy for prescribed fire. The Subcommittee, in partnership with Peak Facilitation, hosted five workshops to gather ideas from forestry and fire professionals across Colorado about policy, permitting, training, funding, and other needed changes. The strategic plan will shape near- and long-term recommendations for statewide impact to the Colorado State Legislature, the Division of Fire Prevention and Control, the Colorado State Forest Service, and the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.
NOTE FOR COLLABORATIVES: In February, Katie McGrath Novak presented recommendations from the Colorado Forest Collaboratives Network to the CFHC. One of these recommendations was: Continue and expand work to remove barriers to prescribed fire implementation in Colorado in order to make it a more readily accessible tool for practitioners.
As part of this recommendation, we listed four key barriers already identified by members of collaboratives from conversations and survey responses. These were:
- Costs and lack of clarity around liability insurance
- Strict smoke and air quality restrictions causing limited burn windows
- Workforce challenges
- Need to allow federal agency burners to work on private lands and/or expand support for non-governmental burners
We have brought representatives from place-based collaboratives to the CFHC and prescribed fire subcommittee multiple times to speak on prescribed fire implementation barriers; Daniel Bowker (Forests Program Manager, Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed) presented to the prescribed fire subcommittee in October 2023 and again to the CFHC Legislative Committee in March 2024, and Corrina Marshall (Coordinator, Northern Colorado Fireshed Collaborative) spoke to the prescribed fire subcommittee in October 2023.
These initial presentations from collaboratives helped shape the design of the strategic planning workshops, and many of the key points from collaboratives were confirmed and expanded on in the workshops.
Overview of Initial Findings from the Strategic Planning Workshops
In workshop registration, registrants were asked to list key barriers to getting prescribed fire on the ground in Colorado. Then, in the workshops, participants generated specific recommendations under each of the key barrier themes. Below are some of the themes that the subcommittee identified as most urgent and important.
Key barrier theme: Liability
Most urgent/important recommendations generated from workshop participants:
- Establish a Colorado prescribed fire claims fund that offers coverage for certified burners, trainees, and landowners for prescribed fire on non-federal lands. (Legislative)
- Clarify definitions and coverage for existing liability coverage. (Legislative)
- Establish a legal framework to allow for shared or pooled insurance and liability coverage. (Legislative)
- Enable qualified agency employees (public and private) to plan and implement prescribed fire on non-federal lands. (Legislative? Administrative?)
Key barrier theme: Treatment Coordination
Most urgent/important recommendations generated from workshop participants:
Establish an annual DFPC budget line item and funding to support expanded prescribed fire planning and implementation by and in cooperation with collaboratives, local agencies, and prescribed burn associations (PBAs). (Legislative)
Create and distribute reference resources to support and facilitate coordination of treatments, such as cross-agency agreement templates and sample burn and mitigation plans that account for participation by multiple entities. (DFPC/Administrative)
Establish a Colorado prescribed task force to support prescribed fire implementation by others and to provide rapid response to implement prescribed fire when and where opportunities and weather align. (DFPC/Administrative)
Key barrier theme: Public and Political Outreach
Most urgent/important recommendations generated from workshop participants:
Develop and make widely available a database and map of completed and planned prescribed fire events, as well as a living map of active and near-future events with anticipated smoke impact areas. (DFPC/Administrative)
Key barrier theme: Permitting
Most urgent/important recommendations generated from workshop participants:
- Establish a maximum timeframe for issuance of permits–smoke? air curtain? (Legislative)
- Establish exemptions from permitting requirements for prescribed fire burns of a certain maximum size or in locations that are within federal air quality attainment standards. (Legislative)
Key barrier theme: Training and Certification
Most urgent/important recommendations generated from workshop participants:
Establish a research program to identify why people do or do not burn after they have received the Colorado certified burner class. (DFPC/Admin)
The presentation also included less urgent/important recommendations generated by workshop participants.
To read these, check out the presentation slides.
Next steps for the Colorado Prescribed Fire Strategic Plan
The team at Peak Facilitation is currently drafting a preliminary strategic plan framework and strategies. Toward the end of 2024, the subcommittee will review and provide feedback on the draft. Peak Facilitation will review the plan, and the Colorado Fire Commission will vote to finalize the plan in their January 16th, 2025 meting.
The plan will be finalized and ready for distribution at the end of January 2025.
Legislative Committee Update
Speaker: Jody Shadduck-McNally, Committee Chair, Larimer County Commissioner
Update on 2025 CFHC legislative priorities:
A bill for Forestry and Firefighter Workforce Development and Education went forward
NOTE FOR COLLABORATIVES: In February, Katie McGrath Novak presented recommendations from the Colorado Forest Collaboratives Network to the CFHC. One of these recommendations was: Building on the CFHC’s successful 2022 recommendation on workforce development, continue to advocate for and expand workforce capacity in Colorado.
In March, Chiara Forrester (Forest Program Director, The Watershed Center) and Daniel Bowker (Forests Program Manager, Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed) presented on a few of the recommendations from a place-based perspective. Chiara shared a presentation on the importance of forestry workforce development. This bill is partially inspired by that presentation!
Additional Legislative Committee presentations & next steps
The committee also had presentations on woody biomass and watershed health. Friday, November 1st will be the last presentation before the committee moves to discussion meetings to identify priorities moving forward and inform the next round of recommendations.
Forest Resilience Planning Guide
Speaker: Laura Hickey, Program Manager, CDR Associates
About the Colorado Forest Resilience Planning Guide
In 2023, the Leveraging Resources Committee passed a recommendation to create a Colorado Forest Resilience Planning Guide. Initially inspired by the Colorado Post-Fire Playbook, the committee ultimately determined two key purposes for this Guide:
- For local agencies, large landowners, and place-based collaboratives to…
- improve forest management coordination at the county-and-larger scale
- identify how to make collaboration more robust and resilient
- more effectively leverage resources
- For program managers, policymakers, and funding agencies to…
- better understand collaborative planning approaches
- inform program and policy development
- more effectively communicate with practitioners
The guide draws on numerous resources, including the Collaborative Readiness Framework, to identify 15 actionable steps to creating a community Forest Resilience Plan. Each action is intended to stand alone and be adapted based on local factors; users do not have to work through every action in order.
Guide Overview
The guide is nearly in its final form. Laura Hickey gave an overview of the guide. The best way to view this information is to check out Laura’s presentation slides.
When will the guide be ready?
The CFHC will vote to officially approve the final draft of the Guide at our first quarterly meeting of 2025 (date TBD; probably January/February). Stay tuned!
CFHC 30-Year Vision
Speaker: Rebecca Samulski (Executive Director, Fire Adapted Colorado)
About the CFHC 30-Year Vision & Visioning Process so far
One of the CFHC’s statutory duties, according to the legislation that created the CFHC, is: “Development of, and recommendations for, attaining a thirty-year vision for forest health in Colorado, including developing goals and both annual and multi-year recommendations for actions to improve forest health and reduce fire risk through increased funding and capacity building.”
In 2024, Rebecca Samulski from Fire Adapted Colorado has led the CFHC through a visioning process. We started with a survey to understand what components CFHC members would like to see in a 30-year vision for forest health in Colorado, then Rebecca led us through a visioning workshop on October 16th.
Draft Vision
In this meeting, Rebecca shared a draft vision statement featuring 5 overarching themes for forest health in Colorado, followed by a description of each theme. The draft vision also included a visual component illustrated by Heartwood Visuals.
The vision is currently under refinement based on feedback from this meeting. A final vision is expected in early 2025.
2024 CFHC Annual Report
Each year the CFHC releases an annual report summarizing its work and recommendations from the year. Click here to read the 2024 Annual Report.
2025 CFHC Priorities
Members of the CFHC were asked to complete a survey ranking the importance of each of the Council’s statutory duties in order of importance. Below are the results:
Discussion
Upon further discussion, members of the CFHC noticed that the two highest-ranked priorities (strategy development for growing capacity, and landscape-scale state priorities) were broad, and that all of the four lower-ranked categories fed into making the top two categories happen. Because each council member represents a specific audience, it makes sense that the broader topics are agreed upon by all, while the more specific topics are more fragmented.
Ultimately the CFHC decided to use this poll as a reminder that all members’ perspectives need to come together to support the broad goals of growing capacity and landscape-scale priorities, but no topics should be excluded from CFHC focus since all are important to achieving big-picture goals.
Roundtable Updates
Katie McGrath Novak, serving as an individual employed or associated with a forest collaborative organization
The 2024 Colorado Forest Collaboratives Summit happened in September and collaboratives generated recommendations for agency leadership. I’ll share these with the Council.
Christina Burri, Colorado State Forest Service (standing in for Director Matt McCombs)
State agency and political leadership toured a biomass plant in Fort Lupton, CO last week. One topic they shared was about the Upper South Platte Partnership. Senator Bennet was particularly interested in hearing from industry professionals about barriers to their work.
Additionally, construction on the new State Forest Service Nursery began this month. It is expected to take about 2 years.
Director Matt McCombs was unable to attend the CFHC meeting because he was attending the 1st annual Colorado Mass Timber Coalition Conference.
Julie Stencel, serving as an individual employed by a public utility that owns or operates transmission facilities
Building on past updates about Xcel Energy’s Pano AI cameras designed to assist with early wildfire detection, Julie shared that there are now 42 camera sites in Colorado.
Madelene McDonald, serving as an individual employed by a water supplier, including a municipal drinking water supplier and an irrigation water supplier, east of the continental divide
A team has begun convening to update the Colorado Post-Fire Playbook.
Jody Shadduck-McNally, serving as a county commissioner east of the continental divide
Wildfire and insurance topics have been major topics among county commissioners recently, particularly at meetings of Colorado Counties Incorporated (CCI) and Colorado Counties Acting Together (CCAT).
If conditions allow, Rocky Mountain National Park plans to conduct a ~300-acre prescribed burn near Estes Park on Saturday, November 2nd.
Director Dan Gibbs, Executive Director of the Department of Natural Resources & CFHC Chair
November 1st is a big day for state government employees – this is the day the governor submits the budget!
The Colorado Strategic Wildfire Action Program deadline for submission is also Friday, November 1st. [the CFCN did a Branching Out session on this – you can watch it here]
The Colorado Strategic Wildfire Action Program is partnering with the Colorado Water Conservation Board on the next round of Wildfire Ready Watershed Landscape Resilience Investment Grants.
Getting involved with the Colorado Forest Health Council
Attend meetings | All Forest Health Council meetings are open to the public and have a segment for public comment toward the end of the meeting.
Agenda and Zoom link will be posted on the Forest Health Council webpage at least 24 hours ahead of the meeting. The Colorado Forest Collaboratives Network will also distribute meeting information when we receive it.
Meeting summaries | The CFCN compiles summaries like this, along with other relevant resources, on our page Keeping Up With the Colorado Forest Health Council.
Contact | Katie McGrath Novak, Coordinator, Colorado Forest Collaboratives Network; Forest Health Council member serving as “an individual employed by or associated with a forest collaborative organization”
