2024 Colorado Forest Collaboratives Summit: Summary & Resources

Colorado Forest Resilience Planning Guide (Laura Hickey, Program Associate, CDR Associates) 

In 2023, the Colorado Forest Health Council passed a recommendation to create the Colorado Forest Resilience Planning Guide. This document is primarily geared toward local government and community-level, while being broadly understandable to a range of stakeholders interested in advancing pre-fire planning and building forest health resiliency. The document aims to guide Colorado communities through: 

• Identifying their own needs to promote resilient forests 

• Connecting with key organizations to collaboratively develop objectives and priorities around those needs 

• Narrowing which tools, activities, and technical and financial resources can be leveraged and combined them to accomplish their unique plans 

CDR Associates was hired to create the Guide. Earlier in 2024, CDR Associates hosted a series of focus groups to gather feedback on the basic framework of the Guide, crowdsource tips and common challenges faced when planning and coordinating forest management strategies.  

Colorado Café session 

In the Colorado Café session, Laura Hickey of CDR Associates outlined what the Guide is, it’s progress to that point, and takeaways from the focus groups. Then, she opened up to discussion with the group. A few discussion points included: 

• Someone expressed surprise that the Guide mainly focuses on collaboration, rather than on technical aspects. For example, there is no shared definition for ‘forest resilience’ in the Guide. Laura shared that the Guide aims to strike a balance between being prescriptive and flexible. The hope is that place-based groups can define forest resilience for themselves, and define their scope based on local values and opportunities. 

• Someone suggested that the Guide include tips for navigating project ownership types and partnership durations. 

• Another person noted that the Guide could be a useful tool for revisiting an existing work plan and making changes. This could be for anyone wanting to do a regular check-in, but could be particularly useful for someone stepping into a new role coordinating a collaborative that has been around for a long time. 

The Colorado Forest Resilience Planning Guide is expected to be completed and finalized by the Colorado Forest Health Council in early 2025. 

Central Colorado Forest Collaborative (Esther Duke, Chief Operations Office, Coalitions & Collaboratives, Inc. & Jennifer Peterson, Partnership Coordinator, US Forest Service) 

The Wildfire Crisis Strategy landscape rolled out quickly with a mandate for shared stewardship and collaboration, leading to the creation of the CCFC. Convened by Coalitions and Collaboratives, Inc., the CCFC now finds themselves in an interesting space of trying to meet urgent needs of federal partners while also trying to build a strong foundation for collaboration through shared priority mapping, developing mission/vision/strategy, engaging stakeholder meetings, etc. 

“The Central Colorado Forest Collaborative’s (CCFC) purpose is to foster collaboration that enhances wildfire resilience, leveraging resources and expertise to reduce risk for communities and natural landscapes.  To achieve this, the CCFC’s mission is to create resilient landscapes, watersheds, and communities through collaborative, cross-boundary fuels and forest health projects.” (from the Coalitions & Collaboratives CCFC webpage) 

A few key takeaways from the discussion included: 

• Process can overpower projects sometimes!  

• Creating an overly-complex organizational structure too soon can limit creativity and efficiency; it’s better to start simple and adjust the structure as you grow. 

• People need to see progress, especially in the beginning – too many meetings up front can wear people out. 

• How to maintain autonomy of place-based organization when overarching collaboratives form / federal opportunities arise? 

• Create funding structures that can adapt to changing funding landscape 

• Top-down opportunities should be framed as good opportunities to support bottom-up momentum 

• Collaboration works when everyone cares about the same issue 

• Collaboratives should avoid mission-creep; stay focused on the common issue 

• Build trust through communication and local stories that contribute to a larger narrative 

• Tips for setting your meetings up for success 

• Articulate the goals and outcomes from the meeting: what’s the point? 

• Discuss everyone’s strengths and weaknesses to maximize each person’s contributions 

• Remind participants of what’s been accomplished as a result of the collaboration 

Balancing commitment to process with remaining nimble (Meg Halford, Wildfire Team Forest & Grasslands Project Coordinator, Boulder County) 

In December 2021, the Marshall Fire took Boulder County by surprise as it destroyed 1100 homes and claimed 2 lives in a suburban community that many people would not have considered at risk from wildfire. This was a wake-up call to many people about the potential for fires in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), especially in grasslands. Following this event, partners in Boulder County had to react quickly to the sudden shift in focus toward urban/grassland fires. Meg Halford shared how partners came together to nimbly address new concerns while still staying committed to a robust collaborative process. Within a year, Boulder County had passed two ballot measures, including a 0.1% wildfire mitigation tax that helped them launch multiple new programs in a short period of time. 

Key points from discussion: How do you adapt, react, and remain productive while effectively partnering with a lot of ‘cooks in the kitchen’? 

• It’s important for all partners to have an agreed-upon vision of what ‘success’ looks like for the group – without this shared vision of success at a strategic level, collaboration will break down in the implementation phase. 

• It’s important to have a strong leader or facilitator to walk the group through difficult times, like a major event that affects the shared purpose of the group. 

• Sometimes being nimble means listening and giving people space. 

• It can be helpful to have discussions and exercises to walk through what might happen in the case of a major event. Though you can’t plan for everything, discussions and exercises can help the group think ahead about how to be nimble and adaptive when something unexpected happens. 

Storytelling, audience, and communicating about your work (Alex Handloff, Collaborative Communications Manager, Mountain Studies Institute) 

This session began with a round robin introduction of participants and why they chose to come to this topic, and then moved into sharing success stories and advice about storytelling. Here are some of the tips participants shared: 

• To make other people care, show them why you care. 

• Connect the topics to emotions. Embrace your human-ness! 

• Rather than making an assumption about what people want or need to learn, ask them what questions they have or what they’re interested in learning about! 

• Demonstrate hope and positivity. 

• Consider the platforms that your target audience is most likely to engage with. 

• Multi-generational stories can have a large impact. 

• Think about what inspires you: nostalgia, underdog stories, growth over time, emotions. 

• Pay attention to stories that move you – what was it about that story that made you feel a certain way? How can you re-create that feeling with your own story? 

• Everyone is creative! Yes, you are! You can do it! 

Partnering with government agencies (Sam Pankratz, Rocky Mountain Region Program Manager, National Forest Foundation) 

The National Forest Foundation is experienced as a ‘keystone’ federal partner for cross-boundary work. NFF is known for their ability to be more nimble with federal funds, and are becoming particularly interested in how they can help federal agencies through the ups and downs of budget cycles. In this session, Sam Pankratz described his work with NFF, and the group discussed challenges and opportunities for agencies supporting place-based groups. In discussion, groups talked through a few key topics, including:  

Timing, budgeting, and flexibility tend to be a challenge with working with government agencies due to slow contracting – how can we expedite this? 

• Contracts can leave some ambiguity about certain things, which can allow flexibility. 

• How to get elected officials to support administrative support positions within agencies (administrative support is often lacking)? 

• To help higher level positions understand challenges with funding roll-out, partners can report back on challenges with the process at the same time they report on accomplishments. 

• Empathy is needed from folks on all sides! Agency employees and non-agency partners face challenges related to agencies being understaffed and/or underfunded. 

• Building relationships with local offices and partners can open doors. 

Tips for partnering with government agencies: 

• Learn and follow the chain of command! 

• Work to understand your partners’ priorities – don’t assume, ask them! 

• Look for overlap in priorities – Agree on questions like “Why are we here and what does it look like when collaboration is done?” When possible, ask how you can help. 

• First build local relationships. Collaboratives should invite the decision makers to the table. 

How can collaboratives support agency partners?  

• Collaboratives can be a bridge between communities and agencies; they add legitimacy, particularly to community meetings 

• Collaboratives can carry agencies through inevitable turnover. 

• Is the local place-based knowledge really important? USFS is both blessed and cursed with collaboration. Do you really need to have local knowledge? Some of the creativity the USFS brings is from their attachment to the National Forest System and higher level priorities. 

• From NRCS perspective, collaboratives bring energy. 

• Do you want to partner because you want your way, or because you want to share and leverage resources and reach a mutually beneficial solution? If it’s solutions-based, agencies will be more interested in partnering. 

Indigenous collaboration (James Calabaza, Indigenous Lands Program Director; Phillip Chavez, Indigenous Lands Programs Outreach Coordinator; and Treston Chee Indigenous Lands Program Content Creator; Trees, Water, and People) 

At the Colorado Forest Collaboratives Network, we have consistently heard that collaboratives are interested in partnering more with tribes, but oftentimes folks don’t know where to begin. In this session, James, Treston, and Phillip led a discussion to understand common challenges that collaboratives face in partnering with tribes, and share tips for building meaningful relationships. Here are a few key takeaways:  

Common challenges collaboratives face in engaging with tribes: 

• When tribal engagement or consultation is mandated by an organization or agency, it can be difficult to make it feel like a mutual, meaningful relationship.  

• It can be difficult for non-governmental entities to engage with tribes when the federal agency partners are able to maintain a government-to-government relationship. 

• How do you balance diplomacy with the importance of personal relationships? 

• Finding funding mechanisms to support partnerships with tribes. 

• Integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into management plans and Community Wildfire Protection Plans. 

• Honoring data sovereignty with federal funding sources. 

Tips for effective tribal partnerships: 

• Know that building a relationship is a long-term process of building trust and learning cultural context. 

• Try to bridge the cultural gap between indigenous and non-indigenous folks; possible ways to do this include: 

• • Learn the history of the specific tribe you’re working with 

• • Know important holidays, ceremonies, etc. for the tribe you are working with, so that you can build timelines accordingly 

• • When possible, attend cultural events like powwows that are open to the public) 

• Learn the structure of that tribe’s government, and about relevant policies such as the Tribal Forest Protection Act (TFPA) and the 638 Authority. 

• Oftentimes a good initial contact may be a Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO), or a local non-governmental organization that already has an established relationship with a tribe 

• Know that working with tribes is a partnership. Like any partnership, there needs to be a clear value-add for all parties. If you’re just asking tribal partners to donate their time or knowledge, that’s not a partnership! 

• Ask tribal partners what they want to get out of an engagement opportunity 

• Take time to listen and understand with no strings attached 

• Know that some tribes may be protective of their knowledge and resources, due to past injustices. 

Colorado Mass Timber Coalition (Will Lepry, Director, Colorado Mass Timber Coalition) 

In this session, Will Lepry, the inaugural Director of the newly-launched Colorado Mass Timber Coalition (CMTC), shared background on the CMTC, what they’re up to so far, and how folks can get involved. In discussion, the group discussed what role collaboratives might play in the CMTC.  

In October 2024, the CMTC hosted its first annual conference in Fort Collins, CO with nearly 100 participants. You can read a brief recap of the conference and its associated tours here. 

The CMTC is working on a website; in the meantime, you can contact Will Lepry to learn more or be added to the mailing list! 

Wood for Life Partnership (Nick Olson, Southwest Colorado Project Coordinator, National Forest Foundation; Marly Saunders, Southwest Colorado Senior Associate, National Forest Foundation) 

About the Wood For Life Partnership: The Wood For Life Partnership formed four years ago after the closure of a few plants that had been providing affordable energy for Tribal communities. The process involves gathering logs from fuel reduction projects that would generally be considered unmerchantable, then donating the logs to wood banks that process the wood and deliver it to tribal communities to use as firewood. In the first four years, the program has supported ~1500-2000 families.  

Challenges: The process has proven to be very expensive, largely because of the high transportation costs. Additionally, the wood banks involved in the partnership have limited capacity, so there is more wood available than can be processed. There is also a shortage of qualified drivers, and paying for CDL certifications adds cost. At this time, the Wood For Life Partnership is looking for more funding sources to keep the program going, including corporate sponsors and private donors. 

You can learn more about the Wood For Life program, along with ways to get involved and donate, here: https://www.nationalforests.org/get-involved/wood-for-life