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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 April 30th, 2025 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.
The CFHC welcomed a new member:
Speaker: Andre Redstone, Founder and Co-Owner of Redstones Timber Homes and Manufacturing
Following our field trip visit at Redstones Timber Homes and Manufacturing the day before, Andre Redstone encouraged the CFHC to seek opportunities to advocate for and support a sustainable, viable, healthy timber industry. He emphasized that forest health cannot be achieved without the timber industry.
Click here to learn more about the innovative work being done at Redstones Timber Homes and Manufacturing.
Speaker: James Lucero
The 2023 CFHC Annual Report included 4 administrative recommendations to the leaders of Colorado State Forest Service, Department of Fire Prevention and Control, and Department of Natural Resources, as well as for consideration by Governor Polis.
James updated us on the status of two of these recommendations (the other two recommendations have been completed already).
Recommendation 1: “The Legislative Committee asks CSFS to convene a forum or meeting around adaptive silviculture, Vapor Pressure Deficit changes, and how this impacts the future health of our forests and what measures for mitigation actions we should consider.”
April 2025 Update: James worked with partners at Colorado State University to identify key experts and discuss what this might look like moving forward. They could bring speakers into a CFHC quarterly meeting to present on these topics, but there is debate over whether this is still one of the CFHC’s top priorities in 2025, and if an hourlong presentation during a quarterly meeting would accomplish much.
Discussion:
Recommendation #3: “The Legislative Committee recommends DNR and CSFS work with USFS to negotiate the ability for NGOs and state agencies to reforest USFS lands under Shared Stewardship or Good Neighbor Authority-type agreements. Also, state agencies lobby federal partners to expedite NEPA for post-fire reforestation projects.”
2025 Update: Progress on this recommendation has stalled, as CSFS staff have run into barriers with advocating for something like this while staying within the chain of command (their own agency’s chain of command and partners agencies’ chains of command).
Speaker: James Lucero
NOTE: The updates below were current as of meeting time on April 30th, 2025. Things move quickly in the legislative process, so please click the links for the most up-to-date information on each!
Senate Bill 25-007: Increase Prescribed Burns | Concerning support to increase prescribed burns, and, in connection therewith, making an appropriation
This bill originally would have authorized a $1 million transfer from the general fund to create a prescribed fire claims fund. It later decreased to $250,000, and ultimately was amended to remove any funding.
Currently, the fund would be funded entirely by gifts, grants, and donations; however, the bill text does allow for future legislators to authorize state dollars for this claims fund (it doesn’t always have to be gifts, grants, and donations).
Senate Bill 25-011: Detection Components for Wildfire Mitigation | Concerning the use of artificial-intelligence-enabled detection components to mitigate wildfires.
This bill initially sought to create a public/private partnership with Department of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC). It was then proposed to be moved into a Colorado State Forest Service grant program, but that was not going to work. In its current form, the program back with DFPC but does not have funding associated with it.
SB25-142: Changes to Wildfire Resiliency Code Board | Concerning changes to the wildfire resiliency code board’s code implementation requirements.
This bill was originally going to change the code board membership. In a change, they changed the bill, now keeping membership the same. Currently, changes are being made to extend compliance timelines and allow government bodies (such as special districts) to help with compliance documents.
HB25-1078: Forestry & Firefighter Workforce & Education | Concerning workforce development in natural resources.
The CFHC has been tracking this bill closely, because it included one of the legislative recommendations from the CFHC 2024 Annual Report (Forestry career pathway awareness for students | Expand forestry career pathway awareness in middle schools and high schools. Page 11-12 of annual report).
In the past few months, the CFHC / Extension bill was merged with another bill on firefighter training and workforce development, for a total proposed cost of $1.2 million.
Then, last week, the whole Extension part of the bill got taken out.
Speaker: Larimer County Commissioner Jody Shadduck-McNally
The Legislative Committee is planning an educational breakfast at the state Capitol, to take place in January 2026. The date is TBD, but will likely be during the last 2 weeks of the month.
The committee is seeking presentation topic ideas to support development of the next round of legislative recommendations.
The CFHC voted to allow the Legislative Committee to engage with federal policy, pending approval from the legal team to make sure this is allowed.
Speakers: Carlee Brown (Senior Policy Advisor for Senator Hickenlooper) and Lisa Pool (Regional Director for Senator Hickenlooper)
Staff from Senator Hickenlooper’s office shared updates on the most recent version of the Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA). They shared updates to the bill, made in the senate in a bipartisan effort with partners from Utah, Montana, and California.
Click here to read the Senate version of the FOFA.
Click here to read a recent press release from Senator Hickenlooper’s office about the bill.
Speaker: Katie McGrath Novak
New outreach materials available for the Colorado Forest Resilience Planning Guide!
Discussion:
Speaker: Rebecca Samulski
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.”
At this meeting, the CFHC voted to approve the final draft of the vision! Check it out below, and/or click here for a downloadable version!
CFHC members went into breakout groups to brainstorm specific actions to include under each piece of the 2055 Vision, addressing the remaining portion of the statutory duty, “including developing goals and both annual and multi-year recommendations for actions to improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk through increased funding and capacity building.” (Breakout rooms not summarized – there will be more discussion on next steps in our October meeting).
Speakers: Katie McGrath Novak & Jody Shadduck-McNally
We shared a summary of key takeaways from the new Colorado Statewide Strategy for Prescribed Fire on Non-Federal Lands.
The easiest way to get these takeaways is to check out the slides or read the Strategy.
Katie McGrath Novak presented key takeaways from a CFCN All-Partners Meeting where collaboratives across Colorado shared both positive and negative impacts to their work as a result of recent federal funding changes and federal initiatives.
For a recap of the presentation, you can read these blog posts:
Impacts Of Federal Funding Changes On Colorado’s Forest Collaboratives & Communities
Where Do We Go From Here? How Collaboratives Are Looking To The Future, And How To Support Them
And/or, check out the slides from the presentation here.
This presentation teed up our roundtable updates, where council members were asked to share how federal changes are impacting their sectors, whether they have or need any resources, and anything else the Council should know.
Christina Burri, Colorado State Forest Service (standing in for Director Matt McCombs)
The Forest Restoration and Wildfire Risk Mitigation (FRWRM) grant program received 100 applications in the 2024-2025 cycle, totaling more than $25 million in requests, and CSFS was only able to award $8 million. Collaboratives across Colorado look to FRWRM as a funding source and it is stretched thin.
Kevin Khung, US Forest Service
The USFS has been focusing on implementing Secretary’s Memorandum 1078-006: Increasing Timber Production and Designating an Emergency Situation on National Forest System Lands.
The memo calls for a 25% increase in timber production, but does not give additional capacity (funding or workforce) to the USFS to meet this goal. The USFS is working to strengthen collaborative partnerships and with industry partners, to achieve this goal.
There has been an emphasis on Good Neighbor Authority and using emergency designations.
Patt Dorsey, serving as an individual employed by or associated with a wildlife organization
The Rocky Mountain Restoration Initiative is holding a Lunch and Learn on May 6th, featuring a showing of the film Fireforest and a panel with Evan Barrientos, Christina Burri, Shawna Legarza, and Aaron Kimple.
Clyde Church, serving as a county commissioner west of the continental divide
The Colorado Strategic Wildfire Action Program (COSWAP) has been essential to work that La Plata County is doing in support of water supply and watershed health for Durango.
Veronica Medina, serving as a county commissioner west of the continental divide
Commissioners Medina and Brown of Archuleta County met with Congressman Jeff Hurd recently, and again back in March, to share the impacts of USFS layoffs locally. Congressman Hurd has been helpful in telling the story of how staffing shortages make it difficult to act on new executive orders around timber production. Additionally, he helped reinstate more than $1 million in funds so that Wildfire Adapted Partnership could fulfill payments on contracts for work that had already been completed.
Commissioner Medina emphasized the importance of storytelling to policymakers in order to see changes locally.
Jody Shadduck-McNally, serving as a county commissioner east of the continental divide
Larimer County has seen impacts from federal funding freezes including frozen grants, some which have been un-frozen but others that remain frozen. Examples include $9.7 million Community Wildfire Defense Grant (which has since been un-frozen) and an $800,000 emergency services building that got pulled from the budget. Questions remain on the status of disaster recovery response.
Brett Wolk, serving as an individual employed by a research institution and who has forest policy expertise
The Colorado Forest Tracker has officially launched! Click here to view the Forest Tracker, and/or read a press release about the Forest Tracker here.
Don’t forget to submit your data!
Director Dan Gibbs, Executive Director of the Department of Natural Resources & CFHC Chair
The DNR has 350 federal grants, which include funding for 490 employees. DNR also received federal funding for monitoring through the Bureau of Reclamation and FEMA. Some reimbursements have continued on as usual, others have not.
$400 million nationwide cut to Americorps is impacting Colorado, particularly through DNR’s Colorado Strategic Wildfire Action Program (COSWAP) which utilizes youth corps. The Governor’s office filed a lawsuit to challenge this cut.
DNR is working on a Shared Stewardship MOU with the Bureau of Land Management.
$8.4 million in COSWAP money has been allocated in 2025 for 19 wildfire mitigation projects across Colorado. Read more in this press release. A few success stories so far include a prescribed fire training exchange in Greeley hosted by the Ember Alliance, and 60 acres of helicopter logging through Denver Mountain Parks.
The Colorado Outdoors Strategy has officially launched!
Attend meetings | Next meeting: August 13th, 2024 | 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”
