An official website of
Summary by Esther Duke, Colorado Forest Health Council Proxy Member serving in place of Katie McGrath Novak, as “an individual employed by or associated with a forest collaborative organization.”
This document summarizes points from the August 13th, 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 it is not an official Forest Health Council document.
The CFHC welcomed a new member:
Speaker: Sally Boccella (sally_boccella@hickenlooper.senate.gov), Northern Colorado Regional Director from U.S. Senator Hickenlooper’s office, provided an update (Region includes Routt, Jackson, Grand, Larimer, Boulder, and Weld counties.)
Christina Burri shared that DNR, CSFS, CPW, and City of Fort Collins visited the Michigan Ditch project yesterday. We appreciate the CDS funding that has already gone to the project. It is going to protect 11% of the drinking water supply and infrastructure for Fort Collins and other Northern CO uses. The project is looking great and there will be more phases.
Sally Boccella mentioned that the funding level was decreased, but it made it in! Sally will be visiting Jackson County on the 21st and will try to tour it.
Speaker: James Lucero
James provided a few updates on bills that have already passed.
HB24-1006: Rural Grant Navigator
Speakers: Larimer County Commissioner Jody Shadduck-McNally, James Lucero, Courtney Young, Commissioner Abe Laydon, Director Dan Gibbs, Alison Lerch
Commissioner Jody Shadduck-McNally: The committee took a break in June and is now back to meeting every 2 weeks. I always want to give thanks to the service of these members. The committee has been planning good speakers. Everyone is welcome to join these meetings. Agendas are on the website. We presented to the Wildfire Matters Review Committee in July. This committee has picked 2 of our Forest Health Council recommendations. The chair of the committee, Representative Velasco, requested a bill be drafted on the Good Neighbor Authority focusing on the statutory updates, not the funding increase. Senator Cutter requested a bill be drafted to maintain funding for wildfire programs, however the committee discussed that this effort would likely not require legislation. Senator Marchman suggested that the DNR put a budget footnote on this issue instead. Another one of the bills from the Wildfire Matters Review Committee is to reauthorize their work for their committee to continue. We will bring forward our 2027 legislative recommendations at the next quarterly meeting.
James Lucero: HB 1078 (the CSU extension and firefighter bill that this committee proposed) did not pass, but there are internal conversations on bringing some version of this back to the legislature this legislative session.
Courtney Young: We are still planning the legislative educational breakfast at the Capitol in January. Reservations will open in September. We are working through the logistics and will have more confirmation on the date and details at the next quarterly meeting.
Commissioner Abe Laydon: I am concerned that this legislature is not prioritizing wildfire mitigation issues. The educational breakfast will be so important. Douglas County launched its first biochar facility, this is the first state and national county owned biochar facility. I would like to see more conversations around biochar at the legislature, and also advocating for more statewide helicopter resources.
Director Gibbs expressed interest in visiting the facility for a tour.
Commissioner Abe Laydon: I’d also like to add a comment about insurance. A lot of our business and residences can’t get insurance because of wildfire risk. When we have these critically important measures in place like the biochar facility and helicopter, businesses can come here to have better opportunities to get insurance. We’re working with the state insurance commissioner to advance these conversations.
Alison Lerch: We will share an updated committee charter at the October meeting.
Speakers: Becca Samulski
The CFHC has worked hard under guidance from Becca Samulski with Fire Adapted Colorado to develop a 30-year vision for forest health in Colorado. At the last meeting, the council adopted the vision. Becca walked CFHC members through how the Goals and Actions for this vision will be developed.
Members discussed whether they felt comfortable assigning tasks to a certain entity without their buy-in at the beginning, and how to make sure that everyone has the capacity to be able to work on these goals and actions before assigning. How do you want these actions to be handled?
Council members expressed concern about putting people’s names down without their knowledge in this public document, because then it puts an expectation on them to follow through. And discussed how to identify who is doing what in a way that allows space for new organizations to come in.
It was suggested that the vision side should be flexible and concise. While the council can strongly encourage or direct agencies, others will have to decide to join. Thus, it was suggested that a focus on education and outreach is key. An adaptive approach was also suggested to check in on agencies and resources. Members felt that it is less about assigning and more about identifying who can be a resource. Creation of a special committee was considered and decided against because the consensus was that this should be done with paid staff support rather than by committee.
Members agreed that the hope is to set this vision as the goal posts for everyone in the state to work towards together.
Speaker: Amy Moyer (Temporary Chair: Leveraging Resources Committee)
Speaker: Carolyn Wagner, Co-Executive Director and Data Manager & Josh Kuehn, Wildfire Mitigation Specialist, WiRē Center
Since the 30-year vision contains Mindset and Culture Shift as an area of focus, WiRE was invited to present to the CFHC on the current mindset and culture of Coloradans. WiRe, has conducted surveys across many communities in Colorado and shared their insights in the presentation linked above.
An interesting follow-up question and response:
Director Gibbs: Have you explored doing a statewide survey?
Hannah Brenkert (WiRe): When I started this work 20 years ago, I was a traditional researcher. I took a random sampling from the western/fire prone region of Boulder and Larimer counties. We could summarize the data on a county level, but not a community level. Most of the actions are implemented at the community level, which is why we focus on this scale now. We have had enough consistency over the years that we are able to tell nuanced stories of different communities across Colorado.
Speaker: Megan Maxwell, Executive Director, Colorado Timber Industry Association
The Colorado Timber Industry Association is an expert on the timber industry here in Colorado. Presenter Megan Maxwell, Executive Director for CTIA, shared an update on the state of the industry and then answered questions from the Council. Biomass utilization opportunities is another theme within the 30-Year Vision, so this presentation provided an opportunity for council members to learn more about the current state, challenges, and opportunities for our state’s timber industry.
Christina Burri, Colorado State Forest Service
Shoutout to DNR and the COSWAP team for an amazing Michigan Ditch tour yesterday. Our nursery is still underway and on track for a Feb/March opening. The nursery manager position is posted, please encourage candidates to apply. CSFS has had leadership discussions on planning for USDA reorg, nothing concrete at this time.
Rebecca Stokes, US Forest Service
There is an open public comment period on the reorganization plan until August 26. There are 5 USDA hubs; Fort Collins is one of them. All of the research stations will be condensed to the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Fort Collins. All of the regional offices will be gone once we have a plan within a year.
Esther Duke, Colorado Forest Collaboratives Network
Colorado Forest Collaboratives Summit is scheduled for Sept 17 & 18 in Golden (link to registration).
Julie Stencel, Xcel Energy
Xcel received approval from the public utilities commission for its wildfire mitigation plan. We’re excited to move the plan forward.
Director Dan Gibbs, Executive Director of the Department of Natural Resources & CFHC Chair
The Governor has called a special session starting August 21 to look at the $1 billion shortfall. He also announced a hiring freeze for state employees, except for life and safety or critical operational positions and TABOR funded positions. The COSWAP Workforce Development grant will open next month to fund projects for the next two years including conservation corps and SWIFT crews as well as mitigation training.
Colorado’s Outdoor Strategy was announced a few months ago and we are working towards the development of this with our partners. GOCO invested $50 million towards this implementation through a new grant program available to regional partnerships. Another key component of our Colorado Outdoor Strategy implementation plan is a list of inter-agency actions – of which the actions of this group are integrally incorporated, particularly within the strategies restoration goals.
Lastly, the DNR has been working with a coalition of nonprofits and the Department of Defense to establish a new Sentinel Landscape Designation around the greater Colorado Springs area. This would be the first Sentinel Landscape designation in Colorado and just one of a handful of designations in the west. Wildfire mitigation is one of the top priorities identified by the CO Springs area military installations which would be covered by this new designation and we anticipate a new designation would help spur more targeted wildfire mitigation work in the area. Our letter of interest was approved and we are now in the process of developing our final application, which is due November 14th.
Attend meetings | Next meeting: February 11th, 2026 | 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 McNovak, Coordinator, Colorado Forest Collaboratives Network; Forest Health Council member serving as “an individual employed by or associated with a forest collaborative organization”
