Watersheds and Wildfires

From the White House’s Champions of Change Blog:

Jonathan Bruno is being honored as a Individual and Community Preparedness Champion of Change.

I grew up in a home overlooking the North Branch of the Winooski River in central Vermont. Each spring, as the winter snow melted and the temperatures climbed, my brother and I would wait anxiously for our father to announce that it was time to “move some rocks,” which to me meant swimming. As we’d splash in the clear waters, my father would spend hours clearing the boulders that had filled his swimming hole during the spring floods. As a kid, “moving rocks” was part of summer. As I grew older, I came to see dad’s underwater rock wrestling matches as a reminder that the river I loved as a boy is part of the global system that we interact with every day.

For more than a decade, I have worked in natural resource protection through the Coalition for the Upper South Platte (CUSP). With 27 staff and 6,500 annual volunteers, we work to balance the diverse needs and interests of Coloradans, serving more than 75% of our state’s residents by protecting our 2,600-square-mile watershed located in Colorado’s central Front Range. With mounting research demonstrating the global impacts of local wildfires, watershed protection demands a multimodal action approach, including fire prevention. Proper land management saves lives, money, and resources.

Two recent fires alone – Waldo Canyon in 2012 and Black Forest in 2013 – resulted in over $750 million dollars in insurance claims and greatly harmed the surrounding natural environment. These and other devastating Colorado wildfires spurred the creation of the Wildfire Insurance and Forest Health Task Force, which was designed to make recommendations aimed at lessening the impacts from fire, especially in wildland-urban interfaces (WUI), the zones of transition between unoccupied land and human development. The recommendations included an assessment of where to build and how to build so that our communities won’t be put in harm’s way. We must ensure that homeowners understand that living and building in the WUI, or deep in the forest, means that their homes could become tinderboxes when fire encroaches. While I still believe that the burden for action and property protection ultimately falls on the homeowner, the responsibility to take action falls upon everyone, and we must all be willing to take accountability and ownership over our communities.

Everyone is impacted by the way our natural resources are used, as well as how they are protected. From the river I swam in as a young boy in Vermont to the watershed I now work to enhance, protection of these resources starts with the local community. That includes property owners, local officials, land managers, and people like me who want to ensure safe and healthy communities. Wildfire issues, as well as many other environmental and societal challenges, are far too large to be solved by a single individual, office, or agency. We must be willing to accept that global problems are problems for all of us, and that solutions are possible when – and only when – we address these issues together.

Jonathan Bruno is the Chief Operating Officer for the Coalition for the Upper South Platte, a non-profit whose mission is to protect the water quality and ecologic health of the Upper South Platte Watershed through the cooperative efforts of watershed stakeholders, with emphasis on community values and economic sustainability. To learn more about how to prepare and protect your community from wildfire visit – www.fireadapted.org.

CUSP Receives FEMA’s Community Preparedness Hero Award

FEMA_Jonathan Bruno FEMA_Group Photo

The Coalition for the Upper South Platte (CUSP) is honored to be a recipient of a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Community Preparedness Hero Award for our work to reduce wildfire risk in our communities and for preparing communities for post-fire flooding in the aftermath of the 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire.

FEMA’s 2014 Individual and Community Preparedness Awards recognize the outstanding efforts of individuals, programs and organizations throughout the country working to prepare their communities for emergencies. CUSP was recognized for preparing communities for the next wildfire by proactively working with partners to reduce wildfire risk within our wildland-urban interface, and quickly partnering with businesses, individuals, government agencies, and other organizations to mobilize resources to prepare communities in and around the Waldo Canyon Fire for post-fire impacts. Jonathan Bruno, CUSP’s Operations Director, attended a ceremony on September 9, 2014 in Washington D.C. to showcase award recipients’ accomplishments.

 

FEMA Press Release: FEMA Honors Achievement in Community Preparedness, September 3, 2014

 

Citizen Corps Awards Announcement: 2014 Individual and Community Preparedness Awards Announcement

 

Recording of Champions of Change: Individual and Community Preparedness Ceremony

 

 

Environmental Education Workshops for Grandparents of Preschoolers

Do you remember playing outside for hours and being captivated by nature as a child?  Would you like to share your enthusiasm for the outdoors with your grandchildren?   

Project Learning Tree is offering workshops throughout the month of September tailored specifically for grandparents interested in learning fun and easy activities for engaging 3-6 year olds in the natural world.  Early childhood is the best time to ignite interest in life-long learning about the environment, and exploring nature is a great way to spend time together.  The 3 hour workshops are hands-on, and participants will take home an activity guide and music CD.  Visit www.coloradoplt.org for details and to register for the workshops.

Sept. 10    The Gardens at Spring Creek, Ft. Collins
Sept. 11    Denver Indian Center
Sept. 12    South Platte Park, Littleton
Sept. 16    The Hope Center, Denver
Sept. 19    Hudson Gardens & Event Center, Littleton
Sept. 22    Lamb Library, Pueblo
Sept. 28    Woodland Park Senior Center, Woodland Park
Sept. 27    Lookout Mt. Nature Center, Golden
Sept. 29    The Delta Center, Delta

Playing with Fire

The Union of Concerned Scientists have released a report outlining the effects of climate change on wildfire costs in the West.

Climate change is producing hotter, drier conditions in the American West, which contribute to more large wildfires and longer wildfire seasons.

The risk to people and their homes is rising as a result, a growing danger made worse by the increasing number of homes and businesses being built in and near wildfire-prone areas. Past fire suppression and forest management practices have also led to a build-up of flammable fuel wood, which increases wildfire risks.

Costs are soaring in response. The expense of fighting wildfires and protecting life and property from harm is nearly four times greater than it was 30 years ago and has exceeded $1 billion every year since 2000 (in 2012 dollars).

Other costs, including the impact on public health, property, ecosystems, and livelihoods, are significant, often far exceeding firefighting costs.

Right now we are failing to effectively manage this mounting risk. We must make better use of our resources to more effectively manage wildfire risks and prepare for the growing consequences of climate change.

Read the entire synopsis and the full report – Playing with Wildfire.

Fire Adapted Communities Resources

Wildfire mitigation is a community-wide effort.  That means we all need to understand how to build relationships and work together to improve resiliency in our communities.  Lessons from wildfire social science can help us understand the human dynamics involved in improving the health of our forests and reducing the risk of wildfire.

The Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network Blog highlighted some helpful social science research projects funded by the Joint Fire Science Program in a recent blog post:

Social Science at the Wildland Urban Interface: Creating Fire-Safe Communities

The Role of Adaptive Capacity in Creating Fire Adapted Human Communities

Community Wildfire Protection Plans: Enhancing Collaboration and Building Social Capacity

Evaluation, Communication Strategies, and Local Partnerships: Methods for Reducing Fuels, Sharing Responsibility, and Building Trust

Welcome to the Bailey Healthy Forests Initiative

Welcome to the new site of the Bailey Healthy Forest Initiative (BHFI). This is a partnership project between the United States Forest Service, the Colorado State Forest Service, Park County, the City of  Bailey, the Coalition for the Upper South Platte, the Governor’s Energy Office, the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute at CSU, the local business community, home owners and home owners’ associations, and others. Our goal is to improve forest health, reduce beetle infestations, and reduce the potential impact of forest fires in and around the Bailey area.
For CHIPPING Info. Please go Here: www.cusp.ws/forest-issues-2/chipper/

Colorado’s Forests: Challenges and Opportunities

The Colorado State Forest Service has produced a series of informative videos covering the challenges in our forests and what can be done and is being done to address these challenges.

Take a look at the Colorado’s Forests: Challenges and Opportunities video series:

Part 1: Background and Forest Issues of Concerns

Part 2: Forest Management as a Solution

Part 3: The Challenge of a Growing WUI

Part 4: The Importance of a Wood Products Industry 

Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network

Firefighters can’t always protect every home from wildfire – especially if you haven’t done your part to prepare. You can take important steps around your home to make it safer for you, your family, and your neighbors. Start now by setting an example and helping create Fire Adapted Communities before the next fire approaches!   

 

Click here to get started on the Fire Adapted Communities path