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Public commenters press Open Space trustees on wildfire preparedness; staff outlines planning steps
Summary
At the Jan. 15 Open Space Board of Trustees meeting, public speakers urged faster action on wildfire resilience and implementation of Community Wildfire Protection Plan recommendations; staff said an implementation plan and public engagement windows are planned for 2025 and an April update is scheduled.
Public speakers urged the Open Space Board of Trustees to accelerate wildfire resilience work during the Jan. 15 meeting, and staff described next steps for folding Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) recommendations into department priorities.
Giles Trotter, a community member, told the board that recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area and the 2018 Marshall Fire underscore the need to treat wildfire as a present threat in Boulder. “As forest service scientist, Jack Cohen has said, ‘we don't really have a wildfire problem. We've got a home ignition problem,’” Trotter said, and pressed trustees to ask city staff for clear prioritization criteria for CWPP recommendations.
Another commenter, Lynn Siegel, criticized development patterns and urged the city to prioritize open-space maintenance and fire safety; her remarks included political commentary and calls to reduce new development’s strain on city services.
Trustees and staff responded with a mix of acknowledgement and program updates. Trustee Sarah (last name not specified) said the board will get an update in April on the five-year wildfire or “wildfire resilience” action plan. She also noted the city secured climate‑fund dollars to hire a staff member to develop that plan.
Dan (OSMP staff) described the city’s internal structure for wildfire work, saying there is a wildfire executive team of department heads and a practitioner-level core team that coordinates daily activities. He said OSMP is compiling an inventory of recommended actions from the CWPP and will perform a gap analysis to see where additional emphasis or new actions are needed.
Trustee Herman (last name not specified) and others framed some mitigation work as overlapping with other Open Space priorities, such as habitat restoration and floodplain reconnection, which they said can yield co-benefits for fire resilience.
Staff said the planning effort will include engagement with tribal representatives and community members, multiple rounds of public input, and regular board updates. The department plans to present where it is in that inventory and implementation process at the April meeting.
The public comment and board discussion concluded with staff reiterating that some wildfire actions are citywide and require cross-department collaboration as well as community participation.
