County hears plan to prioritize watershed and forest health across Clear Creek watershed

Clear Creek County commissioners received an introductory briefing from the Clear Creek Watershed Forest Health Partnership on a plan to coordinate wildfire mitigation and watershed-resilience projects across the upper Clear Creek watershed.

The partnership, represented by Forest and Mitigation Program Manager Kelby Woodward, described itself as a recently formed nonprofit focused on prioritizing forest treatments, protecting water infrastructure and expanding outreach to private landowners and local fire districts. “It’s not a question of if a wildfire is gonna come through, it’s a question of when,” Woodward told the board, urging early, landscape-scale planning.

Woodward told commissioners the watershed covers about…