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Clear Creek leaders push regional approach to wildfire mitigation, eye grants and forest improvement district
Summary
Commissioners described recent wildfire-planning work, said a Community Wildfire Protection Plan is complete and flagged federal and state grant opportunities (including a Community Wildfire Defense Grant up to $10 million); they urged regional collaboration to fund work beyond local capacity.
County officials emphasized wildfire mitigation as a growing, region-scale problem that Clear Creek alone cannot fully fund.
Commissioner George Marlin said the county completed a community wildfire protection plan (a grant-eligibility requirement) and described collaboration with the Forest Service and a district-ranger (named Max Forgensy) working on a Beaverbrook project between Floyd Hill and Witter Gulch to reduce risk to nearby communities and protect water resources. Marlin characterized the scale of need as far greater than what local taxpayers can finance: even a $10 million Community Wildfire Defense Grant would be "a drop in the bucket."
Marlin said the county is exploring a forest improvement district and regional funding mechanisms, including the idea of a sales tax spanning the larger metro tax base so a lower rate could fund substantially more mitigation work. He urged partnering with metropolitan-area governments, federal agencies and national organizations to match the scale of risk: "we have a million water users in the metro area ... we have a population of 9,000 people in Clear Creek County and 5,000 people in Gilpin County that are responsible for protecting that watershed," he said, urging broader fiscal collaboration.
County officials said Clear Creek Fire Authority now has a mitigation crew and that the county sought and provided letters of support for federal projects. Staff encouraged residents to maintain defensible space and prepare evacuation plans; public comments noted the recent evacuation drill that included 1,300 signups and tested agency coordination.
Next steps: the board and staff will continue pursuing grant opportunities, convening regional partners and refining proposals for a forest improvement district and other pooled-funding mechanisms.
