Estes Valley Watershed Coalition

The goal of this project is to connect wildfire mitigation work that has already been done along the borders of rocky mountain national park. A fuel reduction project in this area will help protect private property, water infrastructure, and help reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire in a high-risk area. Evwc is working with agency partners (rmnp, evfpd, csfs) and with landowners.

Various programs with the same objective. To continue outreach work around wildfire education in the estes valley. This would be the collaboration on the wildfire ready watershed action plan, continuing support of the fd with rolling out the wire study results, and conversations around mitigation, fuel reduction, and watershed health in estes. We are active participants in the big thompson watershed health partnership and will be supporting the wrap in our watershed.

The goal of this project is to continue to help provide estes valley residents with a disposal method for their defensible space work. Evwc has partnered with waste management since 2020, to provide 15 and 30-yard containers to hoas, coas, and poas for slash, pinecone, and pine needle removal. In 2023, waste management offered eight in-kind containers and the estes valley fire protection district (evfpd) provided an additional match of $10,000. This meant that evwc has been able to work with estes valley property owners to continue to reduce the fuel load in defensible spaces in the estes valley by removing 238 tons (468,000 lbs) of slash, pinecones, and pine needles over the past four years.