Nederland & Timberline CWPP Implementation
What is a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP)?
Communities and wildfire professionals develop Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs) through a collaborative process to identify local hazards and priorities for wildfire risk reduction and resilience. These priorities are organized and align with the goals of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy .
Read through the CWPP
View the full document
View the condensed storymap
The CWPP in Action
Check out the following list of projects occurring in the area to turn the CWPP document into action (Last updated november 19th, 2024).
Fire Adapted Communities
Old Town Home Hardening & Defensible Space
Throughout early fall, in 2024, The Boulder Watershed Collective and Wildfire Partners has been providing free home mitigation and defensible space services, as well as slash and trash dumpsters to residents in the Old Town Nederland neighborhood. These services were conducted by Mile High Youth Corps. This initiative is in direct response to community members during the CWPP process who prioritized more funding and support for home and defensible space projects.
Lazy Z Defensible Space
In Spring 2024, The Boulder Watershed Collective and Wildfire Partners provided free defensible space services to landowners desiring physical and financial support to support wildfire mitigation. These services were conducted by Mile High Youth Corps. This initiative is in direct response to community members during the CWPP process who prioritized more funding and support for home and defensible space projects.
Clean Air Program
In Fall 2024 funded by Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network, BWC has worked with Mountain Peak Life (formerly Nederland Area Seniors) to purchase and distribute HEPA filters to aging locals and those with more vulnerabilities to smoke, and created 2 clean air spaces in Nederland - at the Library and the Community Center. This education campaign also emphasized providing these individuals with information on smoke ready communities and emergency preparedness, funded by The Town of Nederland.
Emergency Preparedness Educational Campaign
In Fall & Winter 2024, The Town of Nederland, the Nederland Fire Protection District and Timberline Fire Protection District are collaborating with BWC on a social media campaign and mailer sent to all area residents with information on how to prepare for emergencies, especially wildfires. These mailers have also been highlighted at several outreach events hosted by local collaborators.
Nederland & Timberline Wildfire Emergency Preparedness Planning
Resilient Landscapes
Moose Meadows Debris & Slash Removal Event
The Town of Nederland’s Parks, Recreation & Open Space Advisory Board (PROSAB) hosted a community debris and slash removal event on September 14th, 2024 on Town of Nederland owned property north of town (Moose Meadows). This was followed by a community BBQ & wildfire mitigation and preparedness education.
Wildfire Ready Watersheds
Funded by Colorado Water Conservation Board, BWC and The Watershed Center have hired Watershed Science and Design to assist with pre-planning for post wildfire impacts like flooding and debris flows. There is a strong focus on protecting source water areas and water infrastructure most at risk to post-fire floods, and developing actions to mitigate impacts to values at risk.
Arapaho Ranch
The headwaters of Middle Boulder Creek which provide drinking water to the Town of Nederland and City of Boulder run through Arapaho Ranch just west of Nederland. Good People Tree Service completed selective thinning to increase forest health and reduce wildfire risk across 28 acres. In addition to forestry, beaver management is a focus at Arapaho Ranch and coexistence structures to protect culverts have been installed.
County Road 99 (CR99)
The County Road 99 (CR99) project is a 56-acre fuels reduction/ingress & egress improvement project 12 miles southwest of Boulder, Colorado in Coal Creek Canyon on 22 different privately owned parcels. The primary goals of this project are to provide safer evacuation routes for property owners in the event of wildfire, provide safer ingress routes for first responders in the event of wildfire, improve defensible space around structures, increase forest resilience to fire, and improve structural heterogeneity for wildlife habitat and species diversity.
Porter Ranch
This project encompasses 160 acres of mixed conifer forest held between 12 landowners, surrounded by Forest Service on three sides. This highly diverse mosaic will be mitigated in two phases: Phase 1 is underway and consists of thinning along the road in partnership with the Timberline Fire Protection District in order to increase egress along the single road into and out of the neighborhood. Phase 2 will be the bulk mitigation project across the 15 landowners, and will decrease bulk fuel density and increase canopy heterogeneity, while maintaining privacy barriers between houses.
Pinecliffe
Pinecliffe is a collaborative project between the Colorado State Forest Service and BWC. The project is split into two phases - the first involves creating defensible space around 40 cabins, while Phase 2 will involve more mechanical treatment in the 119 acres of mixed conifer north of the cabin area. The main focuses are to increasing heterogeneity in stand structure, remove dead and diseased trees, and increase fire resilience by ways of selective thinning and patch cuts.
If you or anyone you know is doing wildfire mitigation or resilience work in the Nederland or Timberline Fire Protection Districts, and would like to add to this list, please contact Julien Blundell at: julien@boulderwatershedcollective.org.
Partners and Thank Yous
We recognize that the project area and town of Gold Hill sit upon land within the territories of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples. Further, we acknowledge that 48 contemporary tribal nations are historically tied to the lands that make up the state of Colorado.