Photo Credit: Colorado DNR
Case Studies
WWIRC is highlighting case studies around the state that demonstrate the different ways to approach funding for wildfire risk reduction and watershed resilience. Stay tuned for more case studies coming soon.
Case Study: Funding the Forest's Future
Two organizations in Jefferson County invested in forest health. Here's how it paid off.
Jefferson Conservation District and Jefferson County Parks & Open Space implemented wildfire risk reduction treatments in areas of Jefferson County, Colorado, and saw first hand how those treatments helped prevent a wildfire from being catastrophic.
Case Study:
Before the
Next Fire
How Eagle County Uses a Data Dashboard to Stay Ahead
Learn how proactive mitigation, trained response teams, and a first-of-its-kind data dashboard that tracks funding are protecting a high-risk I-70 corridor community.
Case Study:
Funding Recreation and Wildfire Risk Reduction
The Town of Frisco's Backyard Fuels and Recreation Project
In a unique partnership, the Town of Frisco, CO, and the US Forest Service team up to improve recreation access and safety, while addressing critical wildfire risk reduction actions. Many different funding streams made this project possible.
​"Why is this important? Well, ask yourself: Do you like clean water? Do you like natural landscapes? Do you like breathing clean air? Do you like the economic benefits tourism brings and the recreation economy and the jobs it creates?" Said Larimer County Commissioner Jody Shadduck-McNally. "It's costing us all, whether we live in Denver, in the foothills, or the mountains. Everyone downstream is impacted. We should all care. We can't act in isolation. We have to change this. This is the inflection point. We are changing that inflection point in the last few years through shared stewardship, businesses, universities, homeowners, the public, fire districts, local government, state and federal partners. Now is the time for us to come together and make the changes we need to see before it is too late."
Case Study: Investing Upstream to Protect What's Downstream
How Denver Water’s From Forests to
Faucets Partnership funds proactive
wildfire mitigation to build resilient
forests and watersheds.
After large wildfires heavily impacted the watershed, reservoirs, and water quality, Denver Water adopted a proactive approach to wildfire risk reduction and watershed resiliency. Their successful From Forests to Faucets Partnership expands the capacity of partner organizations to
implement forest restoration and
wildfire mitigation treatments.
Case Study: Building a Fuel Break, and a Funding Model
How partners are aggregating public,
private, utility, and corporate investment to address wildfire risk in a section of the Pike National Forest.
The Rampart Range Fuel Break Project is currently the highest-priority forest resilience project on the Pike National Forest.
Launched in 2026, this National Forest Foundation project aims to create a 2,400-acre fuel break along Rampart Range Road above Woodland Park, one of the most
heavily trafficked roads on the national forest. A defining feature of the project is the level of partner buy-in and the effort to aggregate funding from
a wide range of sources.
Case Study: Treating the Forest, Protecting the Watershed
Treating 1,400 acres along the Taylor River to address a mountain pine beetle outbreak, reduce wildfire risk, and protect communities and water quality.
For several years, the National Forest Foundation and its partners have been working together on the Taylor River Watershed Forest Management Project to address an epidemic-scale mountain pine beetle outbreak and reduce the risk of severe wildfire. The project
is a strong example of shared
stewardship in action and working
across boundaries, at a meaningful scale, with multiple funding sources. Photo by Kellon Spencer.