FAQ

What is WWIRC?

The Wildfire and Watershed Initiative for Resilient Colorado (WWIRC) is a statewide initiative that advances sustainable funding and strategies to accelerate catastrophic wildfire risk reduction and watershed resilience. It brings together dozens of partners across sectors to coordinate efforts, catalyze funding, and support large-scale forest and watershed health projects.

Download WWIRC Fact Sheet

Why is sustainable, scaled funding needed for wildfire risk reduction and watershed resilience?

Wildfires pose a growing risk to Colorado’s economy, safety, water supplies, infrastructure, and communities.

10% of Colorado’s forests need urgent attention.

Addressing wildfire risk and watershed protection requires $4.2B in investment, with $150–$200M annually needed for forest treatments in priority areas.

Without proactive action, Colorado could face $1–2B annually in losses.

Proactive mitigation saves between $6 and $13 for every $1 invested

WWIRC exists to increase the pace and scale of sustainable funding solutions that move beyond short-term or reactive funding cycles.

What landscapes and aspects of wildfire risk reduction and resilience is WWIRC focused on?

WWIRC activities are focused on sustainable funding for watersheds and forests, risk reduction and resilience, and landscape priorities for public and private lands. WWIRC’s foundational priorities are:

Forests and Watersheds. WWIRC focuses on wildfire risk reduction in ‘natural’ environments—watersheds, forests, and rangelands. These actions protect public safety, infrastructure, water and energy supplies, economies, wildlife, recreation, and community livelihoods. WWIRC’s focus on these landscapes complements efforts in community wildfire protection, home hardening, land-use planning, and building codes, and also helps reduce insurance risk in developed areas.

Risk Reduction and Resilience. WWIRC focuses on prevention and resilience, rather than wildfire response and recovery. Examples include forest health treatments, fuel breaks, and riparian or floodplain improvements. These measures lower wildfire severity, protect values at risk, and support more effective response and recovery when needed.

Landscape Priorities. WWIRC supports large-scale projects that deliver measurable benefits for safety, infrastructure, and water supply. It encourages the use of advanced mapping, models, and metrics to set priorities and demonstrate return on investment.

Public and Private Lands. WWIRC addresses risk reduction across both public and private lands, including the wildland-urban interface. Strategies include shared management among federal, state, and local agencies; public-private agreements; and voluntary landowner actions.

Statewide Approach. WWIRC takes a statewide view while supporting local and regional collaborations in risk reduction and resilience planning.

Partnerships. WWIRC engages federal and non-federal partners—state, local, nonprofit, foundation, business, and other private sectors—to strengthen and complement federal efforts.

Why isn’t WWIRC focused on community protection, built environments, and wildfire response and recovery? Can community protection interests be part of the WWIRC network?

WWIRC was established by private and public sector partners particularly focused on addressing sustainable funding needs for proactive forest and watershed management that reduces fire risk and enhances post-fire resilience. WWIRC originated with a recognition of the close nexus between wildfire and water, and of the need to focus on landscape activities in natural environments that protect a variety of values at risks, including but not limited to life, property, clean water and energy, recreation, and more.

WWIRC participants know that landscape-scale risk reduction and watershed resilience activities in priority forests, watersheds, and rangelands are one piece of the broader suite of needs associated with wildfire in Colorado, as articulated in the Colorado Forest Action Plan and Colorado’s 2055 Vision For Forest Health, and the National Cohesive Wildland Fire strategy. The full costs and capacity needs of this broader suite of needs has not been quantified and is not part of the estimated $150m-$200m annual need for forest treatments in priority acres.

All these needs interact; for example, landscape scale forest health treatments, fuel breaks, and floodplain and riparian improvements in priority areas can contribute to more effective response and recovery, and to reducing risk to communities and built environments. A variety of efforts are focused on additional dimensions of risk reduction, resilience, response, and recovery including community protection and the built environment. WWIRC intentionally seeks to not duplicate those conversations and sees value in focused efforts on each of these dimensions.

At the same time, WWIRC see critical value in coordination among these various efforts, particularly when it comes to discussions of scaling and sustaining private-public funding. Ultimately, successful strategies and mechanisms to fund forest and watershed treatments may stand alone and/or be packaged with funding for other complementary funding needs and pathways for Colorado, including but not limited to funding for wildfire issues. For this reason, all interested in sustainable wildfire funding are encouraged to join the WWIRC network to explore how forest and watershed focused funding needs can interact with and complement other funding needs and pathways.

How is WWIRC different from other forest-focused collaborative efforts in Colorado?

WWIRC is focused on scaling funding solutions statewide and innovating private-public partnerships to support sustainable funding. It is a voluntary initiative open to all interested participants and established through private-public interest and coordination. It is focused on fire, forests, and watersheds and actions in ‘natural environments’ to reduce risk and enhance resilience.

The Forest Health Council (FHC) is a statutory, formal body with designated participation, policy advisory responsibilities to the State, and a variety of topics of focus including but not limited to sustainable funding. WWIRC complements the FHC by offering a large, external private-public network focused on action around sustainable funding; WWIRC activities help to implement FHC objectives and can also help to inform FHC policy priorities.

The Forest Collaboratives Network brings together ground-level partnerships implementing projects, often focused on local planning, fundraising, and project delivery. WWIRC operates at a statewide, pre-competitive level working to scale and streamline funding systemwide, improving enabling conditions for more resources to flow to place-based collaboratives and to support the network of collaboratives statewide. WWIRC benefits from insights of these on-the-ground efforts.

A variety of other statewide, regional, and local collaborative efforts bring together partners with various focus areas for forest health, including on topics related to community wildfire protection, prescribed fire, project prioritization and planning, and project implementation. There are also multi-state and national efforts related to wildfire policy and funding. WWIRC’s niche is in its focus on statewide, private-public partnership for scaling funding solutions for forest and watershed treatments for wildfire risk reduction and resilience in Colorado.

How does WWIRC interact with the Forest Action Plan and Colorado’s 2055 Vision for Forest Health?

The Forest Action Plan and 2055 Vision for Forest Health identify a variety of priority action areas for Colorado’s forest, including but not limited to funding and forest economies.

The 2055 Vision is “resilient forests, watersheds, and communities adapted to wildfire through a culture shift, strong cross-boundary collaboration, and consistent, diversified funding—including sustainable forest product markets.”

The Forest Action Plan provides in-depth analysis of forest trends, offers solutions and guidance for improving forest health, and identifies a variety of goals and strategies across natural and built environments. It includes an emphasis on forest conditions, living with wildfire, watershed protection, forest wildlife, urban and community forestry, and forest products.

WWIRC’s focus on funding and private-public partnerships supports this vision and action plan and specifically helps to implement the vision of consistent, diversified funding in support of strategies and priority treatment areas identified in the Action Plan.

Is WWIRC a funder for forest and watershed treatment projects?

No. WWIRC is not a funder, financer, nor grant maker. It is working to scale private-public funding solutions including statewide public funding, local public funding, private-public funding and financing, and forest restoration economies. However, it does not raise nor disperse funds.

Is WWIRC raising funds and implementing projects? Is it competing with others trying to raise funds and implement projects?

No. WWIRC is not raising funds for projects, nor is it implementing projects. WWIRC operates at a statewide, pre-competitive level, not raising money itself but working to scale and streamline funding across the system through enhanced private-public coordination and action to support sustainable funding.

How can I get involved?

WWIRC engages a broad, cross-sector network including public agencies, nonprofits, utilities, private industry, and foundations. WWIRC operates as a collective impact network. Its structure includes:

Network participation – an open group of engaged organizations.

Action Team – ~20 organizations providing strategic direction.

Leadership Roundtable – executive-level leaders who champion WWIRC.

Working Groups & Strategy Stewards – practitioners advancing specific strategies.

Backbone Organization (Keystone Policy Center) – coordinates, facilitates, and supports the networks.

Any organization interested in engaging in sustainable funding solutions for wildfire risk reduction and watershed resilience is encouraged to join the network and get involved in other aspects of the WWIRC structure.

What is WWIRC working on?

Goals and Strategies

How is WWIRC catalyzing ACTION?

Rooted in collective impact, WWIRC believes that large-scale change requires broad cross-sector coordination, recognizing that no single entity can solve for wildfire risk reduction and watershed resilience alone.

WWIRC participants share a unified mission around scaling sustainable funding. Action is being driven by:

WWIRC-coordinated initiatives to better characterize systems level problems and solutions, with solutions catalyzed by WWIRC and then advanced and championed by participants. For example:

WWIRC is leading an effort to characterize total state funding need and state public funding opportunities for non-TABOR restricted mechanisms.

WWIRC is supporting partners in their efforts to better support local public funding initiatives through guidance, examples, templates, and readiness evaluation tools.

WWIRC is conducting system-wide analysis and engagement to help all participants understand the best opportunities to engage the private sector for private funding and/or as champions for public funding.

WWIRC is exploring best opportunities for coordinated and targeted support of forest restoration economies.

Individual participant activities are differentiated but coordinated through a mutually reinforcing plan of action and a ‘backbone’ organization that coordinates participants and initiatives. WWIRC does not supersede any individual organization’s own efforts or authorities. Individual participants may be involved in supporting or leading WWIRC strategies and are also engaged in fundraising for capacity and on-the-ground project implementation in local and regional efforts throughout Colorado.