Elkhorn Creek Forest Health Initiative
Project Background
In 2015, CPRW partnered with Larimer County Conservation Corps, Wildlands Restoration Volunteers, Ben Delatour Scout Ranch and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), collectively forming the Elkhorn Creek Forest Health Initiative (ECHI). ECFHI formed to test the effectiveness of integrating volunteer/new sawyers with professional sawyers to design and implement a forest health project that met multiple objectives including: reducing high intensity wildfire risk, protecting water quality, improving forest resilience, and increasing local sawyer capacity. The project started at the Ben Delatour Scout Ranch, a 3,200 acre Forest Legacy Conservation Easement. Since 2015, we have treated > 1,100 acres of high priority forest and implemented prescribed fire on over 700 acres and hundreds of slash piles burned. The project has successfully reduced wildfire hazard in the area and we look forward to expanding to surrounding land in the Elkhorn drainage.
Since 2017, we have expanded to five nearby private properties to multiply the impacts of treatments on adjacent lands.
Partners
The Nature Conservancy
Wildlands Restoration Volunteers
Larimer County Conservation Corps (LCCC)
Ben Delatour Scout Ranch (BDSR)
The Ember Alliance (TEA)
Larimer Conservation District
Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)
Northern Colorado Fireshed Collaborative (NCFC)
Project Goals
Wildfire – create and maintain long-term forest structural conditions that support characteristic low- to mixed-severity fire in ponderosa pine/dry mixed-conifer systems
Forest Health – create and maintain conditions that support resilience and resistance to insects and disease by managing for openings and complex forest structures
Hydrologic Function – ensure long-term conditions that support water quality and quantity appropriate to the soils and hydrology of the site
Wildlife – maintain habitat structural elements such as old trees, snags, and coarse woody debris to benefit multiple wildlife species
Aesthetics and Recreation – maintain a visually pleasing forest structure by promoting complex forest management to achieve non-uniform (e.g. no “straight lines”) outcomes; remove hazards to users of the property for a variety of recreational activities consistent with allowed uses of the property
Forest Products – provide forest products such as firewood, saw logs, and biomass to the extent practicable to offset costs of treatments and to maintain a working forest
Demonstration and Outreach – provide a sound demonstration of forest management that restores forest structure and reduces hazardous fuels to bolster support for forest restoration within the Cache la Poudre watershed, as well as elsewhere on the Colorado Front Range
Completion Date
Ongoing since Summer 2015
Elkhorn Unit 4 Broadcast Prescribed Fire - Oct. 15-16, 2019
To achieve the goals of the Elkhorn Creek Forest Health Initiative (ECHI) we have utilized volunteer and professional sawyers, mechanical thinning and prescribed fire. The prescribed fire planned and led by The Nature Conservancy on October 15-16, 2019 was part of this overall effort.
In total, the fire burned 682 acres, with 118 acres outside of the planned boundaries of the project and 82 acres off the Scout Ranch property. One outbuilding was destroyed by the fire.
Unlike prescribed fires on US Forest Service land, where the burns are planned and implemented by USFS burn bosses and crews, there is no single agency or group available for prescribed burning on private lands. Because of this, many different agencies and organizations must collaborate and bring together funding, resources, and personnel to accomplish the work on private lands. It is critical to mitigate risk on these private lands, especially in a wildland-urban mix such as characterizes the upper Poudre River watershed, in order to maximize the benefit to the landscape as a whole, and complement the mitigation work done on USFS lands.
CPRW, The Nature Conservancy, and our partners and collaborators regret the upheaval that the escape of the Elkhorn Unit 4 prescribed fire caused for those affected, especially the community of Glacier View Meadows, and we thank the Larimer County Sheriff's Office and the firefighters from all agencies who were able to contain the wildfire so quickly and effectively. The Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control undertook a comprehensive review of the incident, and you can read their full report at the link below.
For questions about the DFPC report and review process, please contact DFPC Public Information Officer Caley Fisher at caley.fisher@state.co.us or 720-391-1565.
Elk Fire Community Meeting - 12/5/2019 - Read the meeting notes >>
monitoring
Each year, our partners at TNC and the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute (CFRI) collect monitoring data using the CFRI protocol to evaluate fire mitigation effectiveness at our projects sites.
Effects of treatments on wildfire behavior
Results from the September 2017 prescribed fire on surface fuels
Elkhorn 4 Prescribed Fire Monitoring Report (Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, September, 2021)
awards
2017 Larimer County Environmental Stewardship Award
Stories From the Field
“My time at the Boy Scout Ranch working as a sawyer assistant crew leader was a tremendous experience. I worked along with great individuals gaining knowledge of wilderness preservation, fire mitigation, and furthering my technical skills with hand and power tools. As well, I made a lot of friends here and grew a further appreciation for the outdoors. Working at the Boy Scout Ranch benefited me in my future for it has set me on a path to perform my first season of Wildland Firefighting this summer and off season has helped propel me on the path to becoming an arborist. I wouldn’t be where I am today without my experience in the Larimer County Conservation Corps working at the Boy Scout Ranch.”
- Jacob Gardner, former Larimer County Conservation Corps Crew Leader and current member of the Berthoud Wildland Fire Team