Forests Program
In Colorado, 80% of our water supply originates in forested watersheds, such as the Upper Cache la Poudre. Healthy, resilient forests provide many benefits including wildlife habitat, improved water quality, recreational opportunities, wood products and local jobs.
Using the Upper Poudre Watershed Resilience Plan as a guide, as well as landscape-scale planning efforts through the Northern Colorado Fireshed Collaborative, we focus our forestry projects in high priority sub-drainages that are in most need of forest restoration work to prevent the negative impacts to our communities, water supplies, and ecosystems from catastrophic wildfire, such as the 2020 Cameron Peak Fire. This important work could not be accomplished without collaboration and partnerships, which is why we work closely with government agencies, non-profits, local landowners and community groups to increase resilience and reduce wildfire risk across the Upper Poudre Watershed.
Daniel Bowker, Forests Program Manager, with a local landowner in the Red Feather Lakes Area.
Free Resources for Landowners
Private landowners have so much power to influence and shape a positive future for our forests and our watershed! Schedule a free site visit with a CPRW forester or natural resource professional to help identify the resource concerns present on your property, like wildfire risk or insect and disease susceptibility, and discuss techniques and options available to address those concerns.
For questions about our Forests Program and to schedule a site visit please email Daniel Bowker, Forests Program Manager, at daniel@poudrewatershed.org.
Featured Projects
Red Feather Lakes Area Wildfire Defense Project
The Red Feather Lakes Area Wildfire Defense Project will improve the wildfire defense of the entire Red Feather Lakes area, accomplished through specific risk reduction and preparedness activities.
Elkhorn Creek Forest Health Initiative (ECFHI)
In 2015, CPRW partnered with Larimer County Conservation Corps, Wildlands Restoration Volunteers, the Ben Delatour Scout Ranch and The Nature Conservancy, to design and implement a forest health project that met multiple objectives.
North Rim Road Wildfire Mitigation
The North Rim Road Wildfire Mitigation project will reduce wildfire risk and improve forest health along a critical evacuation corridor for private lands in the WUI, directly to the west of the community of Glacier View Meadows (GVM) in Larimer County.
Lazy D Ranch Forest Restoration
The Larimer Conservation District and CPRW partnered on this 50 acre treatment at Lazy D Ranch, a 388 acre private property along Fish Creek and the S. Fork of the Cache la Poudre River near Pingree Park, CO.
W.O.L.F. Wildfire Mitigation Project
The WOLF Sanctuary Wildfire Mitigation Project will use hand thinning, slash piling, pile burning, and chipping to reduce forest density and mitigate wildfire risk on 38 acres of private land.
Lory State Park Forest Management
A forest health and fuels reduction project to reduce wildfire risk within portions of Lory State Park, located to the west of Fort Collins.
Swanson Ranch Forest Restoration
The 200 acre treatment unit is near South Lone Pine Creek, an important water supply for the City of Greeley, which serves approx. 140,000 people. Mitigating wildfire risk on these properties will directly protect this vital water supply.
Windy Gap Wildfire Mitigation
The purpose of this project is to protect communities, firefighters, and critical water supplies by mitigating potential extreme wildfire behavior, working within the NCFC’s ribbon of priority treatment areas.
Horsetooth Mountain Park
CPRW worked with partners at Larimer County Natural Areas and the Colorado State Forest Service to reduce high severity wildfire risk around Horsetooth Reservoir.