This vision is closely tied to our commitment to protect the watershed, communities, and drinking water vital to the well-being of millions of downstream users.

Our partnership reflects a multi-disciplinary approach to managing our ecological values through active forest management techniques such as thinning, prescribed fire, and pile burn projects. These projects are aimed at improving ecological functions of the forests – Forests that have become overgrown and over crowed with trees from previous 100+ years of fire suppression across the landscape. By increasing ecological function through thinning the forests, and when conditions are safe for using managed fire as a tool, risks for catastrophic wildfire are reduced to benefit communities, natural resources including wildlife and their historic habitat, recreational opportunities, and drinking water. 

Partners share a vision of sustainable and resilient landscapes, healthy forests, fire-adapted communities, and efficient fire response and management in the Upper South Platte watershed—important to local communities and an important water source for many more communities and agricultural lands further downstream in other regions and states.