The Roaring Fork Valley Wildfire Collaborative was founded by local fire and forestry leaders, who recognized the importance of working together to protect the high-risk region from wildfire.
It was founded as a program within the Aspen Institute and launched as a nonprofit in April 2024.
A little over a year later, the nonprofit has implemented large-scale forest projects and led public education campaigns, among other efforts.
Reporter Regan Mertz sat down with Angie Davlyn, the wildfire collaborative’s executive director, to talk about what lies ahead for the organization and the upcoming wildfire season.
The conversation below has been edited for clarity and length.
Regan Mertz: So you guys just received, along with the Glenwood Springs Fire Department, a $1 million grant. Was that the largest grant you've ever received?
Angie Davlyn: It is, and a million dollars will allow us to do such incredible work. And also a million dollars these days, it goes fast. So, we’re thrilled, though. We'll use that funding, and we'll leverage additional grants to do two primary projects in the Glenwood Springs area, one on the Three Mile Road area and one on the Four Mile Road area. That will be hazardous fields reduction and some direct work with about 100 different homeowners who want to make their homes more resilient to wildfire, home hardening, ember proofing, vegetation management, things like that.
Mertz: You received this grant from the Colorado Strategic Wildfire Action Programs Landscape Resilience Investment Program, and it came at a time when grant funding in the U.S. is really at risk for nonprofits and other organizations. Did you have any fears with federal funding?
Davlyn: Sure. We did experience a funding freeze on a grant that we had already been awarded and actually already spent about 75% of, but we're lucky that that was unfrozen. I've heard, though, and I'm sure we'll start to experience this more over the next few months, is that so much of state funding is dependent on federal funding, and even funding at the foundation level, which is kind of the next layer down, is dependent on state and federal funding. I basically spent all of January, February and March just head down, writing for as many funding opportunities as I could, feeling like this might be the last best shot for the foreseeable future.
Mertz: For federal staffing, there’s been staffing cuts at the federal level with AmeriCorps, federal firefighters, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management layoffs, so will this affect any projects that you're working on or just like general wildfire fighting in this area?
Davlyn: I think we're still figuring that out. One of our best partners for large-scale forest projects is the U.S. Forest Service, and if their staff is reduced, that impacts not just their ability to execute projects but also to plan projects for the future. The U.S. Forest Service has so many different staff members who have to work together on a project, not just the people that are actually igniting the blaze, but wildlife biologists that come in and help analyze an area and determine that it’s the right spot from the very beginning of a project.
I also worry about just in terms of federal and state staffing cuts. All of the people who help take care of the wilderness, who are often the first people to spot an unintended campfire or something that could be a hazard, and sometimes very quietly and with very little hero recognition, put out small fires before they have a chance to become a wildfire. Cuts to those staff members could lead to really drastic consequences.
And I think because of that, all of us who live here in the valley, or those who visit the valley, will have to do more to make sure that they're taking care of this space that we care about.
Mertz: I'm always really interested in your presentations when you're walking this line between, “wildfires are a natural process, but at the same time they're getting worse because of things like climate change.” So how do you sort of balance that, and how do you communicate this sort of relationship to people?
Davlyn: That's an excellent question. It's something that I was surprised about when I started in this role too. I immediately saw wildfire as an enemy, and it took me a while before I really understood that wildfire is a really natural part of this landscape here.
And they still remain an important ecosystem cycle that helps regenerate plants, which become an important food source for browsing animals. That helps, in some cases, aspen trees grow where they couldn't grow without disturbance, and we have to acknowledge that we've chosen to build our houses in the forest.
It’s what makes us love living here, it's what makes an incredibly beautiful place. And because we’ve built in a wildfire-prone area, and so it's impossible for us to prevent wildfires from happening, but there's so much that we can do to help our homes withstand a wildfire.
Support for this Nonprofit Spotlight series comes from the Aspen Community Foundation.
