Posted on: October 20th, 2022

Boulder County Community Foundation

Mitigation Grant – 2020 Fires Relief Fund Boulder

 Contact: Virginia Schultz (arneyschultz@nullhotmail.com)

Amount: $29,422.00

Start date: May 1, 2021

Completion date: August 30, 2022

OVERVIEW

The Boulder Community Foundation grant to Gold Hill was utilized to support a wide range of fire mitigation activities over the period from the fall of 2021 through August 2022.  Although the grant was originally scheduled to conclude in the late spring of 2022, the Boulder Community Foundation generously extended the grant period through August 2022.  This enabled Gold Hill to complete substantial mitigation activities at both the community level and on individual lower-income properties over the summer season.  The grant was implemented with substantial coordination and other support from the Boulder Watershed Coalition along with community volunteers. 

 

Activities undertaken with support from the Boulder Community Foundation grant are outlined below.  Looking forward, Gold Hill intends to develop a regular program to improve the community’s ability to live with and adapt to fire.  This is envisioned as a combination of regular fire mitigation events (annual cleanup and grass management days), support for home hardening targeting lower income/vulnerable residents, community education, and initiatives to improve forest health and fire resilience in ways that reflect our changing climate.  Overall, the grant from the Boulder Community Foundation enabled Gold Hill to complete an impressive array of mitigation activities and has inspired the community to expand such initiatives going forward.

 

FALL/WINTER 2021

Events were publicized via postcard mailing, Nextdoor, Gold Hill Newsletter, GHTM, and email.

 

With the support of the Community Foundation, there were several FREE opportunities to improve defensible space and reduce wildfire risk around homes in the Gold Hill Fire Protection District. Owners and renters signed up.  

 

Ben Pfohl, Supervisory Forester, Colorado State Forest Service provided a Home Ignition Zone (HIZ) assessment for individual homes to identify wildfire hazards and associated risks.  Mitigation recommendations were given and tree marking provided. October 28^th & 29^th  (12 noon – 4 p.m.) and other dates by special request. Final assessment report identified needed work and guided funding priorities.

 

Slash Dumpster Residents were invited to get some cutting done and clean up around your yard before winter. December 1^st (8 a.m. to 3 p.m.) dumpster in one location at the top of Horsfal. Extra labor provided to move slash for those needing assistance was provided.

 

Slash Pile Building Workshop Have you always wanted to know how to build a slash pile safely? Gold Hill workshop was held November 20^th (10 a.m. – 2 p.m.) Provided by The Ember Alliance https://emberalliance.org

SPRING 2022

Events were publicized via postcard mailing, Nextdoor, Gold Hill Newsletter, flyers, GHTM, and email.

 

May 7 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

GOLD HILL FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT property owners and renters were invited to participate in WILDFIRE COMMUNITY PREPAREDNESS DAY. Surprise visit by Smokey the Bear!

 

Saturday May 7, 9 a.m. to 12 noon – INFORMATION TABLES AT THE GOLD HLL STORE

FREE burritos, orange juice, and coffee served and attendees learned about current and upcoming local wildfire projects, GHFPD budget and Mill Levy, and signed up for weed whacking help.

 

HOME HARDENING TOUR – 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.

Community members were led on an informative Home Hardening Tour of 4 in-town properties by State Forester, Ben Pfhol that highlighted good mitigation practices.

 

SLASH DUMPSTERS – Saturday May 7th and Sunday May 8th  9 a.m. to 5 p.m. – 

THREE LOCATIONS: Top of Horsfal; Colorado Mountain Ranch parking lot; 9.1 mile marker on Lefthand Canyon.

SUMMER 2022 Projects were identified using Oct assessment list, community requests, and to augment mitigation currently being done. Individuals consulted with for material selection, access, and scheduling.

Teens, Inc (12 youth + 3 crew leaders based out of Nederland) worked for 4 days (July 11-14) on rock perimeters, moving slash, and weed whacking.  6 perimeters installed, 30’ wide Town meadow section weed whacked plus 3 other properties. Slash cut, moved, and stacked on 3 properties.  Trees cut and chipped on 2 properties.  Good People Tree Service did cutting and chipping in conjunction with Teens, Inc. work.

OVERALL IMPACT

 The grant from the Boulder Community Foundation supported the following specific activities.

80-100 community members (owners and renters) estimated to have received:

• • education
  • outreach
  • mitigation assessments
  • mitigation labor
  • mitigation materials
  • dumpster access
  • employment
  • monetary support for mitigation
• 385 postcards mailed to advertise May and Dec events
• 15 properties reviewed for mitigation needs and measured for perimeters,
• 8 protected houses with weed-whacking,
• 6 houses perimeters installed,
• 5 properties cutting, slash piling, chipping,
• 35 households participated in Dumpster Days (Lefthand Canyon, Sunshine, Gold Hill),
• 210 cubic yards in 7 dumpsters removed and composted,
• 279 in-kind hours of support,
• 40 community members visited Info Tables and ate burritos,
• 18 community members attended Tours (from Gold Hill and Four Mile),
• 4 local agencies provided information, outreach, expertise, administrative support,
• 6 local companies and individuals were paid for their work,
• 4 private and public (Gold Hill School) properties toured as examples of hardening,
• 7 community members attended slash pile building workshop,
• 15 volunteers monitored dumpsters and facilitated events,
•   3 individual mitigation projects catalyzed by facilitating hiring of local contractor,
• 1 visit by Smokey the Bear!

           

EXPENDITURES – $29, 422.00

 Administration, Research, Site Visits, Planning, Publicity

$1,099.43                 Blundell, Schultz

Dumpsters, Equipment, Materials

$9,867.68                 Various

Food

$   479.94                 Gold Hill Store

Labor

$6,400.00                 Teens, Inc.

$    980.00                 Maedke/Yeager

Professional Services

$   992.44                 Colorado Forest Service Property Site Visits

$5,850.00                 Good People Tree Service

Publicity

$   452.51                 Postcards and Poster

Reimbursements for ongoing individual mitigation

$3,300.00                 Carpenter, Steinburg, Rose

IN-KIND AND CATALYZED WORK

 $  8,356.00   279 volunteer hours @ $29.95 (Colorado average value.)

$25,000.00   Individual projects – tree cutting, chipping, flashing, chalking and other home hardening (Visioning workshop identified that finding labor to get work done was a key need!)

 OTHER

$   100          Donation to BWC with a glowing testimonial for the project and all involved.

FUTURE

 In the future, Gold Hill would like to develop an ongoing program to improve our ability to live with fire and adapt to a changing environment.  This program would involve a combination of regular seasonal activities to reduce specific risks, on-going education of residents and recreational visitors to the area, measures to assist vulnerable and lower-income residents harden homes, and steps to improve forest health and fire resilience throughout the area.

Key activities are likely to include:

• Regular mowing of high-risk grassland areas: Switch to using brush cutter/mulcher instead of weed whacker due to size of Meadow causing mechanical issues and using lots of fuel. Arrange to move cut grasses (hay) to local horses from the larger areas.
• Improve and maintain home hardening: Do further research on landscape cloth and flammability. Gravel border areas where landscaping cloth was not used have regrown quickly. Follow up to see if need edging on perimeters on steeper slopes. Plan for ongoing maintenance of perimeters and vegetation removal. Plan and organize additional education, resources, and monetary support for home hardening by residents.
• Find funding for twice a year program to remove slash and other burnable materials from areas adjacent to residences: Provide labor and dumpsters for these  “fire mitigation” days where residents can remove high risk materials.
• Support forest health and fire resilience on private lands and areas adjacent to residences: Support clearing to improve forest mosaic/reduce the risk of fire spread and encourage the growth of fire resilient species such as aspen.

 

PARTNERS

Gold Hill Town Meeting (grantee)

Boulder Watershed Collective

Gold Hill Fire Protection District

Gold Hill Mountain Stewards

ANCILLARY SUPPORT

Colorado State Forest Service

Wildfire Partners

 PLANNING COMMITTEE

Julien Blundell

Leslie Finn

Erin Fried

Kris Gibson

Maya MacHamer

Marcus Moench

Virginia Schultz

SUMMARY

We are thrilled that we, a group of 5 community members, were able to catalyze additional mitigation work that almost doubled the size of the grant, solicit over $8,000 in in-kind assistance, build community momentum toward mitigation, and strengthen community connections.  With on-going publicity and with personal outreach over the time of the grant we were able to help individuals overcome challenges that had prevented needed mitigation especially in the town of Gold Hill where there were years of accumulated fuels.  Securing labor for flashing and chalking projects was another challenge. This grant allowed us to identify a local contractor, have them bid on the projects, and provide a small reimbursement toward the costs undertaken by the homeowners. 

We made special efforts to involve both renters and owners and to identify low-income/vulnerable residents while recognizing privacy and fostering cross-generation collaboration. Because of the size of the GHFPD and steep roads, we expanded the Dec dumpster locations to include Lefthand Canyon and west of the town of Gold Hill so that all community members had access. We did not want all the efforts to be centered around the town of Gold Hill. Properties receiving support were located throughout the entire GHFPD and varied greatly in acreage and terrain. Providing local employment for labor and administrative planning also benefited the community.  Over 70% of the in-kind work was administrative planning, publicity, outreach, and project management.

Seasonality of the work is an important consideration in this type of grant along with enough time for planning and outreach. The grant extension to Aug 30, 2022 was crucial and we are again thankful for this consideration.

We know that this would not have been as successful without the paid staff support from the Boulder Watershed Collective.  Having a trusted organization with expertise in outreach, mitigation practices, watershed and forest health, who is already working in the community on large scale mitigation, was integral to the success of our efforts!  Their recognized authority and objectivity went a long way in creating good will in the Gold Hill community around this grant and the projects undertaken.