BOULDER COUNTY - Boulder County Parks and Open Space personnel conducted a site visit on May 17, 2025, to view Boulder County property just west of the town of Nederland that is scheduled for forest mitigation and fuel reduction work this coming winter.

Open Space vans with about 44 attendees and staff left from the Nederland Park and Ride and drove up the hill from West 1st Street to the property.

Staff from Boulder Parks and Open Space and the Boulder Watershed Collective led the tour and spoke about how the project is being developed and the timeline for implementation.

The tour started with an orientation talk that included comments from a variety of forestry professionals. Scott Golden, Boulder County Senior Resource Specialist, led the conversation.

Golden has 30 years of experience as a wildlands firefighter. He spoke about reducing fuel loads on the property so that firefighters could mount a defense of the town if needed.

Jessica Hawkins, another Forestry Specialist for Boulder County, spoke about the data being collected to determine the location and density of the different stands of trees. She also described the permanent and migratory wildlife that use the property. All the different data points being  collected will be analyzed to help develop the final mitigation prescription for the property.

Julien Blundell from the Boulder Watershed Collective and Ch’aska Huayhuaca from the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute spoke about the social aspect of forest management and the importance of communication and collaboration between the different partners and the public.

After the orientation talks, the group went on a walking tour to see a section that had been previously mitigated as well as a section that had been previously burned. At each stop along the tour, Golden would discuss the ecology and proposed treatment options and answer questions.

Participants were able to ask questions and voice concerns throughout the tour, and staff remained after the vans had returned to town to answer any individual questions.

The project is being funded by Boulder County and the Colorado Department of Natural Resources through the Colorado Strategic Wildfire Action Program (COSWAP). COSWAP awarded Boulder County a Landscape Resilience Investment Grant of $1,000,000 for the project.

Treatment operations are expected to start in late 2025 and be completed by the spring of 2026.

Boulder County Parks and Open Space will be managing the project with Boulder Watershed Collective, the City of Boulder, Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Colorado State Forest Service, Town of Nederland, and the U.S. Forest Service as additional partners. 

There will be two additional meetings this summer held by the Boulder Watershed Collective to present plans and have public discussions regarding the project. The first meeting will be on June 12, from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Nederland Community Center. The second meeting will be on July 31, from 6-7:30 p.m., also at the Nederland Community Center.

For more information about the project, Boulder County has a webpage (bouldercounty.gov/open-space/management/middle-boulder-creek) with a link for public comments. Public comments can be submitted through June 10, 2025. All submitted public comments can also be viewed from the webpage.

Under Additional Resources at the bottom of the webpage are three articles that discuss the current methodologies regarding landscape-scale fuel treatments and their efficacy. These articles also have links to more articles discussing the subject.

Questions regarding the project can be directed to either Michael Agena at  magena@bouldercounty.gov, phone 303-413-7771; or Julien Blundell at julien@boulderwatershedcollective.org, phone 720-501-8588.