The Pikes Peak region is a stunning place to live and work. While living near these beautiful landscapes certainly has its benefits, it also carries inherent wildfire risk. Decades of drought, significant insect and disease infestations, combined with overgrowth in forested areas carries an increased threat of catastrophic wildfire. Colorado has seen its share of these kinds of fires in recent years, including the devastating 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs’ Wildland-Urban Interface.
Colorado Springs Utilities sources most of its water from high mountain watersheds, including the Pikes Peak watershed. Forest fires not only pose a threat to the utility infrastructure we have in place in these watersheds, but they can also impact water quality for decades following a significant wildfire.
For over 35 years, we’ve maintained the Forest Management Program within our Watershed Planning group. The program’s success is dependent on wildfire risk reduction and forest health improvement activities through partnerships that leverage collaboration and communication along the Front Range and beyond, across Utilities' infrastructure.
Following the U.S. Forest Service’ initiation of the Wildfire Crisis Strategy (WCS), initiated in 2022, the greater Colorado Springs area around Pikes Peak and the Pike National Forest was identified as one of 21 national priority landscapes targeted for wildfire risk reduction opportunities. Utilizing the WCS framework, local partners joined the U.S. Forest Service to form the Central Colorado Forest Collaborative (CCFC).
CCFC members include Colorado State Forest Service, Colorado Springs Fire Department, local municipalities, non-governmental agencies, military instillations, and Teller and El Paso Counties. Through a collaborative mapping process, the group hopes to identify and support local opportunities for implementing wildfire risk reduction projects across the Pikes Peak region.
The mapping service analyzes the partners’ priorities and values at risk to identify the greatest yield of return on investment for project work to be implemented with multi-benefit risk reduction opportunities with partners. This addresses the challenge of limited staffing by combining resources to manage funding, contracting, assessments, and, ultimately, infrastructure protection. With many hands supporting work in a collaborative effort, we can make the greatest impact to keep moving forward in reducing wildfire risk to our natural landscapes and communities.
Colorado Springs Utilities is proud to be one of the integral cogs in this collaborative effort to protect our region, and the health of our water supply, from wildfire.