Protecting Colorado's Front Range Forest Watersheds

Colorado's Front Range communities and urban interface are threatened by catastrophic wildfires that can seriously affect local water supplies. Reservoirs and forest watersheds, critical to the region's water supply, are influenced by forest conditions, including high-intensity, forest decimating wildfires. Using GIS technology among other sources, the Pinchot Institute -- in partnership with the Front Range Fuels Treatment Partnership -- assessed the magnitude of potential wildfire, forest health problems, and hazards to watersheds along the Front Range. This information was shared with Front Range water "providers" and other key interests to help identify vegetation management strategies within these critical watersheds and to gain broad-based support to accomplish the necessary tasks to reduce the threat posed by wildfire to regional water supplies.

To learn more about the study and its results, read the Critical Watershed's Final Assessment or Executive Summary .

Project Leader: Dennis Le Master, Senior Fellow