Gilpin County held another well-attended CWPP open house on August 8, 2024, at the County Courthouse in Central City. The meeting followed the pattern of the first open house in June, with presentations by several speakers followed by individual conversations with experts at three stations concerning fire-adapted communities, resilient landscapes, and effective wildfire responses.

Christian Testerman from SWCA consulting was the moderator for the meeting. He gave an update on the progress of the updates to the Gilpin County Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). Testerman said that the timeline of completing the plan by the end of the year was on schedule.

Milessa Lewis, Gilpin County Director of Emergency Management, spoke about the need for a CWPP plan to promote resilient landscapes through wildfire mitigation and fire-adapted communities that engage in home hardening and evacuation preparedness.

Lewis said that the landscape has changed significantly in the last fifteen years since the first CWPP was produced in 2009. Lewis emphasized the need for residents to get involved in mitigating their individual properties and working with their neighbors to create safe neighborhoods.

Gilpin County Commissioner Sandy Hollingsworth spoke about a variety of things that the County is doing to foster fire-adapted communities.

The County has instituted annual specified funding for mitigation, which includes working with Timberline Fire Protection District (TFPD). The funding helps Timberline mitigate rights of way and focus on protecting County structures like the Courthouse, the Community Center, and communication towers.

The County also gave Timberline funds for a chipper and a truck for mobile chipping events around the county. The goal is to rotate through all the subdivisions with chipping events every two years.

To deal with the costs of a wildfire in the county, the commissioners passed a resolution to put a percentage aside each year to build up their reserve for emergency situations. This fund currently sits at around $4 million.

The County also established an acquisition fund of about $2 million to purchase water rights and critical watershed property.

After the presentations, attendees were given the opportunity to visit the stations and speak with experts on the different subject matter.

A number of organizations were also in attendance, including the Boulder Watershed Collective (boulderwatershedcollective.com), the Clear Creek Watershed and Forest Health Partnership (clearcreekpartnership.org), and the High County Auxiliary, which was selling reflective address signs.

For information on getting a reflective address sign, contact Diane Anderson at 720-839-4783. Signs are $15 and include the mounting bracket.

Residents are encouraged to take the CWPP survey to help the core team identify issues and concerns in the community. The link to the survey can be found on the County CWPP webpage. From the main webpage (gilpincounty.colorado.gov), click on the elected officials/commissioners/ CWPP.

For more information about the 2024 update to the Gilpin County CWPP plan, contact Sheriff Armstrong (karmstrong@gilpincounty.org) or SWCA Project Manager Rob Fenwick (Robert.Fenwick@swca.com).