John Scarffe, Boulder County. On October 17, 2020, Courtney Walsh and her family were eating at a restaurant in Boulder. The smoke was so heavy from the Pine Gulch and Cameron Peak fires, and then they found out they were being evacuated from their home north of Boulder.

They frantically ran through the house to decide what to grab, and they only had ten minutes. The Boulder County Sheriff pulled into their driveway and told them to evacuate immediately. 

Then they learned that their house was gone, Walsh said. It would be great to have official communication about the status of wildfires. It has been really hard on her family, but they are thankful for their lives. 

“We don’t know the cause of the Calwood Fire, but people are asking if we are going to rebuild. Working with the insurance company has been terrible. They had to pay out of pocket $10,000 to do recover and have not come to agreement with the insurance company. 

“I wouldn’t want anyone to go through what we did,” Walsh said. “Our firefighters don’t have enough support. We need to give them the resources they need.” 

Walsh was one of several Colorado residents who participated in a public wildfire recovery listening session to hear from Coloradans who have been impacted. In the wake of a devastating wildfire season in Colorado’s 2nd District and across Colorado, Congressman Joe Neguse conducted the session on February 18, 2021. 

The session featured a panel discussion with Governor Jared Polis, Senator Michael Bennet, Senator John Hickenlooper and Congressman Neguse and provided an open forum for Coloradans to share their feedback, challenges and experiences in the wake of these deadly fires.

Three of the state’s five largest wildfires occurred in 2020, two of which impacted the 2nd Congressional District, which Congressman Neguse represents. “As our district and our state experienced multiple record-breaking wildfires this season, we’ve worked closely with firefighters and emergency management officials on the ground to bring in needed federal resources and problem solve where we could,” said Congressman Neguse. “After conversations with our local officials, we introduced the Wildfire Recovery Act to assist our local communities in their recovery efforts. 

“Hearing from constituents has been invaluable as we work to craft legislative solutions and address future fires of this scale. We hope this wildfire listening session will contribute to future legislative proposals, and identify issues we can work on through the Bipartisan Wildfire Caucus. We will utilize every mechanism at our disposal to provide needed resources to protect our communities from catastrophic fires.” 

Congressman Neguse helped secure FEMA funds for containment efforts of the CalWood, East Troublesome and Cameron Peak Fires and he introduced the Wildfire Recovery Act legislation to increase the federal cost-share on Fire Management Assistance Grants (FMAG) to bring in more federal resources to local communities. 

During the February 18, 2021, listening session, Neguse introduced his distinguished guests, and asked how we prepare and recover from wildfire. The state has experienced three of the largest fires in history this year. The East Troublesome fire burned 170,000 acres and loss of life.

He expressed his gratitude to local firefighters and sheriff’s officers. The 2020 wildfires were unique because they burned at a time when the snow was falling. They need to protect residents and businesses. What steps can we take?

Senator Michael Bennet thanked Neguse for his leadership and said he was glad Senator Hickenlooper joined the Senate at this time. The State has to maintain a level of partnership with the federal government. 

His thoughts are with those who lost their homes. He is working on getting FEMA and other grant relief. He wants to change the way politicians think about the forests. “We’re paying for wildfires after they happen instead of investing for the future,” he said. 

Bennet said he is putting out a bill to create a $60 billion fund for fire mitigation, and $20 billion would go to state and local governments. “The cost of doing nothing is going to be greater.” 

Senator Hickenlooper and former Colorado Governor said that in a month Governor Jared Polis will get people ready for the next fire season. The weather is unpredictable, but we will have more droughts, and fires will be impossible to control. 

In past years, it seemed like the state had a new fire every week. If you can get to the fire soon enough you have a better chance of limiting damage, Hickenlooper said, but the wildfire starts where you can’t get to it and it grows rapidly. 

They are trying to limit the extent of the damage. Forest management is a crucial issue and the best way to control fires. Fires have consequences to the watershed after wildfires and disaster recovery. 

“We have to build back better than before,” Hickenlooper said. He suggested reaching out to everyone to clear trees, shrubs and brushes away from houses and to install sprinkler systems. Strengthening the workforce is a crucial issue.

He applauded Governor Polis and the entire team who continued to come to work every day and keep the spirits up for the state.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis said it is important to have someone who has been a governor with Senator Hickenlooper and the leadership of Senator Bennet and Congressman Neguse. By the end of the season, more than 600,000 acres burned during the three fires. 

Most of that is federal land. It underlines the importance of a federal partnership, which is critical. Colorado is blessed to have public lands, and with that comes the responsibility to stop fires quickly. 

Nothing is as hard for a governor to hear from people who lost everything they have and two Coloradoans lost their lives. He thanked the fire chiefs and sheriffs for their work and is pursuing one-time stimulus funds to include fire mitigation and improve rapid responses.

Jill Grano with the Neguse staff opened the meeting for questions. In addition to the story from Courtney Walsh, the group heard from Kellie Sponberg. 

In response, Neguse asked how much of an investment we need to make in all of our state and public lands. The Cameron and East Troublesome fires were on lots of public lands. We need to get a better sense so we can be as prepared as we need. 

Governor Polis said he was thinking about the property owner level and their perimeter defense. He has seen homes that are left unscathed and those that are totaled. The owners who took down trees improved their odds. Mitigation at the home level is a very important cornerstone and should help that home defense so the angel of destruction will pass over.

Senator Bennet said that all of us together is how we need to approach this. All of us together have to figure out how to change the way the federal government thinks about the forests. 

“We have been reaping the whirlwind of lack of fire defense. The federal government hasn’t done what it needs to do. We can create millions of high paying jobs that would give people the opportunity to do important work on fire mitigation,” Bennet said.

Senator Hickenlooper told Walsh that he hopes she has lodged a complaint for her insurance problems. The State has a variety of ways to take action. 

Cindy Latham asked how to help educate residents to prepare for wildfires. Executive Director Stan Hilkey said they will add evacuation exercises. Evacuation out of the Waldo Canyon fire was difficult. 

With the Troublesome Fire, people didn’t have a lot of time. For the Division of Homeland and Emergency Management, the idea is to exercise and drill on that. 

Governor Polis said our fire seasons are getting longer, and if you have winter weather that makes it harder. In warmer weather, they have been able to employ gymnasiums and cots to evacuate. In many ways, to pull off the evacuations this year was really hard.

Sue Schneider said her family home built in 1893 burned to the ground on Labor Day in Poudre Canyon. They found out the house burned down on TV. They own 100 acres, and it is all burned down. 

They have a creek that runs into the Poudre River, so she was concerned about run off from the fires. She has worked with several agencies but wanted to encourage support for their efforts.

Neguse said our heart breaks, and we are with you, and he is delighted to know the USDA is working with you on water quality. Last year, Bennet and he sent letters to protect the watershed. 

Bennet said the important concern is the possible effects on our water, and he is working with the right agencies. We found ourselves in an unusual situation because we had snowfall during the fires. 

If hills are snow covered, they can’t do any mitigation and stabilize the hillside. It is a further reminder as to how vulnerable we are. Areas are much more likely to burn, and that makes it harder for us to do the work we need to do, Bennet said.

Gabriela Martinez asked if the state is going to hire more natural resource personnel, and Polis said they are looking at AmeriCorps and hope to have funding in the next month or two.

Scott Segerstrom with the Conservation Corps said he had 1,800 participants and could easily double that with funding in the Conservation Corps. They work very hard for Colorado, and have ways we can work together.

Neguse said they are passionate about making investments that would match the scale of this crisis, and they are re-imagining the Civilian Conservation Corps like back in the 1930s under President Franklin Roosevelt. The bill requests upwards of $50 million and is a top priority of his. Polis said we would welcome that. 

After a couple of more questions, the session concluded with final comments by the leadership.

(Originally published in the February 25, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)