Mountain Village receives $825,303 grant for wildfire mitigation and forest health
The Town of Mountain Village is pleased to announce that it has been awarded an $825,303 Forest Restoration & Wildfire Risk Mitigation Grant from the Colorado State Forest Service to continue its critical Community-Scale Shaded Fuel Break Project aimed at improving forest health and reducing wildfire risk.
The shaded fuel break project is planned to cover approximately 100 acres strategically selected to help prevent the spread of wildfire should a fire start north or west of Mountain Village and try to move uphill from the Valley Floor. In a shaded fuel break, fuel volumes are reduced while trees and shrubs are retained. Fuel breaks can aid firefighters by reducing fire intensity, keeping the fire low to the ground, and by slowing the rate at which the fire spreads.
This grant will provide enough funding to cover 43 percent of the Shaded Fuel Break project and complete three of the highest shaded fuel break priority areas in the next four years. Forestry operations involving chainsaw crews, helicopter operations, and wintertime pile burns will continue with a goal of recovering forest health, enhancing the recreational experience along Town trails and improving our community’s resilience to wildfire.
Work on the fuel break began in 2024 when the Town hired a seasonal forestry crew to remove more than 2,200 trees totaling more than 52,000 cubic feet of fuel from steep, challenging terrain between Mountain Village and the Valley Floor. In October of 2024, the Town used a helicopter to remove a large number of these trees.
Some of the trees were placed on the Valley Floor and will be used for habitat restoration activities along the San Miguel River this summer.
“The terrain is extremely challenging, and the work is super technical. Our crew is excited to have this opportunity to meet these challenges to improve forest health and make our community more resilient to wildfire,” said Mountain Village’s Forester Rodney Walters.
View a video highlighting the project and the work performed in 2024.
When complete, the shaded fuel break will help protect over 844 homes, 118 businesses, and two critical emergency evacuation routes.
The grant Mountain Village received is part of a $7.04 million investment from the State of Colorado and TMV is one of 37 recipients.
“Preventing wildfires is an all-hands-on-deck effort in Colorado. Wildfires continue to be a serious threat to Colorado communities and investing in fire mitigation initiatives and helping communities create defensible spaces helps all Coloradans and firefighters to be better prepared in the event of a fire emergency. This $7.04 million in wildfire grants will provide the essential resources that are crucial to continue building resilience to wildfires across Colorado,” Governor Jared Polis said in a release.
The Forest Restoration and Wildfire Risk Mitigation grant program has a matching requirement, either through cash or in-kind contributions. Award recipients in areas with fewer economic resources, as defined by the social vulnerability index layer within the Colorado Forest Atlas, must match 25% of the project total, and all other award recipients must match 50% of the total project cost, amounting to nearly $9 million in match. With these matching funds, communities and groups across Colorado will invest about $16 million in efforts dedicated to forest restoration and wildfire mitigation. The projects awarded in this funding cycle will also build capacity for wildfire mitigation projects through staffing and equipment purchases.
