Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., has wrapped up a busy Tuesday touting the money that could come Colorado’s way with the passage of his Outdoor Restoration Partnership Act legislation. 

Bennet visited Clear Creek County to talk with outdoor business, ski industry and local government representatives; in Grand County he spoke with ranchers and their local government officials; and then he wrapped up the day on the side of Mount Werner in Steamboat Springs.

The Mount Werner stop drew U.S. Forest Service, Colorado State Forest Service, ski industry and city representatives to talk about the biggest part of the Act: $60 billion for forest health and watersheds.

“Send us the money, we’ll figure out how to spend it,” several said.

Russ Bacon, supervisor for the Medicine Bow Routt National Forest and Thunder Basin National Grasslands at the U.S. Forest Service, pointed out they’ve spent $190 million in the last five years on wildfires covering a half million acres in his area, which he said is ten times the normal budget.

“What I wouldn’t give for even ten percent of that to be proactive, rather than reactive” he told Bennet. That doesn’t take into account costs for reforestation, dealing with noxious weeds that spring up after a fire and soil stabilization. Then there’s the long term costs to local communities, Bacon said.

Communities rely on clean drinking water, including Steamboat, and the sediment from those fires impacts those water supplies. He also noted the impact to public access. In Routt County, 50% of the land is public, but the Morgan Creek fire, which started in July and will burn until the snow starts, closed off 70,000 acres of public land, in one of the most popular areas in the county. Last year, a half million acres were closed because of wildfires, and  those closed areas lead to increased use in other areas, he added. 

“We have to focus on the WUI but we also got to take the strategic look at the landscape as a whole,” to break up the landscape so it’s not a continuous line of available fuels even 20 miles away. “We can’t be in the 500 acres a year [treatment] mentality when Mother Nature is burning 500,000 acres a year.” 

Bennet noted President Joe Biden has incorporated his bill into the budget reconciliation act, with $60 billion needed just to treat the landscape in the west. That sounds like a lot, he said, but the federal government spent $60 billion on fighting wildfires in the past five years. There’s another $20 billion on soil health coming as well, and he attributed Congress’s willingness to sign onto the bill to the fact that the smoke from California has reached the East Coast. People now realize it’s not just him complaining, it’s a national problem, he said. It’s a toxic combination – climate change and the lack of federal investment on landscapes. He’s optimistic Washington will do its job. 

Of the $60 billion, $40 billion goes to the U.S. Forest Service and another federal agencies, but $20 billion will head to local communities, Bennet said. 

But aside from the funding, one of the bigger issues is working across boundaries , be it federal, state, local and private. “We’ve all woken up,” said John Twitchell of the Colorado State Forest Service. “We’re on a good path but we’re strapped. I see [the bill] as our future and as sustainable.” 

“Many nights I don’t sleep very well,” worrying about how to keep water flowing to the area’s 13,000 permanent residents, said Frank Alfone, the general manager of the Mt. Werner Water and Sanitation District. He noted the road the group was standing on is on the way to one of the district’s large storage tanks, and wildfires that could cut off access to that tank. Ten years ago, they started thinking about what happened if access to Fish Creek, which provides 90% of the city’s water supply, was cut off by wildfires. It took $8 million but they will have enough water if a fire cut off that access. 

For a water provider, it’s about protecting infrastructure, Albon said. “We’ll take your money,” he told Bennet.

Tim Corrigan, a Routt County commissioner, told Bennet he recently hiked the local Flattop Mountain, where he usually sees only two or three people. There were 50 that day. “Please send us the money. We’ve shown we can cooperate.” 

Bennet and Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., are scheduled to speak later Wednesday at the Colorado Water Congress, also in Steamboat Springs. Hickenlooper is appearing remotely as he is still in quarantine due to a positive COVID-19 test last week.