An $82,200 grant from Great Outdoors Colorado to the town of Green Mountain Falls is part of the ongoing effort to protect the community from catastrophic fire.

Surrounded by Pike National Forest, the town is one of the state’s most risk-prone areas. Nate Scott, the town clerk, wrote the successful grant application.

With the grant, the town hired Mile High Youth Corps to mitigate from 8 to 12 acres of public land on the town’s perimeter, the work to begin in the spring.

The mitigation involves building a two-mile fuel break that includes thinning and removing debris. “Not everything can be mitigated because the terrain is too steep,” said Mayor Todd Dixon.

In office less than a year, Dixon is dealing with multiple issues that include but are not limited to the threat of another fire like the 2012 Waldo Canyon fire. The fire raged through Colorado Springs and up Ute Pass, resulting in the loss of 347 homes, encompassing 18,247 acres and forcing 32,000 county-wide evacuations.

“Our biggest thing is getting people out of town if there’s a situation,” Dixon said. “Law enforcement (Marshal Sean Goings) and the fire district actually have a plan that they practice.” (Dixon is referring to the Green Mountain Falls/Chipita Park Fire Protection District, whose chief is Steve Murphy.)

The town’s role, Dixon said, is to clear the roads to ensure that residents can safely evacuate. “It’s a challenge because we get a lot of rain,” he said. “That’s what I see as one of our bigger roles in keeping the roads maintained and in a condition that will support an emergency evacuation and getting emergency equipment through. It’s going to be rough.”

Taking lessons from victims of the Marshall fire in Boulder County in December 2021, Dixon urges residents to check their insurance policies. “Replacement costs now are expensive,” he said. “And mitigate your property.”

In the effort to raise awareness about protecting private property, several years ago the town launched a Fire Mitigation Advisory Committee. “I’m thrilled to hear we got the grant, because Green Mountain Falls is one of the most at-risk communities in the state,” said David Douglas, the committee chair. “Any funds we can get are extremely welcome and needed.”

With regional attention focused on the vulnerable town, crews led by Adrian Knight, forester with the Coalition for the Upper South Platte, are marking trees on the town’s rights of way.

“There’s a bit of collaboration that has to go on with that,” Dixon said. “Some people don’t want to mitigate.”

In addition to CUSP and GOCO, the Historic Green Mountain Falls Foundation is clearing debris and mitigating its property on Red Butte Mountain. “It’s not prevention; it’s mitigation, Dixon said.

The GOCO grant allows the Mile High Youth Corps to continue work on town-owned parcels in 2023, said C.J. Runge, regional manager for the Southern Front Range Land Conservation and Mile High Youth Corps.

In 2021, the crew completed 15 weeks of forest thinning and management of fuels above and below the popular Thomas Trail.

Funded by the Colorado Strategic Wildfire Action Program, the youth corps worked in forested parcels infested with beetle-kill and mistletoe. “This has left large stands of dead and dying trees, posing an extremely high-risk fire environment directly adjacent to many residential properties,” Runge said. “The continuation of this work is critical for reducing the likelihood of a high-severity fire near the Town of Green Mountain Falls.”

For Dixon, the work is crucial. “We’re trying to give the firefighters a chance. This has been an exceptionally bad year,” he said. “We could have a problem. Depends on weather conditions, but Mother Nature always wins.”