Forest Restoration & Wildfire Risk Mitigation
Defensible space in a Castle Rock community funded through the FRWRM grant program
Forest Restoration & Wildfire Risk Mitigation Grant Program
Note: The 2024-2025 Request for Applications will open August 1, 2024.
The Colorado Legislature established the Forest Restoration & Wildfire Risk Mitigation (FRWRM) grant program in 2017. This program provides state support through competitive grant funds that encourage community-level actions across the state for some specific purposes:
- Reduce the risk of wildfire to people, property and infrastructure in the wildland-urban interface (WUI)
- Promote forest health and forest restoration projects
- Encourage use of woody material for traditional forest products and biomass energy
2024-2025 FRWRM Important Dates
Aug. 1, 2024: Request for Applications
Oct. 10, 2024: Application deadline (by 5 p.m.)
Mar. 31, 2025: Award announcements
2023-2024 Forest Restoration & Wildfire Risk Mitigation Funded Projects
Forest Restoration & Wildfire Risk Mitigation funds helped launch 31 projects last year to reduce the risk of wildfire, promote forest health and forest restoration, and encourage the use of woody material.
| Applicant | Project Name | County | Award Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadmoor Resort Community HOA | Broadmoor Resort Community Wildfire Mitigation Plan | El Paso | $143,900.00 |
| City of Fort Collins | Michigan Ditch Pre-Fire Mitigation | Larimer/Jackson | $507,805.00 |
| Clear Creek Fire Authority | Clear Creek Community Chipping Program | Clear Creek | $26,500.00 |
| Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed | North Rim Road Wildfire Mitigation 2023 | Larimer | $90,000.00 |
| Coalition for the Upper South Platte | Catamount Region Forest Health | Park | $57,657.00 |
| Coalition for the Upper South Platte | CUSP Chipper | Park | $75,306.70 |
| Colorado Firecamp | Firecamp Community Forestry | Chaffee | $468,600.00 |
| Colorado Springs Fire Department (CSFD) | Blodgett Fuels Reduction | El Paso | $142,400.00 |
| Colorado Springs Fire Department Wildfire Mitigation Section | CSFD Wildfire Mitigation Masticator | El Paso | $141,500.00 |
| Colorado State Land Board | Pine Creek Forest Health | Chaffee | $40,000.00 |
| Douglas County Open Space and Natural Resources | Sandstone Ranch Forest Restoration | Douglas | $354,000.00 |
| Eagle Valley Wildland (Eagle River Fire Protection District) | Eagle Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project Addendum | Eagle | $262,090.00 |
| Falls Creek Ranch Association, Inc. | Falls Creek Healthy Forest Restoration | La Plata | $65,000.00 |
| Falls Creek Ranch Association, Inc. | Falls Creek Fire Mitigation Tractor | La Plata | $37,000.00 |
| Genesee Fire Rescue | Genesee Fire Protection District Strategic Fuels Reduction | Jefferson | $68,000.00 |
| Genesee Fire Rescue | Genesee FPD Chipper | Jefferson | $50,000.00 |
| Jefferson Conservation District | Lone Rock Phase 2 | Park | $157,190.00 |
| La Plata County | Durango Area Fuel Reduction Plan Development | La Plata | $138,750.00 |
| Lake Agnes Property Owners Association (LAPOA) | Lake Agnes Fuel Break and Access Road Fuel Reduction Project | Grand | $113,317.00 |
| Larimer Conservation District | Diamond Creek Forest Restoration | Larimer | $450,000.00 |
| Larimer Conservation District | Elk Park Forest Restoration | Larimer | $663,750.00 |
| Larimer County Department of Natural Resources | Hermit Park Open Space - Estes Valley Forest Health Project | Larimer | $102,000.00 |
| Lee Driscoll | Castle View Forest Restoration Project | Denver | $775,000.00 |
| Lefthand FPD | Upper Ceran St. Vrain Watershed 2023 | Boulder | $243,029.68 |
| Mancos Conservation District | Upper Dolores & Mancos Watershed Capacity | Montezuma | $421,995.00 |
| Norrie Colony | Norrie Fire Break and Fuel Reduction Project | Pitkin | $25,600.00 |
| North Routt Fire Protection District | NoRoCo Fire Mitigation | Routt | $517,000.00 |
| Roaring Fork Valley Wildfire Collaborative (RFVWC) | Roaring Fork Valley Wildfire Collaborative (RFVWC) | Garfield, Eagle, Pitkin | $112,000.00 |
| Spanish Peaks Alliance for Wildfire Protection (SPAWP) | SPAWP 2023-2024 FRWRM Grant | Huerfano | $628,440.00 |
| The Sanctuary HOA/Central Park Management | The Sanctuary Mitigation Project | Routt | $60,000.00 |
| Woodmoor Mountain Homeowners Association | Woodmoor Mountain Mitigation Project 2.0 | Douglas | $303,750.00 |
Frequently Asked Questions
The Colorado State Forest Service has approximately $7,200,000 to award in this next round of funding. There are no minimum or maximum amounts for each award.
The following individuals, organizations or entities may apply:
- Local community groups, including registered homeowner associations and formal neighborhood associations, that are located within or are in close proximity to the WUI
- Local government entities including counties, municipalities, fire protection districts and other special districts in or within close proximity to the WUI
- Public or private utilities, including water providers, with infrastructure or land ownership in areas with high risk of catastrophic wildfires
- State agencies, such as the State Land Board and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, that own land in areas with high risk of catastrophic wildfires
- Non-profit groups that promote hazardous forest fuel reduction treatment projects or are engaged in firefighting or fire management activities
NOTE: Projects that benefit only one individual do NOT qualify.
More information will be provided in the formal Request for Applications. Previous projects awards have provided funding for capacity and fuels and forest health treatments. It’s important to note that funds can be used for forest restoration, but funds cannot be used for post-fire rehabilitation activities.
Application period is Aug. 1 – Oct. 10, 2024.
Awards will be made by March 31, 2025.
Interested applicants should contact their local CSFS Field Office.
Legislation during the 2021 Colorado legislative session provided additional funding and an expanded scope for the program. Applications and requirements have changed from previous years, so we encourage applicants to thoroughly review documents and contact their local Colorado State Forest Service field office with questions.
FRWRM and the Colorado Resiliency Framework
The Colorado Resiliency Framework outlines the State’s resiliency vision and goals, and it explores risks and vulnerabilities across multiple themes, while providing strategies that can be used to reduce risk and vulnerabilities and be adaptive to changing environmental, social and economic conditions. The FRWRM grant program encourages applicants to integrate each of the nine Resiliency Prioritization Criteria into their project proposals.
- Co-Benefits: Provide solutions that address problems across multiple sectors to create maximum benefit.
- Community – Build community capabilities and resources that coordinate and integrate resiliency, equity, and disaster recovery planning efforts and facilitate social connectivity and empowerment, especially focusing on marginalized populations: The FRWRM application requires applicants to address how their project goals align with the Colorado State Forest Action Plan AND specific CWPP (or similar plan) goals and objectives. It also requires applicants to discuss any local measures that the community has adopted to reduce wildfire risk to people, property and infrastructure and the coordination that will occur with local partners and supporters. The FRWRM grant program requires applicants to coordinate proposed projects with relevant county officials to ensure consistency with county-level wildfire risk reduction planning and must submit a letter of support from a county official. Additional points are given to applicants who show additional leverage of resources and collaboration, partnerships with youth and/or Veterans Groups, and the protection of water supplies.
- Economic – Address Colorado’s toughest challenges through regionally diverse, coordinated education and capacity-building that generates a skilled workforce and overall innovation economy that is adaptive and agile: The FRWRM grant program awards up to 25% of total available grant funds to projects that increase community capacity by providing the community with the resources and staffing necessary to plan and implement forest restoration and wildfire risk mitigation projects.
- Health and Social – Dismantle structural inequities and integrate efforts across health and social service networks to empower communities, expand access, and improve health outcomes and wellness for all Colorado residents: The FRWRM grant program uses a Wildland Fire Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) that identifies areas of fewer economic resources in the state. Proposed projects that are located in an area of fewer economic resources are given the option to provide the required match at a reduced rate of 25% of the total project cost. Additional preference is also given to projects that include the protect water supplies.
- Housing – Implement a collaborative strategy to create sustainable affordable housing solutions that address the needs of the whole community while preparing for and responding to changing environmental, social, and economic conditions: One of the primary purposes of The FRWRM grant program is to reduce wildfire risk to people, property, and infrastructure in the wildland urban interface (WUI). FRWRM requires all funded projects to be located in or near the WUI so that funding will go toward protecting those resources.
- Infrastructure – Improve the resiliency and sustainability of infrastructure in Colorado by prioritizing resilience and integrating social equity, investment, planning, mitigation and recovery efforts across jurisdictions: One of the primary purposes of The FRWRM grant program is to reduce wildfire risk to people, property, and infrastructure in the wildland urban interface (WUI). Applicants are scored on the how the project reduces hazardous fuels and/or improves forest conditions and how these efforts will positively impact the community(s) surrounding the mitigation work.
- Watersheds and Natural Resources – Protect, enhance, and restore Colorado’s watersheds and natural resources, consistent with scientific understanding, community priorities, and environmental laws: The FRWRM grant program promotes forest health and encourages forest restoration projects. Applicants must describe how their proposed project will include forest health and restoration components, and how the treatment prescription is scientifically supported. Additional preference is also given to projects that include the protect water supplies.
- Innovation – Advance creative approaches and techniques that provide new solutions and encourage continual improvement and advancement of best practices – serving as models for others in Colorado and beyond: Although the FRWRM application process does not encourage innovation, the program has a CSFS-led long-term monitoring program that follows an adaptive management cycle, or an iterative process wherein CSFS assesses current and future conditions, plans and implements various forest management actions, then monitors over time to assess treatment effectiveness, which then informs subsequent planning with lessons learned, suggesting potential changes to management actions that may have both greater success and consider a broader range of management goals.
- High Risk and Vulnerability – Ensure that strategies identify risk and vulnerability, and directly address the reduction of risk to human well-being, physical infrastructure, and natural systems. Strategies should consider impact to those who most experience marginalizing: One of the primary purposes of The FRWRM grant program is to reduce wildfire risk to people, property, and infrastructure in the wildland urban interface (WUI). Applicants are required to describe the project area and current conditions, including the values and structures at risk. The Composite Priority Theme Map that applicants are required to include, prioritizes areas that address combined Themes of Forest Conditions, Living with Wildfire and Watershed Protection. The Forest Conditions Theme Priority Map evaluates threats such as insect and disease disturbance, canopy fire and land use conversion. The Living with Wildfire Theme Priority Map evaluates wildfire risk including the wildland urban interface, drinking water assets, forest and riparian assets combined with burn probabilities. The Watershed Protection Theme Priority Map evaluates improving and maintaining quality of water and infrastructure by looking at infrastructure and predicted post-fire erosion rates. The SVI that FRWRM uses to identify areas of fewer economic resources allows applicants located in those area to provide the required match at a reduced rate of 25% of the total project cost.
- Adaptive Capacity – Include flexible and adaptable measures that consider future unknowns of changing climate, and economic and social conditions: The program has a CSFS-led long-term monitoring program that follows an adaptive management cycle, or an iterative process wherein CSFS assesses current and future conditions, plans and implements various forest management actions, then monitors over time to assess treatment effectiveness, which then informs subsequent planning with lessons learned, suggesting potential changes to management actions that may have both greater success and consider a broader range of management goals.
- Economic Benefit-Cost – Make financial investments that can sustain changes and have the potential for economic benefits to the investor and the broader community – through both direct and indirect returns: Not Applicable
- Harmonize with Existing Activity – Expand, enhance, or leverage work being done to build on existing efforts. Engage relevant stakeholders to maximize these efforts and reduce potential conflicts: The FRWRM grant program encourages projects to be strategic in nature such as those that are near other planned or previously treated forest areas, will be implemented across land-ownership boundaries, are within a priority area identified in a completed Community Wildfire Protection Plan or FEMA Hazard Mitigation Plan, benefit the respective community or residents, or will serve as a catalyst for future forest management projects. FRWRM also encourages coordination with local partners and accredited Colorado Youth Conservation or Veteran Corps organizations.
- Social Equity: – Provide solutions that are inclusive, with consideration to populations that are often most impacted by disruptions. Address inequities, remove barriers, and benefit populations by providing access or meeting functional needs. Equitably distribute economic benefits: The FRWRM grant program uses a Wildland Fire Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) that identifies areas of fewer economic resources in the state. Proposed projects that are located in an area of fewer economic resources are given the option to provide the required match at a reduced rate of 25% of the total project cost.
- Long-Term and Lasting Impact – Create long-term gains to the community with solutions that are replicable and sustainable, creating benefits for present and future generations: FRWRM requires projects to include a plan to be sustained over time and include long-term plans to monitor and maintain the improved landscape conditions achieved through implementation of the project. The proposals must also describe the benefits the project will have to the respective community or residents and how the proposed project will serve as a catalyst for future forest management projects.
- Technical Soundness – Identify solutions that reflect best practices that have been tested and proven to work in similar regional context. Identify measurable indicators to assess performance and success: FRWRM requires that project prescriptions comply with Colorado Forestry Best Management Practices and that the scientific foundations should be substantiated by a reliable and professional resource with proper interpretation and recognized as appropriate to the local conditions found on the project site. The program has a CSFS-led long-term monitoring program that follows an adaptive management cycle, or an iterative process wherein CSFS assesses current and future conditions, plans and implements various forest management actions, then monitors over time to assess treatment effectiveness, which then informs subsequent planning with lessons learned, suggesting potential changes to management actions that may have both greater success and consider a broader range of management goals.