Thousands of acres of land northeast of Mount Sopris will undergo wildfire mitigation treatment and prescribed burns in the late summer and fall, using $1.6 million of funding raised by Roaring Fork Valley Wildfire Collaborative. The collaborative was in its final phases of securing the funding as of Wednesday. 

The money will support a 2,750-acre prescribed burn on U.S. Forest Service land and a 300-acre fuel-thinning operation on Sopris Mountain Ranch land in the fall.

“We know wildfire will return to the valley,” Angie Davlyn, executive director of the collaborative, said. “We don’t know where, but it’s a question not of if, but when. And the more that we can do to prepare — to thin the fuel, to slow the progression of that fire, and give firefighters a chance to battle the blaze before it reaches communities —the better.”

Both scheduled areas were identified as key mitigation zones to disrupt the rapid spread of wildfire, according to a simulation conducted by the Roaring Fork Fire Rescue and the USFS five years ago. The simulation showed that if a fire started off Colorado Highway 133 near Carbondale on a summer day with moderate winds from the west, it would spread to Snowmass Village within 12 hours. 

“When a fire comes, it doesn’t care at all about those jurisdictional boundaries,” said Davlyn.

The collaborative was founded in 2022 in an effort to make the valley more wildfire resistant. It includes 150 different stakeholders, including all municipalities, counties, and fire districts in the Roaring Fork Valley.

“The power of partnerships here is just incredible,” she said. “Wildfire mitigation is something that no single entity can tackle alone.”

Along with the collaborative, this summer’s project is spearheaded by Roaring Fork Fire Rescue and the Colorado State Forest Service. They partnered with Sopris Mountain Ranch and Ranch Manager Parker Nieslanik to make the project happen, according to a press release by the entities. 

Contractors on Sopris Mountain Ranch will conduct fuel-thinning, planning to thin 60% of the brush, forest, and dead growth to improve the health of the forest, according to the press release. The thinning also benefits wildlife by giving animals more effective access to food sources, Davlyn said.

The USFS’ prescribed burn aligns with modem mitigations practices to return fire to areas of the valley that haven’t seen a burn for over 100 years. In the past, natural fire cycles were suppressed, leaving overgrown forests and more fuel for larger fires, she confirmed. Mimicking a natural, less destructive fire cycle will support the ecosystem and lower risks of uncontrollable burns.

“The biology of the ecosystem of the forests in our area is used to fire,” she said.

Experts will manage prescribed burns by preparing the landscape, informing the public, and waiting for ideal conditions — the right temperature and humidity — before starting, Davlyn added. 

Apart for the collaborative-funded burns, the Bureau of Land Management will conduct its own wildfire mitigation of 353 acres on the Crown Recreational Area north of Mount Sopris in the late summer. The agency plans to reduce the shrub density by 40% to 70%, according to Chad Sewell, a BLM fire management specialist. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts this summer to be ripe for wildfires after an unusually low snow year that yielded only a 90% snow water equivalent in the Roaring Fork Valley. Erin Walter, an NOAA service hydrologist who presented conditions to the Pitkin Public Safety Council on Wednesday, said warm and dry temperatures predicted through the spring will add to the fire risk.