North Rim Road Fuelbreak Expansion Underway

The Phantom Canyon Wildland Fire Crew has been working to expand the North Rim Road Roadway treatment in Glacier View Fire District, an activity within the Red Feather Lakes Area Wildfire Defense Project. The treatment, like other roadway fuelbreaks, will extend approximately 150’ from both sides of the road where possible and will continue to take place on private properties whose owners have executed Right of Entry (ROE) agreements with CPRW and Larimer County. In addition to the ongoing work of the Phantom Canyon Crew, the Glacier View Community Mitigation Volunteers devoted time and effort to address a crucial pinch point at the start of the treatment that otherwise would have been excluded. These types of efforts in conjunction with the ongoing CWDG projects serve as an example of collaboration building community capacity and ultimately resilience.

North Rim Road was identified as an area of extreme relative risk and prioritized by the Glacier View Fire Protection District Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). The project will directly benefit residents living along the long, winding, one-lane road by improving it as an egress in the event of a potential wildfire. Moreover, the road has been identified as a crucial Potential Operational Delineation (POD) boundary and a fuel break along it will improve the ability of fire managers to contain and fight a fire while also providing some protection for Glacier View Meadows from any fire that may emerge from the west.

A fuelbreak along North Rim Rd will integrate with years of completed and ongoing wildfire mitigation work along Elkhorn Creek and in the surrounding area, led by Northern Colorado Fireshed Collaborative partners.  The larger Fireshed planning framework ensures that US Forest Service actions on federal land work together with community and private lands priorities, to affect the way fire burns across the landscape.

As part of the ongoing treatment, slash piles will periodically be staged along the side of the road. Upon completion of each section, piles will be removed in a matter of weeks.

Questions? Contact CPRW’s Forests Program Director at daniel@poudrewatershed.org.