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CO Strategic Wildfire Action Program

Colorado Strategic Wildfire Action Program

The Colorado Strategic Wildfire Action Program (COSWAP) was created after the devastating 2020 fire season by the Colorado legislature through the bi-partisan supported SB21-258. After a successful grant cycle, the program was permanently funded in the 2023 legislative session. While housed within the Department of Natural Resources, COSWAP was collaboratively designed by representatives from the Colorado State Forest Service and the Division of Fire Prevention and Control. This partnership helps ensure the program aligns with other state work and priorities.

Our Grants

COSWAP supports wildfire risk reduction in Colorado with two grant programs. First, the Workforce Development Grant Program provides supported, entry level training opportunities and experience for individuals interested in wildfire mitigation and forestry. These workforce development crews are available for mitigation work in select areas. In the spirit of workforce development, COSWAP also funds mitigation trainings.

Secondly, COSWAP’s Landscape Resilience Investment funding makes targeted investments in strategic focus areas through landscape scale fuels mitigation projects. 

Workforce Development Grant

The COSWAP Workforce Development Grant makes two types of awards. Crew time awards are granted to applicants for wildfire mitigation projects that protect life, property and infrastructure. The Department of Corrections’ State Wildland Inmate Fire Team (SWIFT) crews or Colorado Youth Corps Association (CYCA) accredited conservation corps crews are paid by COSWAP directly to reduce administrative burden on the grantee. Grantees who wish to work with an independent conservation corps can request a cash grant to hire the corps directly. These crews are foremost focused on workforce development, and the objective of these partnerships is to develop the pipeline of individuals entering Colorado’s mitigation and forestry workforce. An added benefit is that mitigation work is completed for grantees. Managing mitigation projects can incur additional costs including project management, equipment rentals, and crew support, so applicants may also request funds to cover these expenses. 

Training is another important part of workforce development. COSWAP awards cash grants to groups looking to receive mitigation training.

CYCA Accredited Conservation Corps

COSWAP partners with Colorado Youth Corps Association (CYCA) accredited conservation corps to execute wildfire mitigation projects from 6-25 weeks in duration. When working with a CYCA accredited conservation corps, a grantee will be granted an award of crew time and DNR will pay for the mitigation work directly. 

Geographic Scope: Strategic Focus Areas: Rocky Mountain Restoration Initiative focal areas and Boulder, Douglas, El Paso, Jefferson, Larimer, La Plata and Teller counties.

Eligible applicants: 

  • Federal agencies
  • State agencies 
  • Local governments including counties, municipalities, fire protection districts and other special districts 
  • Tribes 
  • Public utilities with infrastructure or land ownership in areas of high wildfire risk
  • Registered homeowner associations, property owners associations, formal neighborhood associations and road districts
  • Wildfire Councils and/or wildfire, watershed or forest collaborative groups
  • Non-profit organizations that promote fuel reduction projects, are engaged in prescribed fire projects, or natural resource management

Match: No match required for crew time award; 25% match required for optional cash grant for project management expenses.

Timeline: Projects may run through calendar years 2024 and 2025.

Independent Conservation Corps

COSWAP workforce development grants also support mitigation projects completed by independent (non-CYCA accredited) conservation corps. The grant is a cash award of up to $200,000. 

Geographic Scope: Strategic Focus Areas: Rocky Mountain Restoration Initiative focal areas and Boulder, Douglas, El Paso, Jefferson, Larimer, La Plata and Teller counties.

Eligible applicants: 

  • Federal agencies
  • State agencies
  • Local governments including counties, municipalities, fire protection districts and other special districts 
  • Tribes 
  • Public utilities with infrastructure or land ownership in areas of high wildfire risk
  • Registered homeowner associations, property owners associations, formal neighborhood associations and road districts
  • Wildfire Councils and/or wildfire, watershed or forest collaborative groups
  • Non-profit organizations that promote fuel reduction projects, are engaged in prescribed fire projects, or natural resource management

Match: Applicant must provide a 25% in-kind or cash match of the award amount.

Timeline: Projects may run through calendar years 2024 and 2025.

Department of Corrections (DOC) State Wildland Inmate Fire Teams (SWIFT)

COSWAP partners with DOC SWIFT crews to execute wildfire mitigation projects from 6–25 weeks. When working with a SWIFT crew, a grantee will be granted an award of crew time and DNR will pay for the mitigation work directly. 

Geographic Scope: Within a three hour drive of Cañon City. 

Eligible applicants: 

  • Federal agencies
  • State agencies 
  • Local governments including counties, municipalities, fire protection districts and other special districts 
  • Tribes 
  • Public utilities with infrastructure or land ownership in areas of high wildfire risk
  • Registered homeowner associations, property owners associations, formal neighborhood associations and road districts
  • Wildfire Councils and/or wildfire, watershed or forest collaborative groups
  • Non-profit organizations that promote fuel reduction projects, are engaged in prescribed fire projects, or natural resource management

Match: No match required for crew time award; 25% match required for optional cash grant for project management expenses

Timeline: SWIFT crews can accommodate winter work 2023, fall 2024 and year-round work in 2025.

Workforce Development Training

COSWAP supports training opportunities for mitigation and prescribed fire, including (but not limited to):

  • S130/S190/L180
  • S212 powersaws
  • Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges (TREX)
  • Field training for prescription development and treatment implementation
  • Advanced tree felling

Geographic Scope: Statewide

Eligible applicants: 

  • Federal agencies
  • State agencies 
  • Local governments including counties, municipalities, fire protection districts and other special districts 
  • Tribes 
  • Public utilities with infrastructure or land ownership in areas of high wildfire risk
  • Registered homeowner associations, property owners associations, formal neighborhood associations and road districts
  • Wildfire Councils and/or wildfire, watershed or forest collaborative groups
  • Non-profit organizations that promote fuel reduction projects, are engaged in prescribed fire projects, or natural resource management

Match: Applicant must provide a 25% in-kind or cash match of the award amount.

Timeline: Trainings must take place in calendar years 2024 or 2025.

 
Project name Awardee Award type Award amount Project Value
Arapahoe Ranch Fuels Reduction Project Boulder Watershed Collective CYCA 10 weeks $118,000
Bailey Evacuation Routes Mitigation Platte Canyon Fire Protection District DOC-SWIFT 16 weeks $299,856
Basalt Shooting Range Hand Thinning Colorado Parks and Wildlife DOC-SWIFT 6 weeks $64,536
Beaver Creek Colorado Parks and Wildlife DOC-SWIFT 3 weeks $11,215
Bergen Peak SWA Fire Mitigation Colorado Parks and Wildlife CYCA 6 weeks $70,800
Berrian Park Mitigation Project Evergreen Fire Protection District CYCA 15 weeks $177,000
Big Elk Meadows Wildfire Mitigation Volunteer Fire Department of Big Elk DOC-SWIFT 10 weeks $186,258
Big Thompson Community Wildfire Mitigation Expansion Big Thompson Watershed Coalition CYCA 18 weeks $198,000
Black Mountain Fire Mitigation U.S. Forest Service DOC-SWIFT 8 weeks $149,160
Bosque del Oso Colorado Parks and Wildlife DOC-SWIFT 3 weeks $55,647
Button Rock City of Longmont CYCA 18 weeks $212,400
Cheyenne Mountain Gambel Oak Thinning Colorado Parks and Wildlife CYCA 8 weeks $94,400
Cub Creek Brook Forest Road Roadside Mitigation Evergreen Fire Protection District CYCA 14 weeks $165,200
Delta Fire Fuels Mitigation Delta County DOC-SWIFT 10 weeks $108,360
Dome Rock Colorado Parks and Wildlife DOC-SWIFT 1 day $3,120
Evergreen Fire Rescue 103 Evergreen Fire Protection District DOC-SWIFT 7 weeks $129,843
Game Trail and Trail West Shaded Fuelbreaks Colorado Firecamp CYCA 25 weeks $295,000
Game Trail and Trail West Shaded Fuelbreaks - Training Colorado Firecamp Cash grant for training $72,208  $72,208
GCWC Fuel Reduction Project Grand County Wildfire Council DOC-SWIFT 22 weeks $408,846
GMUG Prescribed Fire Preparation U.S. Forest Service DOC-SWIFT 6 weeks $112,446
Grand Valley WUI Colorado Parks and Wildlife DOC-SWIFT 10 weeks $108,360
Healthy Forest Project Town of Green Mountain Falls CYCA 15 weeks $177,000
La Plata County Safe Routes La Plata County DOC-SWIFT 10 weeks $186,258
Lake County Community WUI Project (Phase I) Lake County DOC-SWIFT 25 weeks $463,725
Lory State Park- FH7 Extension and FH2 Maintenance Colorado Parks and Wildlife CYCA 18 weeks $212,400
Maintaining Effective Treatments Jefferson Conservation District CYCA 8 weeks $88,000
Maxwell Fuel Reduction State Land Board CYCA 10 weeks $118,000
Mountain Zone – Hazardous Fuels Reduction U.S. Forest Service CYCA 10 weeks $118,000
Mueller State Park- Cheeseman Ranch Area Colorado Parks and Wildlife CYCA 6 weeks $70,800
NoCo TREX The Ember Alliance Cash grant for training $100,000 $100,000
NoFloCo Fire Mitigation Posse Training Indian Creek Property Owners Association Cash grant for training $41,773 $41,773
Pikes Peak State Wildlife Area Colorado Parks and Wildlife DOC-SWIFT 3 weeks $31,932
Protecting Critical Infrastructure in Riparian WUI/ Grand Junction City of Grand Junction DOC-SWIFT 17 weeks $184,212
Railroad Bridge Fuels Reduction & Habitat Improvement Project National Forest Foundation CYCA 18 weeks $212,400
Reduce Fuel Load on La Plata River Fort Lewis College CYCA 10 weeks $118,000
Restoration and Roadside Thinning Genesee Foundation CYCA 8 weeks $94,400
Russian olive removal and fuel reduction-Cherry Creek State Park Colorado Parks and Wildlife DOC-SWIFT 8 weeks $149,928
SCC at Edgemont La Plata County CYCA 8 weeks $92,100
TeamWorks Crescent Meadows Project TEENS Inc Cash grant for non-CYCA corps $100,000 $100,000
Top of Cheyenne Mountain Fuels Mitigation Colorado Parks and Wildlife DOC-SWIFT 7.5 weeks $140,557
Vail Deer Underpass SWA Fuels Reduction & Habitat Treatment Colorado Parks and Wildlife DOC-SWIFT 4 weeks $42,576
2023 Droney Gulch Fuel Reduction Project State Land Board DOC-SWIFT 6 weeks $65,016

  

2023 Grant Application Timeline

  • Request for applications open: August 31, 2023
  • Request for applications close: 
    • Conservation corps grants (CYCA and independent)- Friday, September 29
    • DOC SWIFT and Workforce Training grants- Friday, October 27 
  • Conditional award notifications: Within 45 days of application submission
  • Conversations with workforce development partners and site visits: Following conditional awards
  • Final awards: Fall 2023
  • Contracting: End of year 2023

How to Apply

Request for Applications

Application for CYCA Accredited Conservation Corps  Application for Independent Conservation Corps  Application for SWIFT Crew   Application for Training Grant

Sample Grant Agreement (non-governmental)  Sample Intergovernmental Grant Agreement

Project Snapshots

Priority Fire Mitigation at Green Mountain Falls 

Image of forestry project in progress, overlooking the town of Green Mountain Falls.

The Mile High Youth Corps worked 15 weeks at Green Mountain Falls completing much needed mitigation on the hillside above the community. 

Read the full story

DOC SWIFT Reduces Fire Risk in Vail

Burn piles on a hillside outside of Vail

The Department of Correction's SWIFT crews spent four weeks at a State Wildlife Area outside Vail working on fire mitigation. 

Read the full story

Indian Creek Property Owners Association Trains Mitigation Volunteers

Photo of eight mitigation volunteers during their mitigation training.

The Indian Creek Property Owners Association sent 52 volunteers to receive training at Colorado Fire Camp.  

Read the full story

Youth Corps Contribute to Workforce Development 

 

Landscape Resilience Investment Program Information

The Landscape Resilience Investment Program invests funding in targeted mitigation projects in COSWAP’s strategic focus areas. The projects selected for funding are collaboratively developed to meet the greatest needs of the area. In the 2022 funding cycle 10 projects were awarded between $500,000 and $1,000,000 and were matched by $4,000,000. DNR partners with the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute (CFRI) to monitor the effectiveness of the Landscape Resilience Investment projects. Learn more about the Effectiveness Monitoring Plan on CFRI’s website.

2022 Landscape Resilience Investment Awards

  1. Boulder County: Phase 1: St. Vrain Forest Health Partnership Project, $1,000,000
  2. Colorado State Forest Service- El Paso County: El Paso County Forest Health and Resilience Project (ECFHRP), $500,000
  3. Colorado State Forest Service - Teller County: Teller County Forest Health and Resilience Project (TCFHR), $1,000,000
  4. Jefferson County: Jefferson County Wildfire Safe, $1,000,000
  5. La Plata County:  COSWAP1 Florida Watershed Mitigation Grant,  $978,032
  6. Larimer County: Pole Hill / Waltonia, $1,000,000
  7. RMRI Upper Arkansas - Chaffee County: Upper Arkansas Thrives - Landscape Level Resilience in Chaffee County, $500,000 
  8. RMRI Southwest Colorado - Mancos Conservation District: RMRI SW Colorado - Northwest Mancos Priority Zone, $1,000,000
  9. RMRI Upper Arkansas - Lake County: Lake County CWPP Fuels Reduction Project, $500,000
  10. RMRI Upper South Platte - Jefferson Conservation District: Upper South Platte Landscape Resilience, $1,000,000

COSWAP Project Locations

SWIFT crew

Strategic Focus Areas

The Strategic Focus Areas are one of the components developed by the partnership between the Department of Natural Resources, Colorado State Forest Service and the Division of Fire Prevention and Control. They represent parts of the state with the highest populations living in high wildfire risk areas or with regional capacity to make meaningful strategic investments. The Strategic Focus Areas include Boulder, Douglas, El Paso, Jefferson, Larimer, La Plata and Teller counties plus Rocky Mountain Restoration Initiative focal areas.
 

To learn more about the process of identifying Strategic Focus Areas see the White Paper. 

White Paper

Strategic Focus Areas Map

Frequently Asked Questions

COSWAP’s Workforce Development Grant will open August 31, 2023. All application materials are found on the COSWAP website. Applications can be submitted via email to COSWAP@state.co.us. If applying to work with a CYCA accredited conservation corps please submit your application by September 29. If applying to work with an independent corps, SWIFT or to host a training, submit your application by October 27. 


Participation in COSWAP’s Landscape Resilience Investment is by invitation only. DNR coordinates directly with potential applicants to administer the Landscape Resilience Investment program. 

COSWAP funds can be spent on all land ownership types.

All projects must be focused on reducing wildfire risk to life, property and critical infrastructure. SWIFT and conservation corps projects must be appropriate for hand crew work. This includes, but is not limited to, forest thinning, fuelbreaks, chipping, biomass removal, and pile or broadcast burning. Individual defensible space projects are not eligible. The Landscape Resilience Investment program focuses on cross-boundary hazardous fuel reduction projects, including prescribed fire and planning efforts, that create project connectivity across a landscape to reduce wildfire impacts to communities.

The Colorado Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Executive Director’s Office is the primary manager of the Colorado Strategic Wildfire Action Program. Per statute, the Colorado State Forest Service, Division of Fire Prevention and Control and DNR work collaboratively on program design.

SB21-258 called for the U.S. Forest Service to send a National Incident Management Organization (NIMO) Team to Colorado to perform a comprehensive risk analysis to identify the most strategic locations in the state for investments in fuels reduction. Due to the active 2020 fire season a NIMO Team was not available, however Region 2 of the U.S. Forest Service made its fire and fuels experts available. Subject matter experts from the U.S. Forest Service, Colorado State Forest Service, Division of Fire Prevention and Control, Bureau of Land Management, National Parks Service, and the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute at Colorado State University formed the Rapid Fuels Reduction Assessment (RFRA) team to perform the comprehensive risk analysis. Over the summer and fall of 2021 a core team analyzed federal and state risk assessments to determine the most strategic areas for fuels reduction work to guide investment.

There are many funding sources available for wildfire mitigation efforts, including planning, implementation and capacity building. The Forest Restoration & Wildfire Risk Mitigation (FRWRM) grant program administered by the Colorado State Forest Service provides cash for fuels reduction and forest health projects as well as capacity building. FRWRM is a great option for those who have priority projects that must be completed in their entirety and expeditiously within 3 years. The Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CWDG) administered by the US Forest Service provides funding for wildfire planning efforts and wildfire mitigation projects. CWDG is a national program that prioritizes at-risk communities in an area identified as having high or very high wildfire hazard potential, are low-income, or have been impacted by a severe disaster that affects the risk of wildfire. CWDG can grant up to $250,000 for the creation or updating of a Community Wildfire Protection Plan or up to $10 million for a project described within a Community Wildfire Protection Plan less than 10 years old. 

The COSWAP workforce development grant uniquely supports the growth of the forestry and mitigation workforce through its focus on youth corps, SWIFT and trainings. COSWAP workforce development crew time awards are great grants for organizations that want to support either young adults or incarcerated men. The key to a successful workforce grant is selecting the correct project for the crew. Youth corps crews bring enthusiasm and learning to the site; they work well on less technical projects or as a supplement to contractor or staff work. The SWIFT crews are large, often 18-28 men; these crews are quite efficient and can tackle larger and more complex projects. In all COSWAP cases, project completion is not guaranteed. Instead, successful grantees submit ambitious scopes of work with the understanding that the crews will complete as much as possible in the allotted time. In addition to its workforce development benefit, COSWAP is also unique in its low administrative burden. With a crew time award,  COSWAP pays the workforce development partners directly. Crew time awards also have no match requirement which makes for simple reporting. Only cash awards have a match requirement.
 

There are many funding options available. See this compilation of funding for a list of programs available in Colorado. 

 

COSWAP is open to funding trainings outside of the ones listed on this page. Please reach out to the administrator (alison.lerch@state.co.us) with questions on eligibility. 

See the flowchart in the request for applications to help guide your decision. 

Additional Mitigation Funding Opportunities 

Find additional funding opportunities for wildfire mitigation using this funding compilation.

Compilation

Partners

The Colorado Strategic Wildfire Action Program is designed and implemented collaboratively between partners identified in SB21-258. Representatives from the Colorado State Forest Service and the Division of Fire Prevention and Control work with program staff within the Department of Natural Resources to make decisions on program priorities, methods and implementation. 

CSFS, DNR and DFPC Logos

Questions

For program questions please contact:

Alison Lerch, Program Administrator: alison.lerch@state.co.us 

or Courtney Young, Program Facilitator: courtney.young@state.co.us

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