This fund is a Special Revenue Fund approved by voters in 2022 and created in 2023. Its purpose is to fund wildfire mitigation efforts including, but not limited to:

• Strategic forest and grassland management projects;
• The reduction of catastrophic wildfires;
• The protection of water supplies;
• Fostering resilient ecosystems and to establish community partnerships and programs to help residents prepare for wildfires.

The expenditure budget for 2023 is $9,015,000.

Revenue Source

• 0.10% Sales and Use tax in perpetuity, effective 2023. Budgeted 2023 Revenues are $9,500,000.

Background

On December 30, 2021, the Marshall Fire destroyed 1,087 homes in the City of Louisville, the Town of Superior, and within areas of Boulder County resulting in the costliest federally-declared wildfire disaster in Colorado history. The Marshall Fire is a stark example of how wildfires have increased dramatically in intensity and frequency in Boulder County. They now burn at unprecedented scale and frequency with record setting destruction. Additionally, the threats and impacts from these more intense wildfires have expanded beyond the foothills and mountains, and now also threaten our communities in the eastern plains of Boulder County. 2020 saw the three largest wildfires in the state's history, which produced an almost unimaginable amount of damage to the region. These fires included the Cameron Peak fire, the East Troublesome fire, and the Pine Gulch fire. Boulder County’s largest fire, the Calwood fire, burned over 10,000 acres in 2020.

Climate change has been a key factor in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the Western United States. Research shows that changes in climate create warmer, drier conditions. Increased drought, and a longer fire season are boosting these increases in wildfire risk. Boulder County and other Colorado communities are experiencing the impacts of a warming climate. Wildfires now burn twice as many acres each year compared to pre-1980 averages, and Colorado’s precipitation decreased 20% in the last century. Less snow and earlier melting will leave Boulder County with less water during hotter summers and tinderbox conditions ripe for destructive, fast spreading wildfires. In the coming decades, these changing climactic conditions are likely to further decrease water availability and intensify wildfires in the wildland urban interface. Given these conditions, it is critical that Boulder County take a proactive approach to mitigate fire danger and safeguard water resources.

The threats posed by wildfire to Boulder County residents’ lives, livelihoods, and property are caused by a host of factors, including unhealthy, fire-prone forests; climate change, which has led to increased temperatures and prolonged droughts that are drying out forest and grassland fuels; and increasing human populations of residents and recreationists in the Wildland Urban Interface. By implementing additional forest health mitigation and watershed health efforts, Boulder County can accelerate the pace and scale of climate resilience work on strategically located projects. This work will serve to improve forest health, watershed protection and community resilience.

In Colorado, the number of people living in areas with wildfire risk increased by nearly 50 percent from 2012 to 2017 to approximately 2.9 million people—about half of the state’s total population. We have more and more people and homes in harm’s way when a fire ignites. Population growth can also result in more wildfire ignitions and more people recreating in the County increases the chances of human fire starts.

Fire suppression over the last 100 years has resulted in forests with vegetation densities 10 to 100 times their natural state. Healthy forests allow for a diverse array of benefits. They provide habitat for many wildlife species, improve water quality, filter pollutants from water and air, enhance outdoor recreational activities, provide wood products, and supply jobs that support local economies. Forest health mitigation can fulfill an important role in how we help shape Colorado’s future forests. Where lands allow for active adaptive management to occur, we can enhance forest resilience to fire, insects, and diseases.

Current and expected future conditions, including persistent droughts and uncharacteristic wildfires, have impacted and will continue to negatively impact forest health and the source water and habitat these forests provide. Water is an increasingly limited resource in Western states. Practicing forest management to improve forest health is critical to protecting and enhancing this precious resource. The fire mitigation efforts funded by this ballot measure will help to protect critical watersheds that provide drinking water for residents, by reducing fire impacts to water via runoff, flooding, contamination, and utility damage. Mitigation efforts will help to protect our watersheds, which provide drinking water, municipal, and agriculture use, by reducing the impacts of fire to water supplies.

Creating wildfire resilient communities, residents and homes is a priority goal of this wildfire mitigation initiative. Since 2004, Wildfire Partners, a Boulder County program, has helped 3,000 homeowners in the western part of Boulder County become more fire resilient. The Marshall Fire has illustrated the need to expand the scope of the county’s wildfire preparedness and mitigation programs to the eastern part of the county and increase the pace and scale of mitigation efforts in the west.

Restoring healthy forests that are more resilient to wildfire and safer places for firefighters to fight fires, are priority goals of this wildfire mitigation initiative. In August of 2020, federal, state, and local governments joined with non-profit entities in Boulder County to form the Boulder County Fireshed partnership as a shared vision for reducing the risk of wildfire to its people, communities, recreation areas, and natural resources through closely coordinated forest management across all lands.

In the face of these challenges, Boulder County is committed to continuing its role as a strong leader in proactive wildfire mitigation. The Wildfire initiative would provide resources to leverage state, federal and local wildfire mitigation grants, increase outreach and education efforts, and provide for strategic planning with our partners to increase the pace and scale of wildfire mitigation across Boulder County.

The Board finds that the most appropriate response to these issues is to create a County-wide sales and use tax of 0.10% to provide revenue to fund programs and operations that address these issues.