Highlands Camp and Retreat Center awarded by the The Longmont and Boulder Valley Conservation Districts:

Conservationists of the Year

The Ski Road Forest Restoration Project is a prime example of cooperative action among private landowners to promote and enhance wildfire resilience and increase ecological functioning for the benefit of the community of Allenspark. In 2022, three neighbors joined together to start on the journey to implement over 100 acres of forest restoration to reduce the negative impacts of restoration through wildfire, forest pests, diseases, and climate change. Of these partnering neighbors, the Highlands Presbyterian Camp and its staff have been instrumental to the success of the project.

Together with their neighbors, they committed to reducing fuel loads and restructuring the overgrown forest on their property. These forest treatments will reduce the chance of high-severity crown fire in the area near Allenspark, CO, allowing firefighters to make a stand before a fire reaches the town itself. In addition to the wildfire protection, the reduction in forest density will allow native grasses and forbs to proliferate across the treatment area, improving forage and habitat for birds, mammals, insects, and pollinators. Finally, these treatments will allow “good fire” to safely return to the landscape. In contrast with many of the abnormally high-severity wildfires we have experienced across the west in recent decades, the fire carried across these restored forests will burn with much lower intensity, periodically reducing surface fuels, improving soil conditions, and promoting native understory regeneration.

The Highlands Camp has been intimately involved in developing and implementing the project. They organized and hosted at least three outreach and educational events, inviting the local community and stakeholders to tour the project site, speak with the foresters, and learn about the need for these projects across the Front Range. In planning the project, the staff at the Camp coordinated with a local volunteer group, donating nearly 200 cords of firewood to the Old Gallery’s program to distribute firewood to those in need throughout the community. During the implementation of this project, the Highlands Camp also generously donated the use of one of the cabins on their property to the forestry contractors while they were on site.

As the logging phase of the project has wrapped up, the Highlands Camp has committed to continuing its stewardship of the land. They have organized a reseeding event to bolster native plant populations and reclaim highly disturbed areas like log landings and skid trails. They will conduct invasive plant management across their property to reduce competition with native vegetation. They have partnered with local organizations like Boulder Mushroom to inoculate the residual woody debris with locally sourced fungi to help speed up the decomposition process and further improve soil health and with the Boulder Watershed Collective to reintroduce beavers into Rock Creek, a major tributary of the North Saint Vrain Creek that runs through the property.

Through these efforts, it is clear that the Highlands Camp staff and leadership are committed to the ongoing conservation and stewardship of their property and the community they serve. The Boulder Valley and Longmont Conservation Districts are proud to present the Highlands Presbyterian Camp BVLCD’s Forestry Conservationist of the Year Award.