NEDERLAND — After years of planning, the town of Nederland is finally making strides towards establishing a crucial fire evacuation route intended to protect not only human lives but also the vital water infrastructure required to combat wildfires.
However, progress has been slow due to disagreements on the proposed route, funding issues, and competing priorities, as noted by Jonathan Cain, the town’s administrator of planning and zoning.
On July 15, local officials convened with a contractor and members of the Nederland Fire Department to explore plans for two potential egress roads from the Big Springs neighborhood. This area is situated southeast of the town plaza and bordered by Magnolia Road and Barker Meadow Reservoir, housing approximately 200 residents.
Board member Tania Corvalan highlighted that the quest for an adequate escape route has been ongoing for around 15 years. The Big Springs neighborhood, located in a hilly forested area, has been fraught with challenges in developing proper exit points, particularly from the east side, where fire crews would need access in the event of a wildfire originating from the west.
Amid predictions from a United Nations report that uncontrolled wildfires are expected to rise by 14% as early as 2030 and by 50% by the century’s end, the urgency in Nederland has grown.
As of September 2023, Colorado’s wildland urban interface — areas where forests meet towns — has been deemed the state’s most hazardous fire zone, covering about 4.5 million acres, equivalent to 45 times Denver’s city size. Analysis from the Colorado State Forest Service has indicated that Nederland, located in the heart of this fire-prone zone, has a 96% higher likelihood of experiencing a catastrophic wildfire compared to many regions across the U.S., considering its weather patterns, ignition sources, and topography.
The 2021 Marshall fire, which devastated more than 1,000 homes in nearby Superior, has further intensified concerns regarding escape routes, sparking debates over how to reconcile constrained local budgets with the increasing threat of destructive wildfires in drought-affected areas across the western United States.
Despite these grave worries about evacuation routes, financial constraints are not the sole source of delay. Challenges surrounding forest and wetland health, access issues, and inter-jurisdictional cooperation have also complicated the situation.
The drive for a reliable evacuation route began around 2010 when residents of Big Springs initially opposed a proposed route that Corvalan described as compromising the surrounding environment, featuring a mix of dilapidated lodgepole pines and healthy old-growth trees.
Following this opposition, residents collaborated with the town and ultimately pinpointed a potential path off Doe Trail Road, which currently ends at the northeast corner of the subdivision. This route would ascend a ridge to join Magnolia Road, a connector between Boulder Canyon and the Peak to Peak Highway located just south of Nederland’s center, successfully avoiding problematic environmental features.
However, the fire department later scrutinized the residents’ selected route and deemed it unsuitable due to safety risks, leading them to recommend a different path. This alternative would travel east from Doe Trail, traversing more forested areas and culminating at the back of Barker Dam, crossing over a creek.
Currently, town officials are conducting evaluations on both options while seeking input from the Nederland Fire Protection District and community members.
Fire Protection District Chief Charlie Schmidtmann expressed a preference for the route beneath Barker Dam due to concerns over access. He conveyed that navigating downhill to the dam is generally easier in slippery conditions than making the uphill climb to Magnolia Road, despite the challenges still posed by steep switchbacks once reaching the top of Magnolia.
However, one potential obstacle in the route under Barker Dam is that there is presently no access road in that area, and approval from the City of Boulder is necessary since it owns the land. This presents a major concern for Big Springs resident Jim Reis, who voiced apprehensions about the town’s lack of engagement with Boulder city and county authorities on the matter, potentially impeding the project’s progression.
Reis emphasized the need for decisive communication with the city, county, and the Forest Service before finalizing the design. He remarked, “Before we start going on another train walk…that seems like a very big showstopper.”
In response, Cain indicated that while the town seeks to answer these queries, they have intentions of engaging with the City of Boulder collaboratively as they move into the final stages of planning. He underscored the importance of accommodating the City of Boulder’s needs, highlighting the role of Barker Reservoir as a vital resource for the city.
The financial dimension of the project remains unclear, and although cost discussions were absent from the recent meeting, Cain mentioned that the town currently has funding earmarked only for planning purposes, sourced from a congressional allocation via the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). However, this funding is set to expire before the contractor can finalize the necessary plans.
Cain stated, “Within the changing landscape of official grants, some things that have happened in the past are different,” and he recognizes that the egress grant for Nederland will either need to be re-scoped to align with the project’s goals or seek an extension to allow for completion of a full shovel-ready design.
Funding constraints are a widespread challenge. Brett Wolk, associate director at the University of Colorado’s Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, reiterated that Nederland isn’t alone in navigating such issues, as numerous mountain communities throughout Colorado face similar concerns regarding resident safety in the context of escalating wildfires amid insufficient funding.
Wolk explained that many neighborhoods encounter comparable access difficulties, stressing that the intertwining of human safety and watershed protection necessitates priority attention in these discussions.
Despite the existing federal, state, and local initiatives aimed at improving safety, Wolk pointed out that the demand for funding consistently outstrips supply. Efforts like the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the state’s Strategic Wildfire Action Program and related grant programs fall short of meeting all needs.
He concluded by acknowledging that numerous factors contribute to slower implementation timelines than some stakeholders might prefer, emphasizing the importance of aligning local contexts and community values with scientific recommendations and best practices for emergency planning.
Ultimately, Cain remains optimistic that federal partners will devise a strategy to expedite the town’s long-held fire evacuation project into a shovel-ready phase, noting, “We are close to the finish line and are optimistic that can happen.”
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