ASPEN WILDFIRE FOUNDATION - PROJECTS & IMPACT

PROJECTS

& IMPACT

PROJECTS MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Aspen Wildfire Foundation has helped accelerate wildfire readiness across the Aspen Fire Protection District by bringing philanthropic investment directly into community-facing programs. Hundreds of homeowners have completed expert risk assessments and taken meaningful home-hardening steps. Neighborhoods across the district are organizing and implementing coordinated mitigation projects that reduce shared risk and build stronger, more resilient communities.

Every project supported by the Aspen Wildfire Foundation addresses a real need facing our community. Some reduce wildfire risk before a fire starts. Others strengthen emergency response or introduce innovative technologies that improve wildfire detection and decision-making.

Every step forward strengthens Aspen’s resilience and protects the community we love.

Current PROJECT Areas

Wildland Response Capability
Advanced Fire Detection Technology
Community Preparedness
Forest Health & Fuels Reduction
Firefighter Training & Equipment
Emerging Wildfire Technologies

AT THE LANDSCAPE SCALE

AFPD's wildfire resilience team is leading cross-boundary, landscape scale projects. We support large-scale projects that reduce hazardous fuels, improve forest health, and create safer evacuation conditions around Aspen. This includes strategic investments in prescribed fire and thinning efforts that enhance ecological resilience and protect the community by slowing the progression of fast-moving, high-intensity wildfire.

Landscape Spotlight: Sunnyside Prescribed Fire 2025

With the help of partners and collaborators from across the state, Aspen Wildfire Foundation 501(c3) helped support the 800-acre prescribed fire on April 14, 2025 to reduce fire danger and improve wildlife habitat. Read more here.

Landscape Spotlight: Bark Beetle Treatments

Fires in beetle-killed areas are typically more severe, difficult to revegetate, and can experience high erosion. That's why, starting in 2022, AFPD and other local partners have been working together to improve the health of our local forests. Learn more here.

Landscape Spotlight: Cross-Boundary Fuel Break

Aspen Fire, the BLM, Pitkin County Open Space and Trails, and private partners demonstrated the many benefits of cross-boundary multi-stakeholder collaboration. A 33-acre fuels reduction and habitat restoration project was implemented at a critical wildfire pinch point on Red Mountain in 2023. Read more here.

Landscape Spotlight: Prescribed Fires 2022 & 2023

With the help of many local partners, AFPD helped with the 750-acre Collins Creek Prescribed Burn on April 30, 2023, as well as the 900-acre Hunter Creek Prescribed Burn on May 13, 2022. This project helped reduce wildfire risk and improve habitat for many different species of wildlife. Learn more about the benefits of prescribed fire here.

AT THE HOMEOWNER LEVEL

We connect Aspen residents to no-cost home wildfire risk assessments conducted by Aspen Fire and practical home-hardening guidance. Through programs like Chipper Days, defensible space support, and evacuation planning tools, we help homeowners understand and reduce their individual risk while contributing to community-wide resilience.

Homeowner Spotlight: Chipper Day Program

AFPD's Chipper Day program helps homeowners reduce hazardous fuels and create defensible space around homes. Participants follow guidelines for registration, brush size, and pile location. Chipped brush piles are composted by the Pitkin County Landfill. If you live in Aspen Fire Protection District and would like to participate in 2026, click here or contact shannon.fink@aspenfire.com.

2025:

Pickups Completed across district: 78
Total Fuels Removed: 184 cubic yards

2024:

Pickups Completed across 11 zones: 97
Total Fuels Removed: 159 cubic yards

2023:

Funding Partnership with Pitkin County and City of Aspen,
Participating HOA's: 9
Total fuels removed: 35.84 tons

2022:

Participating HOA's: 3
Total fuels removed: 238 cubic yards of wood chips

Homeowner Spotlight: Neighborhood & HOA Resiliency Partnerships

We partner with neighborhoods and HOAs throughout Aspen, including early leaders like Starwood, to raise and manage tax-deductible funds for community-scale mitigation. These collaborations support defensible space work, shared fuels reduction projects, and neighborhood wildfire readiness plans. In doing so, we help deliver coordinated protection where homes and wildlands meet.

Homeowner Spotlight: Home Assessments

In an effort to reduce the wildfire hazards in our community Aspen Fire Protection District has begun offering wildfire mitigation assessments for private residences, neighborhoods, and sub-divisions. With a thorough assessment and proper mitigation efforts your home’s chances of wildfire survival increase dramatically.

Schedule a Home Assessment

EDUCATION & OUTREACH

We bring residents, agencies, and local businesses together through educational workshops, neighborhood gatherings, and community events. By building understanding and participation across Aspen, we foster a shared commitment to preparedness and long-term wildfire resilience.

Outreach Spotlight: Events

We hope you join us at some of our upcoming events! The Aspen Fire Protection District hosts an annual Fourth of July celebration at Station 61 in downtown Aspen, as well as an annual Halloween celebration at Station 62 at the Aspen Airport Business Center! Don't miss our upcoming annual gala, An Evening of Embers & Elegance, on July 24, or our first Mayor's Cup Golf Tournament on August 9.

View Upcoming Events

Past Outreach Events

Wildfire Community Info Night, hosted by Aspen Fire (4/21/26)
Wildfire Preparedness Event, hosted by Aspen Police Department, in partnership with the Aspen Fire Department, Roaring Fork Fire Rescue, and Pitkin County Emergency Management (9/22/25)
Mitigation Best Practices Workshop, hosted by Aspen Fire (6/4/25)
“Untrammeling the Wilderness: Restoring Natural Conditions Through the Return of Human-ignited Fire” with Clare Boerigter and Jonathan Coop, hosted by Aspen Center for Environmental Studies and Wilderness Workshop (3/6/25)
Wildland Fire Community Info Night, hosted by Aspen Fire, AWF, WCRFV, Pitkin County, City of Aspen, and ACES (3/4/25)
Evacuation Prep Open House, hosted by Aspen Fire and the Aspen Wildfire Foundation (6/22/24)
Wildfire Trivia Night, hosted by Aspen Fire, the Aspen Wildfire Foundation, and Wildfire Collaborative RFV. (5/3/24)
Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire, movie screening with the Wildfire Collaborative RFV. (4/10/24)

View All Past Events

MEASURING OUR IMPACT

Since 2021, 200+ donations have helped AFPD raise $2 million+ to create a community wildfire program. We've received $150,000 in grants from the Colorado State Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management due to the demonstrated community suport in our district. We could not have done this without you!

Philanthropic leadership through the Aspen Wildfire Foundation expands the capacity of Aspen Fire to protect the community. Major donor investments—including securing the largest gift in Aspen Fire’s history, a Type 3 wildland fire engine—ensure firefighters have the advanced equipment, technology, and tools required for safe and effective wildfire response.

Success is measured not only in dollars raised, but in stronger partnerships, improved preparedness, healthier forests, enhanced firefighter capabilities, and a community that is better equipped to live with wildfire.

As our work grows, this page will continue to highlight funded projects, measurable outcomes, and the collective impact made possible through donor support.

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