Dec. 28—Longmont recently received a Great Outdoors Colorado Youth Corps Association grant that will help the city protect its watershed through forest stewardship and wildfire risk reduction.

Although not technically a monetary award, the grant will fund eight weeks of work by the Larimer County Conservation Corps on the St. Vrain Forest Health Project.

Great Outdoors Colorado “has estimated that this work is valued at $88,800, but it’s important to distinguish that the city is not getting any of this physical money, but rather a specialty crew to help work on this project for eight weeks,” Scott Hansen, Longmont Public Works & Natural Resources communications and marketing specialist, said in an email.

Longmont created a forest stewardship plan nearly two decades ago and has since completed approximately 80 acres of forest stewardship each year.

To date, “over 1,000 acres” of forest land in Button Rock Preserve have been treated, a city news release said.

In 2016, the Colorado State Forest Service carried out an extensive forest inventory in Button Rock Preserve that laid the foundation for the updated forest stewardship plan.

The update addressed conditions through forest plot research modeling, vegetative inventories, wildfire fuels modeling, noxious weed management and more.

The Great Outdoors Colorado Youth Corps Association grant must be used by the end of 2024.