Capital Collaboration

The Colorado Emergency Management Association (CEMA) hosted its first-ever Capital Day on Monday, March 10th. Fire Adapted Colorado’s Training and Network Specialist Lara Thomas and Network and Training Fellow Sophie Pullen were excited to attend! 

The event provided insights into Colorado’s legislative process. It offered opportunities to engage with legislators, CEMA members, and 3015 Policy Center’s lobbyists, Camille Driver and Jesse Braughton, contracted by the CEMA legislative committee.  According to Gunnison County Emergency Manager and CEMA member Scott Morrill, about thirty EMs were able to attend, and most were able to meet with two to three legislators. “The most valuable part for me was spending time with our lobbyist. She is a rock star,” said Morrill. “After the Capital festivities, CEMA attendees reconvened at the Bar Nun, a popular watering hole near the Capital. A few legislators showed up, which was good – but the best part was hanging with the other EMs.”

Network and Training Fellow Sophie Pullen reflected, “It really was a great day. Not only because people were able to speak with senators and representatives, but also because Camille and Jesse were so helpful, supportive, and open to answering any questions. I left with a deeper understanding of the legislative process and feeling more comfortable entering that space in the future. As someone very new to the workforce, I felt very welcomed by the people at CEMA and the women from 3015 Policy Center and learned a lot from everybody!”

View the FACO flyer that Lara and Sophie took to the capital steps to represent our ability to connect with our 272 (and growing) network participants who are subject matter experts around the state and to highlight common wildfire resilience industry policy needs:

• Promoting mitigation investments over response
• Streamlined funding opportunities to reduce agency overhead and “fiscal virga” (funding that evaporates before reaching the ground)
• Consideration of all wildfire organizations, not just state agencies and local government, in policy implementation and investment

Discussions are already underway for a Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience Capital Day event in 2026!

FACO has been a CEMA member since 2022, engaging with Colorado’s Emergency Management professionals as conference speakers, attendees, and non-profit exhibitors at the Colorado Emergency Management (COEM) conference showcasing the Fire Adapted Communities framework, the Colorado Wildland Fire Conference and the Live Wildfire Ready campaign.  FACO’s Executive Director, Rebecca Samulski, and Team Rubicon’s Duane Poslusny were panel speakers at the 2022 COEM conference, and  Operations and Communications Specialist Cindy Howard has been a CEMA member since 2016.

Gunnison County Emergency Manager Scott Morrill has represented CEMA as a liaison to the FACO Board almost since our inception – first joining FACO as a board member in 2016 and also serving on the Colorado Wildland Fire Conference Planning Committee since 2017!  Scott has been involved with local and regional wildfire mitigation and planning efforts since 2004. He has also been a member of the West Region Wildfire Council since its inception in 2007, including serving on its Board of Directors. 

Scott fully embraces the role of Emergency Management in place-based wildfire resilience, emphasizing the cornerstones of life safety, personal preparedness, and responsibility. Scott is looking ahead to his retirement early this summer, which makes succession planning for a new CEMA liaison to the FACO board paramount for our network.

 

Mitigation is the Emergency – Jonathan Bruno, Coalitions & Collaboratives

These graphics offer a side-by-side comparison of both the FACNet ten-topic framework and the All-Hazard Emergency Management cycle –  where both disciplines recognize the need to promote mitigation over response.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both approaches align with what many community organizers and resilience advocates have long argued:

The most effective emergency management happens before the emergency, through decisions that prevent hazards from becoming disasters. – Kyle King, Crisis Lab

Kyle King, founder of Crisis Lab, explores this topic further in his February 28th blog post, The Courage to Say ‘We Don’t Have the Answers’: First Principles in Reform in Emergency Management. 

King discusses realizations, including how we might approach emergency management, where:

• Embedded resilience becomes the primary goal—designing communities where disasters have less impact in the first place
• Risk-informed development drives all community planning decisions, not just designated hazard mitigation projects
• Preparedness focuses not just on response organizations but on creating self-sufficient communities with distributed capabilities
• Response systems are designed to augment and support community capabilities rather than replace them

 

 

He also explores ‘Response as a Last Resort’ – Returning to first principles forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth: the heavy emphasis on response capabilities reflects a deeper failure to address the underlying causes of disaster vulnerability.

‘Response is the most resource-intensive phase of emergency management. It’s also the phase with the most inherent limitations—no matter how fast or well-coordinated the response, it comes after harm has already begun.’ 

As wildfire resilience leaders who favor pre-disaster fuel treatments, mitigation, fire-resistant construction, and resilient communities, it’s worth reading.

And while it’s already five years old, the 2019 National Institute of Building Sciences Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves publication reported that natural hazard mitigation saves $6 on average for every $1 spent on federal mitigation grants. 

“Homes that are built not to burn, don’t burn.” -Justice Jones, Fire and Disaster Program Manager, International Code Council