Recap of FACO’s Director Work Travel in 2024

Rebecca Samulski, Executive Director:

I created this collage and story to inspire support for Fire Adapted Colorado through my Colorado Gives Day fundraiser page.

Fire Adapted Colorado is Colorado’s Wildfire Resilience Network, supporting community leaders in wildfire preparedness, with 270+ participants and growing.

I’m privileged to work with Cindy, Lara, and Julie. Lara, FACO’s network coordinator, is pictured (right) ‘raising the roof’ in our Lafayette hotel room, as we worked on multiple screens and prepped for an in-person pilot training for Realtors.

As Director, I advocate for the needs and FACO participants and help transfer knowledge. The collage highlights my engagement with FAC friends across the country.

In January, I taught Community Wildfire Mitigation Best Practices at the Colorado Wildland Fire and Incident Management Academy in Colorado Springs. Teaching leaders to improve their effectiveness is central to our mission: connecting and empowering wildfire resilience leaders to enhance outcomes in Colorado communities (teaching the Cohesive Strategy at center). Long-time friends and a former board member were live-auctioning the CWFIMA 30th anniversary quilt.

In spring, I responded to a fire near a friend’s house along the Dolores River (bottom left) with the Dolores Fire Protection District, where I have had an office for 8 years and gained experience through seasonal response. It was a stressful fire for the neighborhood, with significant smoke intake for our department.

At the CO Forest Collaboratives Summit in Durango, I introduced the local team of resilience leaders, facilitated a workshop exploring local and agency needs (lunch break at bottom). I also facilitated a meeting for the Colorado South Region Mitigation Stakeholders in Westcliffe, where a contractor showed off his logging equipment during our field tour (bottom center).

In September, I brought FACO to Atlantic City, NC, for the National Cohesive Strategy Workshop, where I led a Community Wildfire Mitigation Best Practices workshop. Highlights included R&R over lunch (bottom) and beach walks with workshop colleagues Wendie and Michaele (lower right) and Julia from Fire Adapted Montana (right, 2nd from bottom corner).

The top right showcases the 2024 Colorado Wildland Fire Conference in Snowmass. FACO co-hosted the event, with me sitting alongside Eric, our longest-serving board member, for a FireForest screening; leading a plenary discussion on WUI with Dr. Meg Matonis of The Ember Alliance; and joining Roaring Fork Valley Wildfire Collaborative leaders hosting trivia at the conference social.

This year we added VIP aerial tours of the WUI, supported by LightHawk. I took an incredible helicopter flight over the upper CO river basin, observing diverse wildfire challenges—from luxury homes to trailer parks, debris flow zones, Hanging Lake, and the Storm King Mountain memorial for 14 hotshots who died in the 1994 South Canyon Fire, which my dad responded to as an NPS Fire medic. The view of changing aspen leaves and a bald eagle flying nearby was unforgettable.

I presented at the Colorado state capitol for the first time, supporting The Nature Conservancy and Western Resource Advocates by testifying on the need for prescribed fire (dome view, top). During this visit, three fires ignited along the Rocky Mountain foothills that I could see on the return flight.

I ended the year of FACO travels at a joint Wildland Fire Leadership Council and Western Cohesive Strategy Committee held in Flagstaff where I captured Kimi from Headwaters Economics  and Neil with Flagstaff Fire sharing insights on national needs to support community fire adaptation (upper left). Both are friends I’ve met through the National FAC Network. I captured another picture alongside friends from the National network in theater style selfie, Jerry (HI Wildfire Mgmt Org, formerly Boise Fire) and Jon (Dir. of Coalitions & Collaboratives). We were invited to the Red Sky Summit, an interdisciplinary non-conference in San Fransisco, where I got coast to coast for work this year and also made some inspiring new connections.

Through the connections we make, FACO is serving communities and landscapes across Colorado and beyond.