{"id":837,"date":"2019-06-20T09:37:27","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T15:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/stateoftherockies\/?p=837"},"modified":"2019-08-01T13:25:58","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T19:25:58","slug":"fellows-visit-to-northern-front-range","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/stateoftherockies\/2019\/06\/20\/fellows-visit-to-northern-front-range\/","title":{"rendered":"Fellows’ Visit to Northern Front Range"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/h5>\n
We kicked off our summer research with a two-day trip up to Boulder and Larimer counties to meet with numerous experts on regional climate issues such as water distribution and flood recovery. The trip was very interesting and we learned a great deal about important local issues while having the chance to speak with key stakeholders. Below are short descriptions of our five meetings.<\/h5>\n

The\u00a0Northern Colorado Water\u00a0Conservancy District\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Frank\u00a0Kinder and Jeff\u00a0Stahla<\/h5>\n

A visit with Frank Kinder, the Water Efficiency Program Manager,\u00a0and Jeff\u00a0Stahla, a Public Information Coordinator. We visited their headquarters in Berthoud, Colorado that includes their Conservation Gardens. These gardens are meant to inform and educate property owners about planting and landscaping methods to decrease water use. We then headed out to visit a few of the\u00a0District\u2019s major reservoirs\u00a0to get a better understanding of the system at large. One site we visited\u00a0is the Windy Gap\u00a0Project, where Northern Water plans to build a\u00a0new dam to allow greater water storage capacity. We discussed\u00a0the intersection of agriculture and development\u00a0occurring in this geographical\u00a0area and how this intersection affects regional water.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

City of Longmont\u00a0Community and Neighborhood Resources Office\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Carmen Ramirez\u00a0and Wayne Tomac<\/h5>\n

We then\u00a0met with Carmen Ramirez and Wayne Tomac, who work in Community\u00a0& Neighborhood Resources for the City of Longmont, to discuss Longmont\u2019s Resilience for all\/Resiliencia\u00a0para\u00a0todos\u00a0program. Resilience for all focused on connecting Boulder County\u2019s Latinx community to members of county and city government and to community resources,\u00a0working specifically\u00a0to address inequity in the emergency response to Boulder\u2019s 2013 floods. Ramirez and Tomac\u00a0spoke to us about their work to strengthen community groups, identify community assets, and ensure information regarding public resources and\u00a0emergency response plans\u00a0were available in English and Spanish.\u00a0They also introduced us to the concept of a cultural broker, which is central to Resilience for All and describes individuals whose skills and positionality allow them to bridge distinct cultural groups.\u00a0Resilience for all seeks to work with and compensate these individuals to better connect the City of Longmont to vulnerable segments its\u00a0population.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Boulder County Flood Recovery\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Carolina Van Horn<\/h5>\n

We met with\u00a0Carolina Van\u00a0Horn,\u00a0a Flood Recovery Planner for Boulder County. We\u00a0began in Fourmile\u00a0Canyon, which sustained\u00a0extensive\u00a0damage\u00a0following the\u00a02013 floods.\u00a0Van\u00a0Horn works extensively\u00a0coordinating Boulder County efforts with\u00a0FEMA\u00a0(Federal Emergency Management\u00a0Agency) and we discussed the process for home buyouts following major disasters. These buyouts provide the option to homeowners whose homes were substantially\u00a0damaged to take a\u00a0buyout\u00a0option\u00a0on the\u00a0pre-disaster value of their\u00a0home rather than\u00a0pursue\u00a0rebuilding\u00a0in the same\u00a0location. The buyout program aims to disincentivize rebuilding in hazard areas, both\u00a0to protect human life\u00a0and to avoid repeat federally-funded rebuilding. We also discussed some other aspects of the recovery and how Boulder\u00a0County is attempting\u00a0to\u00a0leverage\u00a0rebuilding to also make\u00a0the new infrastructure more resilient to future hazards. This includes rebuilding with an eye towards 100-year flood standards as well as using technology\u00a0to map and better understand future flood potentials.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Boulder County Transporation Department\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Stacey Proctor<\/h5>\n

Our visit with Stacey Proctor, the Communications Specialist with the\u00a0Boulder County Transportation Department, informed us of Boulder County\u2019s priorities\u00a0for creating resilient infrastructure under various climate variability scenarios. The goals of the resiliency study were to enhance\u00a01)\u00a0institutionalized resiliency;\u00a02) withstand shocks; 3) reduce shock, and 4) responsiveness to stresses. The\u00a0action categories included improving infrastructure, regulation of flood plains, and incentives and education.\u00a0This resiliency study will then inform the 2012\u00a0transportation master plan, which is to be updated this year.\u00a0A 2019 survey revealed that\u00a0the majority\u00a0of\u00a0Boulder County residents were in\u00a0favor of increasing expenditures for flood\u00a0response efforts, indicating that flood response was a high priority issue. Additionally, the group discussed how increasing housing costs and strict development laws will create opportunities to expand upon existing transportation services, such as bike\u00a0lanes and public transit throughout the county.<\/p>\n

City of Boulder\u00a0Department of Climate Initiatives\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Brett\u00a0KenCairn<\/h5>\n

For our final visit, we met with Brett\u00a0KenCairn,\u00a0Senior Sustainability and Resilience Policy Advisor for the City of Boulder.\u00a0KenCairn\u00a0discussed his views on the concepts of resiliency and sustainability, which are currently\u00a0buzz words whose meanings are not always locked down. Resilience for\u00a0KenCairn\u00a0and his\u00a0department\u00a0means change. Sustainability means stability. The two together lead to the question of how\u00a0to create stable change, especially in the face of climate change and a rapidly changing natural world surrounding us.\u00a0KenCairn\u00a0also discussed how his department is\u00a0recentering\u00a0its resilience efforts to community benefits and equity.\u00a0With these goals at the center of the plans, the city of Boulder\u00a0hopes to build stronger networks and solve\u00a0adaptation, mitigation, and resilience issues more\u00a0efficiently and with\u00a0the community in mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We kicked off our summer research with a two-day trip up to Boulder and Larimer counties to meet with numerous experts on regional climate issues such as water distribution and flood recovery. The trip was very interesting and we learned a great deal about important local issues while having the chance to speak with key […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1296,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fellows"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palOvU-dv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/stateoftherockies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/stateoftherockies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/stateoftherockies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/stateoftherockies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1296"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/stateoftherockies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/stateoftherockies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":846,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/stateoftherockies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions\/846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/stateoftherockies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/stateoftherockies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/stateoftherockies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}