By Shannon Lukens. (Courtesy photo of Hankes, on the far right)

 

Josh Hankes of Steamboat Springs has been honored with the Pathfinding Partnerships Award from Governor Polis’ office. It’s for his work with the Routt County Wildfire Mitigation Council. Hankes is the executive director.

 

Press Release from Routt County Wildfire Mitigation Council; Nov. 22, 2024.

Local Executive Director Receives Governor’s Award

The Pathfinding Partnerships Award goes to Routt County Wildfire Mitigation Council

Denver, CO; November, 22 2024: The Governor’s Awards for High Impact Research were handed out on Wednesday evening at the Denver Museum of Science & Nature, where a local Executive Director was included in the honorees. The Wildfire Research Center, or WiRē, received the Pathfinding Partnerships Award along with a number of collaborating practitioners in the pursuit of locally informed strategies for creating fire-adapted communities.

The WiRē team provides personalized expertise and support to collect, interpret, and use paired parcel-level wildfire risk and social data. The WiRē Approach enables partners to effectively allocate resources and engage with residents. Leveraging lessons learned across projects, the WiRē Center pursues scientific approaches to inform conversations and decisions about wildfire adaptation.

In August 2023, Carolina Manriquez, Lead Forester with the Colorado State Forest Service introduced Josh Hankes with the Routt County Wildfire Mitigation Council to the WiRē team and conversations about a potential study here in Routt County were underway. Shortly thereafter, it became clear that the logistical stars were aligned and a partnership would blossom.

There were a number of local communities considered for the study. “It was important for us to reach into neighborhoods throughout the County so that we can better understand the regional differences in perception and need,” said Hankes. The resulting study areas are Stagecoach in Oak Creek, Willow Creek Pass & Hahns Peak Village in North Routt, and Heritage Park, Steamboat II & Silver Spur in west Steamboat.

Throughout the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024, rapid assessments were conducted on 2,200 parcels within the study areas. As those assessments concluded, property owners were provided a survey to help the WiRē team better understand trends in need, communication preferences, wildfire risk understanding and a number of other data points that will be used to produce a final report.

“We’re expecting the results of the study any day now, at which time we’ll need to dig in and create a plan for sharing the information and putting those results to work locally.” Hankes also says that he has received support from volunteers, local fire districts in each of the study areas and local Department of Fire Protection & Control (DFPC) leadership and teams.

“It was an incredible honor to have been included in this award. I’ve been in awe of the WiRē approach and team since I learned of their work. When the opportunity arose to bring the highly valued study here to Routt County, I jumped at it.” Hankes went on to explain that several other entities were acknowledged alongside RCWMC in the WiRē award, including Rocky Mountain Research Station, Institute for Behavior Science at UC Boulder, Fort Collins Science Center, CSFS, US Forest Service, Genesee Fire Rescue and West Region Wildfire Council.

Contact Josh Hankes with any questions at josh.hankes@routtwildfire.org

Additional information:

• https://www.2024govawards.com/_files/ugd/b8ef65_9db920f315944b00a028d332e14ca c8a.pdf
• https://www.2024govawards.com/winners
• https://wildfireresearchcenter.org/
• https://routtwildfire.org/wire/