Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that the West Region Wildfire Council received $7,184.63 donations from individuals in 2023. The Plaindealer received this information from the nonprofit after the article was published, and the amount was not originally reported as contributions from individuals on the organization’s IRS documents.

A wildfire-mitigation nonprofit organization covering one of the state’s most drought-ridden regions including Ouray County is scaling back staff and free programming in anticipation of federal funding cuts.

West Region Wildfire Council announced last week it is cutting staff, reducing salaries and now charging for its formerly free services — including home visits and consultations to ensure compliance with county building code.

According to a letter sent on May 22, the organization is making these changes to prepare for a “shifting funding landscape — particularly the anticipated reduction of future federal funding.”

The Trump administration has taken a hatchet to federal grant funding, threatening organizations across the country dependent on that money to fulfil their work.

Interim West Region Wildfire Council CEO and current Chief Operation Officer Aaron Johnson said the nonprofit is bracing for a possible elimination of all of its federal funding, which makes up about one-third of its total operating budget.

Funding implications

Since the organization was founded in 2007 to promote wildfire preparedness and mitigation in Delta, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Montrose, Ouray and San Miguel counties, it has operated with a budget almost entirely dependent on government grants, including federal, state and local grants, Johnson said.

According to its most recent publicly available tax records, the organization’s 2023 gross revenue was just over $1.6 million, and 97.5% of that revenue was categorized as government grants.

The nonprofit also received $7,184.63 from individual donations in 2023, but that amount was reported as part of the organization’s government grant revenue on the tax form, according to Lilia Falk, the council’s chief financial officer.

Johnson said the organization’s annual target for private donations varies, but he expects it to be between $5,000 and $10,000.

The remainder of its revenue, about $39,000, came from the organization’s vegetation management program, which provides subsidized mitigation work for those who apply for the program.

Federal grants, accounting for one-third of the nonprofit’s total grant dollars, are distributed across general operations and a variety of projects. Johnson said it’s premature to say exactly how much the nonprofit would lose if all its federal grant money is eliminated, especially because some grants are contingent on receiving matches from other funding sources.

Johnson said the organization hasn’t focused on diversifying its funding sources in the past because it’s been successful receiving grants and has been challenged to find a staffer able to focus on fundraising and development efforts.

“We’ve been fairly successful with grants and support at all those other levels that we haven’t felt… that’s something we’ve needed to spend as much time focusing on,” Johnson said.

But according to the May letter, the nonprofit is looking to increase its funding share from individual and corporate donors and foundations and philanthropic groups. Johnson said the organization’s board of directors is in the process of hiring a new CEO focused on those development goals, after the departure of former CEO Jamie Gomez in May.

The nonprofit is also letting go of Partnership and Collaboration Director Leigh Robertson in September. Its six remaining staff members are also taking salary cuts, according to the letter.

Hindering services and mission

Johnson said though federal funding cuts remain uncertain, any funding reductions will hinder the nonprofit’s mission of removing barriers to wildfire mitigation, which will have impacts on an individual and community level.

“Anytime you’re taking money off the table, it’s going to impact the level of service that we’re able to provide,” Johnson said.

Starting in May the organization began charging for its formerly free consultation services. Site visits for homeowners, where a wildfire mitigation specialist or a forester consults with homeowners to compile information about a property’s wildfire risk factors and recommendations for mitigating them, now cost $200. Johnson said the organization may be able to accommodate some low-income homeowners for a free consultation.

Consultations required by Ouray County’s building code for certain properties or new development in a wildland-urban interface — a zone where human development meets undeveloped wildland or vegetative fuel — now cost $500.

Johnson said the organization completed around 270 site visits in 2024 but now expects to complete only between 120 and 150 visits in 2025.

“There’s people who are not going to want to engage with the service because they feel they have to pay for it,” Johnson said.

This also may impact the nonprofit’s new certificate program for homeowners who fully mitigated their homes based on recommendations from the site visits.

The fewer homes mitigated, the more homeowners may face increased issues with insuring or reselling their homes, Johnson said. And more broadly it will weaken the overall safety and peace of mind of the community, he added.

“It can potentially dampen the community impact that we’re having where we’re able to connect fuel treatments together, get people engaged, bring down the cost, so that people are able to treat more of their property and have a bigger impact across the landscape.”

Johnson said the organization expects to receive final word about any federal funding losses by late fall or the end of the year.