How Environmental Applied Civics Empowered Estes Park Students to Change Wildfire Codes
Since 2018, Estes Park middle school students have been at the center of a multi-year effort to address escalating environmental risks in their community. What began as a student-led wildfire preparedness initiative has grown into a comprehensive approach to community resilience—one that connects education, civic engagement, and policy change.
Early cohorts partnered with city officials to develop a Firewise framework and worked directly with residents to raise awareness and support property-level wildfire mitigation. Over subsequent years, students expanded their reach by increasing community access to preparedness information and distributing evacuation “Go Bags,” engaging thousands of community members including families, neighbors, firefighters, business owners, and local leaders. These efforts helped shift wildfire preparedness from an abstract risk to a shared community responsibility.
By 2023, students’ engagement had moved beyond local outreach into formal policy advocacy. Experiencing repeated wildfire evacuations themselves, students recognized the need for systemic solutions. Through their participation in the RISE Challenge, they engaged with state officials, advocating for wildland-urban interface codes and resilient building practices. Their work culminated in meetings at the Colorado State Capitol with Senator Cutter and Governor Polis in support of Senate Bill 23-166, which established the Wildfire Resilience Code Board.
In 2025, students expanded their systems-level thinking to address stormwater management and flood prevention—an intentional extension of their wildfire work. They identified a critical connection: wildfires destroy vegetation and leave behind charred, water-repellent soil, dramatically increasing runoff and the risk of flash flooding. Reflecting on the catastrophic 2013 flood, which caused an estimated $4 billion in damage, students turned their attention to stormwater infrastructure as a key leverage point for resilience.
Partnering with the Public Works Department and the local watershed coalition, students investigated detention basins—essential infrastructure designed to manage runoff, reduce flooding, support wildlife habitat, and even act as natural firebreaks. Their inspections of seven privately owned basins revealed widespread neglect, highlighting a systemic gap in maintenance and accountability. In response, students drafted stormwater drainage policy recommendations requiring regular maintenance for both public and private detention basins.
On May 13, 2025, students presented their findings and proposed policy directly to the Estes Park town board, demonstrating how youth-led research and civic engagement can fill gaps in long-term planning and infrastructure stewardship.
Community and Systems Impact
The sustained civic engagement of Estes Park students has reshaped how their community approaches environmental risk—shifting from reactive responses to proactive, systems-based planning. Their wildfire work empowered residents with practical tools and knowledge, while their stormwater stewardship efforts addressed structural vulnerabilities before the next major flood occurs.
Equally important, their advocacy has engaged power structures at multiple levels, from town departments to state government, showing that young people can be credible partners in decision-making. By institutionalizing this work across multiple school years, Estes Park Middle School has created a durable model for youth civic engagement—one that builds climate literacy, systems thinking, and democratic participation.
As these students move on, their impact continues to ripple through Estes Park and beyond. Their legacy illustrates that when young people are given sustained opportunities to engage with real-world problems and decision-makers, they can drive meaningful policy change and help build resilient communities capable of withstanding interconnected environmental threats.
