Top left : Sandra Lundt , a native of the Poudre Canyon region , stood outside her family home that remarkably remained unscathed during the devastating Cameron Peak Fire .
“ He texted me to say , “ Your house is still standing ; we were here all night .” Miraculously , the firefighters had saved her home , the lodge , and the chapel . “ Until we could finally get up there to see for ourselves , we didn ’ t realize how close it was . The fire burned almost 360 degrees around the house and stopped right at our driveway .”
Since the fire , Lundt said she ’ s pleased with the work those with the EWP program have done with the fire mitigation effort . A retaining wall was built at the bottom of the driveway to keep mud from coming down and crossing the highway . Another wall was
built off her deck to keep the stream from coming out of its banks at the corner of her house . Three log jams were built on her property to act as a first line of defense against flooding . This summer the EWP group plans to reseed parts of her property with high mountain wetland grass seed that ’ s drought tolerant . Although her property won ’ t be back to pre-fire conditions for probably eight to 10 years , she said “ it ’ s pretty amazing to see little aspen trees that are already starting to come up .”
She played a vital role in organizing about 80 volunteers in June of 2021 to help with EWP ’ s mitigation efforts , lessening the financial impact of the EWP work to the City of Greeley , which is responsible for contributing a 20 % match for the project , said Chelsey Heiden of Ayres . The volunteers , including Lundt , helped with channel
vegetation clearing , installing sandbags , and removing debris from the channel at six sites .
Lundt praised the efforts of the entire EWP team helping with mitigation efforts across the Poudre Canyon area . In particular , she said the efforts of Heiden , Colin Barry , and Will deRosset , engineers from Ayres , go well beyond their technical skills .
“ I love those people . No . 1 , I feel like we have more than just a working relationship . I can call them at any time , and they ’ ll answer questions for me ,” she said . “ It ’ s just been a wonderful partnership ; they are very respectful , and our relationship has turned into a wonderful friendship .”
– Tawny Quast www . AyresAssociates . com 9