There are many initiatives across Colorado as governments, non-profits, businesses, and communities successfully address current challenges and proactively prepare for future challenges. These initiatives weave together to steward and safeguard all of Colorado’s communities.
Today, we’ll share some inspiring resiliency stories from over the past five years that can help us better envision the resilient future Colorado is working towards and spark ideas for new projects within our community.
Building Economic Resilience in Northwestern Colorado
The Northwest Colorado Development Council (NWCDC) strategically supports economic development for Moffat, Rio Blanco, and Routt Counties, preparing the region for future change. They strengthen regional connections and offer streamlined resources to attract new businesses, including centralized startup information, property lists, and worker retraining resources.
The NWCDC takes a systems approach, focusing on business attraction while also improving community livability by addressing housing, childcare access, and public transportation. They target industries like renewable energy, advanced manufacturing, value-added agriculture/food processing, and outdoor recreation.The NWCDC’s initiatives are projected to generate 482 jobs and $1.84 billion in capital investment (REDI Stimulus Report).
Supporting Infrastructure Resilience: Microgrids
The Department of Local Affairs’ Microgrids for Community Resilience Program, run by the Colorado Resiliency Office, supports community investment in energy resilience. Since 2021, this program has funded planning and construction of microgrids at key community institutions, to ensure they have a reliable source of power during natural disasters, power outages, and other emergencies.
A microgrid is a group of electric loads such as batteries, generation such as renewable energy or generator, and a controller that serves a specific boundary, and can be connected or disconnected from the grid. Microgrids can be designed to support a specific facility or multiple, depending on the size and scale of batteries and generation source.
Many local governments and utilities place microgrids at well-known and well-used community institutions to help keep these spaces open during disasters. There might be one near you at your local library, hospital, resilience hub, or emergency operations center!
Microgrids also help reduce the impacts of power outages. As extreme weather strains the grid, microgrids can feed extra power into the larger electricity grid, which lessens the risk of blackouts during peak times when many people are using lots of energy.
National Forest Foundation - Improving the Health of CO Watersheds
The National Forest Foundation is working to build a more resilient Colorado River Watershed, promoting resilience for Colorado, and adjacent states that rely on this river.
The National Forest Foundation focuses on Nature Based Solutions (NBS) or incorporating natural features and processes “to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use, and manage natural or modified ecosystems to address socio-environmental challenges while providing measurable co-benefits to benefit both people and nature (United States Department of the Interior)". These co-benefits can include cost savings, green-job creation, and public health improvements.
The Foundation is working on improvements to Soda Creek in Keystone, Colorado, using human-made beaver dam analogues to:
- Slow down and spread out the water flow. Slower water reduces erosion, helps raise the water table, and reduces the threat of flash flooding.
- Create habitats for wildlife, which help filter the water and support a wide variety of native plants and birds.
- Retain water in the landscape to reduce the risk of drought and make it harder for vegetation to catch fire.
The Soda Creek Project is already demonstrating success with improved stream flows, the return of native wetland plants, and cleaner water that benefits everyone downstream. When completed, it will have restored over 40 acres of wetlands and provide many cascading benefits.
This success is the result of concerted collaboration between the National Forest Foundation, the U.S. Forest Service, local non-profits, youth corps, diverse funders, and private landowners.
Read more from 9News and the Walton Family Foundation.
Share Your Story
Complete the Colorado Resiliency Survey
Share your Resiliency Story and your ideas for strategies to build resilient communities by completing this 15-minute survey by Friday, October 24, 2025, 6 p.m.
Your responses will also help update the Colorado Resiliency Framework, a state plan that identifies the greatest opportunities for Colorado agencies and local communities to increase economic, social, and environmental resilience.
Resources for Building Resilience
Pre-Disaster Recovery Planning Resources
The Colorado Resiliency Office provides technical assistance and resources to support local governments in proactive disaster recovery planning. This includes our resiliency resources hub, pre-disaster recovery toolkit, and information on connecting to lead recovery entities at the State.
Build Resilience to Climate Change and Produce Co-Benefits for your Community
Is your community working to build resilience to climate change and produce co-benefits for your members? The “Guidance for Local Government Climate Adaptation” provides Colorado municipalities, counties, and special districts with over 25 implementable actions across five sectors. This resource contains information for communities of all sizes to take meaningful steps toward climate preparedness and adaptation.
Each action includes comprehensive guidance, funding resources, case studies from Colorado communities, and connections to state and federal programs that can provide technical and financial support.
Build Fiscal Resilience
- Work with DOLA’s Regional Managers or with Regional Grant Navigators who work out of Councils of Government across the state to identify funding opportunities and match them to your projects.
- Review the July 2025 Local Government Resources Call on budgeting for uncertainty (go to 26:30 on the timestamp to skip the agency updates).
- Check out the Local Community Funding Guide, maintained by DOLA. This is a statewide comprehensive resource that tracks funding opportunities relevant to local governments.
The Colorado Resiliency Office
Learn more about the Colorado Resiliency Office, including additional opportunities for technical assistance and resources.