Congressman Neguse and Senator Bennet Celebrate $2.6 Million in ‘Joint Chiefs’ Funding for Headwaters of the Colorado
The Colorado lawmakers leading the Joint Chiefs Reauthorization Act also emphasized the need to expand this critical USDA program.
Lafayette, CO — Today, Congressman Joe Neguse, Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Federal Lands, and Senator Michael Bennet issued the following statement celebrating $2,612,692 in funding from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnership Program(Joint Chiefs) for the Headwaters of the Colorado Initiative. This project will focus on reducing wildfire risk in the wildland urban interface, improving stream health, and improving habitat for wildlife on a landscape scale and across ownership boundaries.
Neguse and Bennet have long been champions of the Joint Chiefs initiative. In 2021, they introduced the Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnership Act to formally authorize the program, successfully enacting it later that year in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Since then, they have led efforts to expand the initiative to better support forest and grassland restoration projects across both public and private lands.
"As Federal representatives for the headwaters of the Colorado River, we know how important protecting vital water sources, strengthening wildfire mitigation, improving watershed health, and building forest resilience is to our communities. That’s why we’re honored to welcome more than $2 million in ‘Joint Chiefs’ funding for critical investments that will do exactly that."
"This funding is a step in the right direction. It represents forward momentum in supporting collaborative, science-based efforts to restore and preserve the lands spanning the Colorado River Basin. And it underscores the importance of reauthorizing the Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership Program in a bipartisan manner, so we can continue advancing watershed, forest, and grassland restoration across our nation’s treasured lands."
Learn more about the Headwaters of the Colorado Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnership Project HERE.
Since first being launched in 2014, the Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnership has invested $423 million in 134 projects in 42 states, Guam, and Puerto Rico to help reduce wildfire threats to communities, protect water quality and supply, and improve wildlife habitat for at-risk species.
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