Our Story
What does JCD do?
As part of holistic forest restoration, JCD staff assist private landowners with planning and implementing forest and noxious weed management projects on their land to restore ecosystems and mitigate wildfire hazards. In partnership with Jefferson County, JCD also delivers the annual Slash Collection Program for residents working on their own defensible space and home hardening.
What are JCD Programs?
Conservation districts have the duty under state statute, to plan, advise, implement projects, and educate people on issues surrounding natural resources. JCD largely consists of the forested foothills of Jefferson county and surrounding areas, and JCD programs address resource concerns relating to wildlife habitat, wildfire, water, and invasive species connected to the forest.
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Conservation districts are local forms of government, like a fire protection district or park district. Under state statute, conservation districts broadly provide local leadership for education, planning, and project implementation related to natural resource conservation issues. Created as a result of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, conservation districts originally focused on agriculture-related soil and water conservation, but today, they work on a wide variety of natural resource concerns relative to their local geography and land uses. Each conservation district across the nation is overseen by a board of supervisors who live in the district.
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Like all 74 conservation districts in Colorado, Jefferson Conservation District, or JCD, is a special district and political subdivision of the State of Colorado (defined by C.R.S Title 32 Article 1 and C.R.S 35-70-101 through 35-70-122). JCD is overseen by an unpaid and elected board of supervisors who live within district boundaries. The Board hires staff to carry out JCD’s conservation programs.
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Within the boundaries of Jefferson Conservation District are the unincorporated foothills of Jefferson County, along with portions of Arvada, Golden, Lakewood, and Littleton. Because JCD does not currently have a mill levy that restricts our services to specific areas, we have greater flexibility to assist landowners just across the Jefferson County line, in areas such as Gilpin, Clear Creek, and northeast Park counties.
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JCD was established in 1942, and in its early days focused mainly on agriculture issues. As ranches and farms gave way to Denver’s suburbs, such as Arvada, Wheat Ridge, Lakewood, and Littleton, JCD shifted its attention to soil and water issues related to development. Meanwhile, foothills communities such as Evergreen and Conifer were also growing in the post-WWII era, and after the severe wildfires of Buffalo Creek in 1996, Hi Meadow in 2000, and Hayman in 2002, forest health and wildfire hazard took center stage in the foothills. Since the early 2000s, JCD has significantly grown its forestry program to provide technical assistance and project management services in forest restoration and wildfire mitigation, which also includes noxious weed management. JCD also supports urban agriculture in the Denver metropolitan area by helping urban farmers.