Your Rist Canyon Volunteer Fire Department is currently developing a new Community Wildfire Protection Plan, and we still need your input.

We’ve received many thoughtful responses so far, and we truly appreciate everyone who has already completed the survey. However, we are still seeking additional participation to ensure the plan reflects the full range of community needs, concerns, and wildfire risks.

If you live within our response area — south of Poudre Canyon, north of Stringtown Gulch, east of Pennock Pass, and west of the bottom of Rist Canyon — we want to hear from you. We especially encourage residents in the Whale Rock area to participate, since we don't have any responses from Whale Rock yet.

The survey will remain open until March 9 and takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. Please fill it out here and help us create the strongest possible CWPP for our community!


https://rcvfd.org/cwpp/survey

Help Shape Rist Canyon's Community Wildfire Protection Plan

As you may have seen in the Ristwatch, RCVFD is developing a new Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), and we need your input.

This plan is meant to reflect our community—your needs, your environment, and your wildfire concerns. To support that goal, we’ve created a short survey to gather local perspectives. The survey includes less than 20 questions, takes only 15–30 minutes to complete, and will directly inform the priorities and recommendations in the CWPP.

This survey is for everyone in the RCVFD response area! That includes everyone from the Buckhorn to nearly Poudre Canyon, and from Bellvue to Pennock Pass (see map).

Once you’ve completed the survey, we encourage you to share it with your neighbors. You’re welcome to forward this email or have them scan the QR code below, which links directly to the survey.


https://rcvfd.org/cwpp/survey

Interested in getting more involved? Reply to this email to connect directly with Carol Dollard, RCVFD Assistant Chief and CWPP Committee Chair. She can answer questions and help you find ways to participate in the planning process.

Community input is essential to making this CWPP meaningful and effective. Please consider completing the survey today—your voice matters.

Thank you for your time and involvement.

It is with a heavy heart that we lost Dan Rairdon on January 1. Dan and his family have lived in Rist Canyon for many years. He was the bus driver for all the children of Stove Prairie and Cache La Poudre Jr High for 27 years, and was loved by all. He always greeted you with a smile and a good word. He wasn't just a bus driver as he spoke with the children and often offered advice to them when in conversation. Feel free to join the family for a Celebration of Life on January 19, 10:00 am, at Timberline Church. 2908 S Timberline Rd, Fort Collins.

A Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) is a document developed primarily by your local fire department in collaboration with County, State, and Federal agencies, as well as the community itself. It serves as a detailed assessment of our current hazards, plans to minimize them as best we can, and outlines for emergency response in the event of wildfire. The CWPP is very important for emergency preparedness throughout our response area, and serves as a gateway to qualifying for a multitude of grants - both to RCVFD and to homeowners.

The last time the greater Rist Canyon community developed a CWPP was in 2010. That document is still available, but in November 2025, we formed a team to update and rewrite the CWPP to reflect our changing community, hazards, needs, and available tools. For more information on this ongoing effort, see the January 2026 Ristwatch for a lot more details. We hope to complete the new CWPP by Spring/Summer 2026.

Update Jan-2026: We need your input! The CWPP team has developed a survey to help us understand the conditions, needs, and concerns of our community so that we can tailor the CWPP to you, our residents and landowners. Please take the survey today, and pass it on to your neighbors!

This survey is for everyone in the RCVFD response area! That includes everyone from the Buckhorn to nearly Poudre Canyon, and from Bellvue to Pennock Pass (see map).

https://rcvfd.org/cwpp/survey

 

Dear Rist Canyon neighbors,

You are invited to the Rist Canyon Volunteer Fire Department Annual Meeting on Saturday, November 8 from 1 to 4 PM at Stove Prairie Ranch, 9116 Old Flowers Road.

We’ll enjoy a catered lunch together, share updates on this past year and plans for the year ahead, and celebrate the 50th anniversary of RCVFD. All area residents are warmly encouraged to attend.

1–2 PM: Catered lunch and socializing (no potluck)
2–4 PM: Annual business meeting and board election

Please RSVP to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

We look forward to seeing you there.

Next Thursday, October 30, from 5:30pm - 7:30pm, Larimer County Commissioner Jody Shadduck-McNally will be hosting a Town Hall Meeting at the Larimer County Office of Emergency Management, 4872 Endeavor Dr in Johnstown. Several guest speakers of interest to Rist Canyon residents are scheduled, including:

• Michael Conway, Colorado Insurance Commissioner


• Matt McCombs, State Forester and Director of Colorado State Forest Service


• Josh Roberts, Office of Emergency Management


• Dakota Condon, Wildfire Partners Program

This is a unique opportunity for residents of our county to learn about issues related to living in the wildland urban interface and ask questions of their local government partners. See the flyer below for more details.

The October 2025 Ristwatch is now available on the RCVFD website.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this year’s Mountain Festival — what a great day together!

We ended up with a few lost & found items, pictured below. If you see something that’s yours (or know who it belongs to), please send us a message here so we can arrange a time for you to pick it up. The station isn’t manned full-time, so we’ll coordinate a pickup that works. Unclaimed items will be held for two weeks before being donated.

Thanks again for supporting RCVFD and helping make the festival such a fun community event!

Join us for the Stove Prairie Fall Festival Saturday, October 4th from 10-3! It's the school's big fundraiser for the year and a fun filled day for the mountain community! We have a kids carnival with a bouncy house, silent auction with lots of local offerings, vendors, bake sale, food trucks and more! All in support of our little mountain school!

If you are interested in participating, we still have vendor spots available and you can register at stoveprairiepto.org/vendors
We are also still looking for volunteers! If interested you can sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050A49AEA822A3FA7-58237484-stove#/

We hope you can make it!!!

22,500+ Books Needing to be Moved
5:00-8:00 p.m. Wednesday Night

Skip the gym on Wednesday and help move books from the fire station to the book tent for the festival. This has been a banner year collecting books so we have more than 900 filled banana boxes needing to be put on trailers at the fire station then unloaded in the book tent. It is going to take a sizable crew to accomplish this in three hours on Wednesday night. Even if you can just help for an hour or so on your way home from work, you would be greatly appreciated. There is no need to sign up, please just show up.

There also are other volunteer opportunities on Thursday-Sunday, so please check out the signup at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0A4BA9A823A2FF2-56482829-2025

Karen Salaz