LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. — As several evacuation orders were lifted in Larimer County Tuesday, those who live in the area of the Alexander Mountain Fire have just begun assessing the damage.
The burn scar can be seen from the historic Sylvan Dale Ranch, where an estimated 950 acres and several buildings were lost in the fire. The land that burned is managed by Silas Binkley, the director of programs and operations for the Heart-J Center.
“The Heart-J Center is a nonprofit that operates here at Sylvan Dale Ranch, on a 3,000-acre ranch. And the focus of what we do is place-based experiential programming for people of all ages, but at the heart of it is getting people outside, connecting them with nature, connecting them with themselves and their community," Binkley explained.
Wildfire
Photos show magnitude of Alexander Mountain Fire burning west of Loveland
The Heart-J Center has operated from Sylvan Dale Ranch for the past decade. The family who owns Sylvan Dale Ranch plans to one day transfer the ranch to Heart-J Center management.
“Currently, they transferred almost 1,000 acres a few years ago of backcountry land to the Heart-J Center, which is the land that I manage. And that's the land that has been lost in the fire this week," Binkley said. “One of our goals is to not only rebuild as a retreat center, but also as a research hub so that local universities and colleges can do research here and learn about wildfire science and prevention and the regrowth processes and all those types of things.”
Most recently, Heart-J Center partnered with the Combat Recovery Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on effective suicide prevention efforts for veterans.
“I myself am a combat disabled veteran and have been impacted by the rate of suicide amongst veterans... We provide one-on-one peer support and coaching services to people who are struggling or in crisis," said Marshall Spring, who founded the Combat Recovery Foundation. “My business partner in 2019 very unexpectedly shot himself, and so I sold my companies and started working in suicide prevention at that point.”
Spring served in the Marine Corps as an explosive detection dog handler and sustained brain injuries while in Iraq.
“It's really difficult to adjust to a safe, normal, North American civilian life, after being in the Marine Corps and being in combat," Spring said. “It took a long time for me to get to a place where I could trust people, be around people, and create friendships and relationships and just have normal interactions.”
Spring struggled with his mental health and said nature played a huge role in his journey. Combat Recovery Foundation hosts retreats for veterans at Sylvan Dale Ranch. Their next retreat was planned for September, but now they need a new location since the historic Cow Camp that would've held the group was burned in the fire.
“Our logo is a Phoenix. I think there's a certain tragic poetry to the fact that our place we intended to use for retreats burnt and now we're a part of watching that place and helping it to rise from the ashes better than it was," said Spring.
The Combat Recovery Foundation organized a GoFundMe for the ranch, which states that money raised will go toward restoring the backcountry of Heart-J Center at Sylvan Dale Ranch.
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