In 2019, Philmont Scout Ranch was excited to announce a $1 million donation to the Ute Park Fire Recovery Fund from the PY Foundation of New Mexico. The donation comes via a $100,000 gift each year for five years and a separate matching component of up to $100,000 for each year. 2020 is our second year of the match program.
The total gift including matching components will be $1.5 million. This donation will have a significant impact on the ability for Philmont to continue to deliver a quality program to future Scouts from across the country.
Fire recovery funds are being used to complete projects across the Ranch. The Philmont Conservation Department is working on land stabilization projects within the burn scar using log erosion barriers, waddles, and reseeding. To mitigate future forest fire impact, Philmont is undertaking the manual thinning of the forest across the unaffected portions of the Ranch to improve the timber stand to a normal fire cycle health. You can see some of the thinning project in our 2020 update video below.
To learn more about our fire recovery efforts and their importance please watch our 2020 Update video, and the “Beyond the Ashes” documentary below.