Kelly PohlKelly provides research and policy support to communities on issues related to land use planning, wildfire, trails, and outdoor recreation. She enjoys translating and distilling complex socioeconomic information into practical tools for people and places. Before joining Headwaters, Kelly spent a decade as Associate Director of the Gallatin Valley Land Trust leading community trail and conservation projects. She previously worked as a fire ecologist for The Nature Conservancy and a naturalist for Colorado State Parks. She holds a B.S. in Geography from Montana State University and a M.S. in Geography from Portland State University. When not working, Kelly can be found enjoying the trails with her husband and two young daughters around her hometown of Bozeman, Montana.
— Communities and local leaders can utilize this trails toolkit to better understand whether and how trails can accomplish local goals, along with the cost and benefits of proposed projects.
read moreof Trails Toolkit: Helping Communities Invest Wisely
— A new home built to wildfire-resistant codes can be constructed for roughly the same cost as a typical home.
read moreof Building a Wildfire-Resistant Home: Codes and Costs — Partners in Colorado’s San Luis Valley are working to better understand the impacts of wildfire to communities, watersheds, and quality of life.
read moreof Wildfire, Watersheds, and the Wildland-Urban Interface in the San Luis Valley
— Identify neighborhoods where overlapping wildfire threats and socioeconomic vulnerabilities may make people disproportionately susceptible to wildfire.
read moreof Austin Wildfire and Vulnerable Populations Tool
— Best practices for balancing the needs for clean drinking water, recreation, and economic development in municipal watersheds.
read moreof Best Practices for Watersheds and Recreation
— The number of western Montana homes in areas with high wildfire hazard has doubled, outpacing development rates in areas with low wildfire hazard.
read moreof New Montana Homes Increase Wildfire Risks
— Updated: The Community Planning Assistance for Wildfire program now helps 30 communities reduce wildfire risk through improved land use planning.
read moreof Communities Reduce Wildfire Risk Through Land Use Planning
— County governments, fire districts and service areas, and landowners have many opportunities to reduce wildfire risk in the wildland-urban interface through land use planning tools and strategies, though challenges in Montana’s regulatory framework remain.
read moreof Planning Tools to Reduce Montana’s Wildfire Risk — Hispanics account for roughly one in four westerners and one in six rural westerners.
read moreof The Growth of Hispanic Populations Across the West — A lack of land use planning amplified the devastation from Hurricane Harvey. Wildfire-prone communities should take note.
read moreof Fire & Flood: Lessons from Hurricane Harvey for Wildfire
— Seven case studies illustrate best practices and lessons learned to develop programs for outdoor state recreation funding.
read moreof Best Practices for States to Fund Outdoor Recreation
— This story map provides Taos County residents with information about the ecological role of fire, the region’s wildfire risk, forest restoration projects, and emergency preparedness.
read moreof Resilient Taos County: Living with Wildfire
— Minority populations are growing in nearly all rural western counties, helping booming communities expand and slowing the decline in counties that otherwise would have lost people.
read moreof Minority Populations Driving County Growth in the Rural West
— How can communities measure and take advantage of the economic impacts of nearby outdoor recreation activities on public lands?
read moreof Understanding the Recreation Economy on Nearby Public Lands— The Community Planning Assistance for Wildfire program works with many communities across the U.S.
read moreof CPAW Communities