Colorado's forests — aching after major wildfires and widespread beetle infestation — have found a new champion: water providers across the state. Under a bill introduced this week in the state legislature, those providers could soon be able to team up and bring millions of new dollars to protect the forests from further harm. The idea, said Sen. Chris Romer, a Denver Democrat and one of the bill's sponsors, is to spend money now to prevent a catastrophic forest fire rather than spend much more money later cleaning up the ash- and debris-filled water that follows such events. "This is an effort to get water users to pay now rather than pay later," Romer said. "The question isn't if it will burn; it's when it will burn." Senate Bill 221 would allow the Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority to issue bonds on behalf of water providers, acting effectively as a bank giving a loan. That money — Romer is hoping for as much as $20 million a year — would be used to remove trees killed by beetles, clear out undergrowth, thin forests and do other fire-mitigation practices in the participating providers' watersheds. The providers would pay back that money to the authority by most likely charging a fee to their customers.

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