The Great Outdoors Colorado board awarded a $20,900 grant to Summit County for forest fuel mitigation to support wildfire prevention near Keystone Resort.

The project comes as part of Great Outdoors Colorado’s Conservation Service Corps grant program, a partnership with the Colorado Youth Corps Association that offers money to fund outdoor recreation and natural resource stewardship projects.

“These projects create jobs across the state while ensuring our iconic public lands are well-maintained and accessible to improve the physical and emotional well-being of Coloradans,” Scott Segerstrom, executive director of the youth corps association, said in a release.

A chain saw crew from the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps will clear dead trees from 15 acres of the Settler’s Creek Open Space, which is on the eastern portion of the Keystone Resort development area near three townhome developments. The area was designated as a priority in the community wildfire protection plan for the Snake River basin in 2016.

The project will focus around extensive beetle kill in the area by removing dead and diseased lodgepole pine trees along with living trees that would be at risk of uprooting once the dead trees are cleared. The wood collected from the property will be piled and burned at a later date.

Work on the project is expected to begin next summer and should take about three weeks to complete. Officials with Summit County and the Colorado State Forest Service will survey the property and mark trees for removal before the arrival of hand crews.

To date, Great Outdoors Colorado has invested more than $9.4 million for projects in Summit County and has conserved more than 2,700 acres of land in the area, according to the organization. Great Outdoors Colorado invests a portion of the state’s lottery proceeds to help preserve and enhance parks, trails, rivers and open spaces across the state.