Mesa County hopes to get more than a half-million dollars in a federal grant to help mitigate watershed damage done during last summerâs Pine Gulch Fire, the third largest in the stateâs history. The county has applied for, and is poised to receive, $570,000 in a matching grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a U.S. Department of Agriculture agency that provides technical and financial assistance to private landowners to better manage agricultural and forest lands. The county is putting $120,000 toward the grant, money thatâs already included in this yearâs budget. Andrew Martsolf, the countyâs emergency services director, said the money is needed to help protect numerous creeks and watershed left bare by the fire, subjecting them to massive erosion if work isnât done to mitigate that damage.