Adapting to Wildfire in Southwest Colorado
The Story of Wildfire Adapted Partnership and the Communities We Support
Colorado has seen three of its largest wildfires over the last three years (2019 - 2021), and with continued population growth into fire-prone landscapes and the increasing effects of climate change, Southwest Colorado will continue to be at a high risk for wildfire.
Use the map below to compare where people live to the modeled wildfire risk, according to the USFS.
About 100,000 people live in Montezuma, La Plata and Archuleta counties combined. Most of those people live with moderate to high wilfire risk.
Across much of the region, wildfire risk is moderate to very high, so there is an inherent risk to most communities, homes, and people in the beautiful place we call home, Southwest Colorado.
Therefore, it is not a question of how we can stop all wildfires but rather how we learn to live with the threat of wildfire.
Wildfire Adapted Partnership : The Early Years
June 9, 2002, around 1:30 p.m., a small fire started part way up the Missionary Ridge Road, just north of Durango.
By nightfall, the fire had burned close to 10,000 acres.
The Missionary Ridge fire continued to burn for another six weeks before being contained.
Though the fire never reached the city of Durango it had a major impact on life, ecosystems, economies and onward.
In total, the fire burned more than 70,000 acres, destroyed 56 homes and outbuildings and resulted in one firefighter fatality.
The Missionary Ridge fire was a wake up call to the region. Once the flames were gone, residents and officials stepped up to the plate and asked, "How can we be more prepared for next time?"
In 2003, Durango Fire Protection District, hosted a FirewiseUSA® workshop. Over 100 residents attended, and out of this grassroots workshop, FireWise of Southwest Colorado was born.
Between 2003 - 2018, FireWise of Southwest Colorado, working under its fiscal agent San Juan Mountains Association , focused on providing education and support to local residents and communities to expand wildfire adaptation efforts in Southwest Colorado. Efforts started in La Plata County and then expand to 4 additional neighboring counties.
In October 2018, FireWise of Southwest Colorado had grown large enough to become its own 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization, and at that time it changed its name to Wildfire Adapted Partnership.
Though the name changed, the organization’s mission and dedication helping residents understand their overall wildfire risk and the steps they can take to reduce that risk stayed the same.
Wildfire Adapted Partnership: Present Day
Mission: Wildfire Adapted Partnership (WAP) inspires, educates and enables individuals and communities to protect lives and property from wildfire.
We achieve this mission by focusing on:
- Education and Outreach
- Community Wildfire Risk Planning
- Mitigation Incentive Programs
- Collaboration
Neighborhood Ambassadors are celebrated with Firewise USA recognition.
Education and Outreach
Wildfire Adapted Partnership currently works with about 150 Volunteer Neighborhood Ambassadors. Ambassadors are highly motivated, community-minded people who act as catalysts in their communities, encouraging their neighbors to become aware, active and prepared for wildfire.
A Home Ignition Zone (HIZ) Workshop held for ambassadors and community members.
WAP provides their Neighborhood Ambassadors: education, training opportunities, ongoing support, grant funding, and access to agency experts. Ambassadors then work with their neighbors on community wildfire adaption efforts such as: evacuation planning, treating common areas, or roadside thinning projects.
Outlined to the right are communities with a Neighborhood Ambassador and a track record of participation in Wildfire Adapted programs.
Next are some highlights from some of these communities.
The community of Elk Stream Ranch, located on the La Plata and Montezuma county line, has been working with WAP and preparing for wildfire for more than 15 years, and formalized their efforts in 2008 by completing one of the first Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP) in Colorado.
Over the years the community has spent countless hours planning, educating residents, completing fuels reduction projects around homes and on a community-scale.
Since 2012, the community has been evacuated on two separate occasions (Weber Fire 2012 and East Canyon Fire 2020). Residents were able to safely and efficiently evacuate the area allowing firefighters to do their job so that no homes were lost.
Without years of planning, education, and mitigation efforts, these fires could have had a much greater and devastating impact on the Elk Stream Ranch community.
Elk Stream Ranch and the entire East Canyon community continues the work required to live with wildfire.
In the video below, hear directly from a Neighborhood Ambassador about lessons learned from 10 years of mitigation efforts and two evacuations.
2021 Forest & Fire Learning Series: Community Preparedness & Seasonal Outlooks (Part 5)
Next we'll zoom in on Falls Creek Ranch, just north of Durango in the Animas Valley.
Falls Creek Ranch is a 900 acre community with 100 one acre lots and 800 acres of common space. The community's first Ambassador came onboard in 2004 and the community adopted their first CWPP in 2011.
The community has a dedicated wildfire mitigation committee, 4 annual community work days, and owns much of its own mitigation equipment. Additionally, two Ambassadors have recieved National Mitigation Awards (Judy Winzell in 2015 and Paulette Church in 2019).
The 416 Fire started June 1, 2018, north of Durango. In total 54,000 acres burned, yet no structures were lost.
Due to previous mitigation efforts in Falls Creek Ranch, the incident commander felt is was safe to send his crews into the community. Their efforts stopped the fire’s progression toward the City of Durango
Learn more about Falls Creek Ranch and the 416 fire on the NFPA site below.
Use this map to see the convergence of the 416 Fire's southern extent and the Falls Creek Ranch neighborhood.
Last we'll zoom in on Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association, just west of Pagosa Springs in Archuleta County.
Pagosa Lakes is a covenant-controlled community comprised of over 6,600 properties situated in 27 subdivisions encompassing 21 square miles. The Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association (PLPOA) is a mixed-use planned development which consists mainly of single-family residential lots, but also includes condominiums, townhouses, apartments and commercial properties. Two-thirds of the entire population of Archuleta County resides in PLPOA.
PLPOA residents and administration staff have been active participants in wildfire preparedness for many years. Many residents have mitigated their properties and the Association offers free pine needle pickup and woody slash chipping. Nine residents are Wildfire Adapted Partnership Ambassadors. PLPOA sends out regular email updates on wildfire preparedness.
In early 2022, PLPOA acquired title to over 600 acres of neglected greenbelts in the community and has developed a 5 year mitigation plan to help the community become fire adapted.
Community Wildfire Risk Planning
Wildifre Adapted Partnership has partcipated in facilitating and writing 27 CWPPs between Archuleta, La Plata and Montezuma counties. To learn more and find copies of these CWPPs use the link below to visit the Colorado State Forest Service's website.
WAP has also completed 16 Community Wildfire Risk Assessments with local communities. Community Assessments are a planning document written by WAP and partners. They help identify the main wildfire risk concerns to a particular neighborhood and take less time than a CWPP, providing information and planning resources to communities on a shorter time scale.
See the link below to learn more about the Community Assessment process.
Mitigation Incentive Programs
Site Assessments
Since 2017 Wildfire Adapted has conducted almost 1,500 individual home site assessments. These assessments are an hour long, one-on-one educational opportunities that focus on wildfire risk in the Home Ignition zone (HIZ).
Each dot on this map represents a site assessment.
To learn more about what goes into an assessment see the below video from Durango Fire.
Understand Durango Fire - Make Your Home FireWise
Consider the impact of these visits in relation to historical fires over the past 20 years.
Defensible Space Cost Share
In addition to site visits, Wildfire Adapted offers a Defensible Space Cost Share Program. This program is designed to partially reimburse qualifying homeowners for the cost of developing defensible space to increase a home’s chance of survival, while also increasing firefighter safety when wildfires occur.
From 2017 to 2023, Wildfire Adapted completed 400 cost share projects resulting in over 1,500 acres treated.
Chipper Rebate Program
Wildfire Adapted has completed almost over 350 Chipper Rental Rebate projects between 2017 - 2023. These rebates incentivize chipping work that reduces wildfire risk.
The blue stars on the map represent each project that was completed over the 5 year period (2017-2021).
Collaboration
Wildfire Adapted Partnership relies on strong partnerships with local, state, and federal agencies as well as other nonprofit organizations in the region.
Participating in local forest collaboratives across the entire San Juan National Forest allows private lands to be a part of the discussion and helps to plan for landscape scale treatments that span both public and private lands
Want to get involved?
No matter where you live in Southwest Colorado, wildfire has the potential to greatly impact you and your neighbors. There is so much that can be done to reduce the risk of devastating wildfire to communities and protect lives and property. If you are interested in joining to make a difference in your community, please get in touch.
A special thank you to Fire Adapted Colorado for helping to fund this storymap project.
