Coal Creek Canyon Fire Protection District CWPP

Life in our beautiful canyon and mountain environment is hard to beat. Vistas, valleys and views along with abundant wildlife, privacy and freedom from urban restrictions make us appreciate and protect our very special lifestyle. Our community has shown we can face hardship together. The massive flood of 2013 unified all canyon communities in action and solidarity. Watching with horror as the nearby Marshall Fire devoured over 1,000 homes in December of 2021 brought us together again, in the realization that, had the wind shifted, our canyon communities could also have been lost that day. We look at our abundant forest differently now. We realize that the fact there has been no large fire here in 100 years is BAD news, not good news.

Residents of Coal Creek Canyon Fire Protection District (CCCFPD), like all foothills dwellers, understand that the privilege of living in our beautiful mountains comes with the responsibility to protect our environment, lifestyle, and to help our neighbors in times of emergency. We don’t have the municipal resources that urban dwellers take for granted, like water, sewer, snow removal, and municipal fire protection services. We step up and handle these things ourselves. Always have, always will. Our new Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) gives our volunteer fire fighters, homes, communities, and forests a fighting chance when the inevitable wildfire comes.

Collaboration is an essential part of CWPPs. Community engagement, partner commitment, and follow-through are what make a CWPP successful and effective. Community members, land managers, and other partners from across the landscape helped develop this CWPP for CCCFPD. Community engagement included an in-person kickoff meeting in April 2023, regular updates on the CCCFPD CWPP  website , social media posts, a survey distributed to the entire community to engage concerns about living in an area prone to wildfires, four focus group meetings across CCCFPD, and an in-person meeting with land managers, emergency responders, and other partners to identify priority projects to make the community safer.

This story map illustrates important takeaways from the CWPP and includes maps you can explore. Use tabs in the header to jump between sections, and click on the buttons on maps to interact with them.

While we live in a wildfire prone ecosystem, fortunately, there are many ways to make our communities more fire adapted, and thus more likely to survive a wildfire. A CWPP addresses a wide variety of issues such as wildfire response, hazard mitigation, community preparedness, evacuation planning and structure protection. They outline the current risks that the community faces and highlight the highest priority actions for people to take to reduce that risk. The CWPP is developed through a collaborative framework and agreed to by residents, state and local government, local fire department, and other stakeholders. Our CWPP will document the risk of every community in CCCFPD with well researched, step-by-step recommendations, and prioritization of mitigation measures across the landscape to help protect our community.

Our community's current CWPP was prepared in 2008 and is now outdated. A lot has changed in the last 15 years. We've seen a lot of development with new structures built within our district. There have also been advances in firefighting science and changing environmental impacts from climate change. Wildfire is now a much higher risk in our beloved canyon and the mountains that surround it. Also, communities with a current CWPP can qualify for application for numerous federal, state, and local grants to implement the fire mitigation recommendations stated in their CWPP.  Click here to learn more about CWPPs in Colorado.  

The 2024 CWPP was developed by a Core Team and  The Ember Alliance , a Colorado-based non-profit dedicated to restoring the relationship between communities and fire on the landscape. Core Team members were:

• Chief Garret Ball – CCCFPD
• Jo Dickson – CCCFPD Board of Directors
• Maya MacHamer – Boulder Watershed Collective
• Ben Pfohl – Colorado State Forest Service
• Cork Rech – Blue Mountain Forest Stewardship Initiative
• Meg Halford – Boulder County Planning and Permitting
• Tony Auciello – Jefferson County Open Space
• Patrick Chavez – Colorado Department of Transportation
• Nate Goeckner – City of Louisville Parks, Recreation & Open Space (previously CSU Extension, Jefferson County)
• Jennifer Cook – CSU Extension, Gilpin County
• John White – Colorado State Forest Service
• Mike Smith – U.S. Forest Service

Before the US West was settled starting in the 1800s, the ecosystems here were generally adapted to wildfires. Forests with ponderosa pine had low-severity wildfires that burned grasses, shrubs, and small trees every 5-30 years, and it gave the trees space to grow strong and healthy without competition from other plants. Forests like lodgepole pine or high alpine spruce and fir forests would have large, intense wildfires every 150-300 years that would clear an area so that the seeds of the trees that had been waiting to sprout had sunlight and space to regrow. Native Americans who lived and moved through these valleys encouraged and facilitated wildfires where the land needed it to promote healthy ecosystems for crops and foraging.

However, when the land was settled and people built permanent homes, the fear of fire caused land managers to stop all wildfires that started near people. After more than a century and a half of fire suppression, many forests have become crowded with trees. This makes forests unhealthy and more susceptible to pests and extreme wildfire behavior.

Because of this history of fire suppression, combined with the effects of climate change, communities in Colorado and the US West have experienced wildfires that have been burning larger areas more severely than in the past. It is the responsibility of land managers, agencies, and private homeowners to reduce the risk of wildfires on their lands. Restored ecosystems that are similar to their historical state are more resilient to wildfire and can support diverse plant and animal life.

CCCFPD and adjacent districts have significant wildland fire potential due to high hazard conditions such as dense forests, steep terrain, and limited road access. The 2006 Plainview Fire spread across 2,700 acres in CCCFPD, fueled by over 70 mph winds. The Plainview Fire forced about 100 families to evacuate from the Plainview and Blue Mountain Estates communities. The 2000 El Dorado Fire burned 1,000 acres in the northern portion of CCCFPD and triggered voluntary evacuations for 250 homes. Other fires that burned near but not within CCCFPD include the 2010 Fourmile Canyon Fire (6,175 acres), 2016 Cold Springs Fire (525 acres), 2021 Marshall Fire (6,080 acres).

Fires as large as the Fourmile Canyon Fire, which burned in forested fuel, would cover 20% of the CCCFPD. Fortunately, wildland firefighters suppress a vast majority of ignitions in CCCFPD before they exceed 0.25 acres in size, but fires can escape the initial capacity of firefighters under high, dry, and windy conditions.

The wildland-urban interface (WUI) is where the built environment meets naturally fire-adapted ecosystems. For the purposes of this CWPP, the WUI is defined as the area that could transmit fire to and between populated areas within CCCFPD. Any modeled fire perimeters from the moderate or extreme fire weather conditions that intersected the CWPP plan unit boundaries was included, combined, and smoothed to make a final WUI boundary (see information on CWPP plan units  below ). Wildfires in the WUI are more likely to have interact with and affect the built environment within Coal Creek Canyon.

The three counties intersection CCCFPD have their own WUI definitions and regulations for structures built in the WUI. Be informed about requirements for new construction and additions in the county where you live.

Parts of CCCFPD are at high risk for large, high-severity wildfires due to dense forest conditions, dry and hot weather, and strong, gusty winds. Increasing drought and warming temperatures exacerbate wildfire risk in the area. Proactive work by CCCFPD, residents, and partners is imperative to protect lives and property.

Topography and fuel conditions are variable across CCCFPD, and this variation, plus alignment between wind patterns and topography, help explain the patterns of potential fire behavior across the landscape. If wind is pushing wildfire up a steep slope, it can result in more extreme fire behavior than if a fire is backing down the leeward side of a slope. Northwest facing slopes are likely to have dense forest conditions and a greater quantity of fuel available to burn if conditions are dry enough. However, south facing slopes are usually drier than north-facing slopes, and grasses present in moderately dense forests and shrublands can dry out very quickly on hot days and support rapidly moving fires with high flame lengths.

Fire modeling conducted for the CWPP suggests that under moderate fire weather conditions—conditions typical of a summer day in CCCFPD—about 50% percent of CCCFPD could experience high to extreme fire behavior. This percentage increases to 75% under less common but more extreme, hot, dry, and windy conditions. The extreme fire weather conditions are very similar to weather experienced during the first days of the 2016 Cold Springs Fire.

High to extreme fire behavior includes ember production that ignites additional fires away from the main fire and the movement of high-intensity fire from treetop to treetop, also known as an active crown fire. Such fires are extremely challenging if not impossible to control until winds die down and fuel moistures increase. Homes serve as an additional source of fuel that could produce high-intensity flames, emit embers, and initiate home-to-home ignitions.

Fire behavior in lodgepole pine forests in the southwestern part of the district is unique--when fires burn in these forest types under exceptionally extreme conditions, they can burn with very high intensity. However, the lack of vegetation growing under trees in many of these forests result in a lower chance of fire transitioning into treetops under most weather conditions. Managing fuel and using flame-resistant building materials in the home ignition zone (HIZ) is critical in all forest types, including lodgepole pine where the chance of intense fires are lower, but if an intense fire were to ignite, it could significantly threaten your home.

The maps below show fire behavior predictions under moderate fire weather (on the left) and extreme fire weather (on the right). Swipe between the two scenarios and zoom in and out to explore. Click the button in the lower left corner to expand the legend. Zoom controls are in the lower right corner. Click the button in the upper right to enter full-screen mode.

Potential fire behavior, rate of spread, and relative burn probability measure different aspects of wildfire hazards. Areas with the potential for high to extreme wildfire behavior can experience intense fires moving between treetops and abundant ember production. Areas with the potential for rapid rates of spread tend to have more grassy fuels and can result in fire growth that exceeds suppression capabilities. Burn probability measures the relative likelihood that a fire would burn an area. Some areas have a high burn probability but low potential fire behavior, meaning they are more likely to burn but fire behavior will be moderate (such as shorter flame lengths). Other areas have low burn probability but a greater potential for extreme fire behavior, such as crown fires that move from treetop to treetop and are exceptionally difficult to suppress.

On days with extreme fire weather conditions, 62% of homes in CCCFPD could be exposed to damaging radiant heat from nearby burning vegetation and virtually all homes within CCCFPD (99% of homes) could be exposed to embers from burning vegetation, regardless of vegetation in the immediate vicinity of the home. Several non-residential highly valued resources could also be exposed to damaging wildfire, including CCCFPD Stations 1 and 2, Coal Creek Canyon K-8 School, communication towers, water infrastructure, and recreation areas. The CWPP describes steps residents, neighborhoods, CWPP plan units (described  below ), CCCFPD, and other partners can take to protect the community.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to increase the chance that your home stands strong against a wildfire. Hazard mitigation includes using home hardening practices to reduce the risk of your home igniting from radiant heat or embers, reducing fuel in the home ignition zone (HIZ: 0-100 feet from a structure), and taking actions to increase the accessibility of your driveway and home to firefighters.

See the full CWPP document and the resident action plan (available on the CCCFPD CWPP  website ) for a variety of steps you can take to protect your home. A key resource referenced throughout the CWPP is the Home Ignition Zone Guide from the Colorado State Forest Service, which is available in  English  and  Spanish .

It is important for residents to work together as a community to mitigate shared wildfire risk. Structure-to-structure ignition is a major concern in high-density WUI neighborhoods and can cause substantial property loss. Neighbors can increase their homes’ chances of survival during a wildfire if they work together to reduce hazards in their overlapping defensible space. Many residents in CCCFPD are already taking actions to mitigate their HIZ, and community-wide participation in implementation of the CWPP will help all of CCCFPD become more fire adapted.

Evacuation concerns can weigh heavily on the minds of many residents in fire-prone areas of Colorado, such as CCCFPD. The death of 86 people in Paradise, California during the 2018 Camp Fire, many of whom were stranded on roadways during evacuation, underscores the importance of evacuation preparedness and fuel mitigation along evacuation routes.

There is a high likelihood of evacuation congestion and long evacuation times during a wildfire in CCCFPD. Some neighborhoods have only one ingress/egress route, and some have roads that are narrow, winding, or difficult to navigate, especially through heavy smoke from a wildfire. Based on modeling conducted for this CWPP, evacuation times for individual residents could exceed 3 hours and 30 minutes hours in some parts of CCCFPD due to the high density of homes and limited number of egress routes.

To help identify areas that could experience high congestion and assisting with prioritizing roadway fuel treatments, we modeled evacuation time and roadway congestion using the model ArcCASPER. See Appendix B of the CWPP for more information on model assumptions and inputs.

Law enforcement personnel will direct traffic during a wildfire event, so this evacuation modeling is not meant to suggest alternate routes for individual residents. Residents need to follow guidance from law enforcement personnel during evacuation events, practice safe driving, and practice good evacuation etiquette (e.g., allowing cars to merge and not texting or stopping to take photographs).

Some roads within CCCFPD have vegetation and topography that may lead to extreme fire behavior and long flame lengths. This vegetation can create potentially non-survivable conditions for evacuating residents and incoming firefighters. When flame lengths next to roads are greater than 8 feet, they can emit more radiant heat than an adult human body can survive. Under moderate fire weather conditions, 10% of the roads in CCCFPD could experience non-survivable conditions, and this percentage rises to 44% under extreme fire weather conditions.

Ensuring that residents can evacuate safely on roads is a priority in the CWPP. We used results from fire behavior and congestion modeling to prioritize roadside fuel treatments in areas that could experience non-survivable conditions and congestion during evacuations.

Evacuation preparedness is the responsibility of each resident in CCCFPD. The best way to get out quickly and safely during an evacuation is to be prepared. All residents in CCCFPD should have a family emergency plan and go-bag with critical supplies. Everyone should sign up for local emergency notifications from Boulder, Gilpin, and Jefferson Counties to ensure timely and accurate information during emergencies. Visit the  RotaryWildfire Ready website  to learn about go-bags and evacuation planning.

Impacts of wildfires do not end once the flames are extinguished. Intense rainfall events can result in flash floods, erosion, sediment delivery and debris flows the first few years following a wildfire. Erosion and sedimentation are natural processes that shape streams, transport soil and nutrients across a landscape and create diversity in stream and riparian habitats. However, extreme post-fire sediment delivery and debris flows can damage and destroy homes, community assets, infrastructure, fisheries, and riparian vegetation.

An assessment quantifying the potential for destructive sediment delivery following a wildfire was conducted using the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) as part of the 2024 CWPP. The assessment identified values at risk to post-fire sediment, provided recommendations for residents, managers, and partners in CCCFPD to plan for and mitigate post-fire impacts, and informed priority recommendations for fuel treatments to mitigate wildfire and post-fire impacts.

The probability of sediment delivery (the likelihood that any amount of sediment is deposited after rainfall events) could be 8 times greater the first year following wildfire in CCCFPD compared to current, unburned conditions. The magnitude of sediment delivery (the amount of sediment that could be dislodged from hills and transported into streams during intense rainstorms) could be almost 80 times greater than current, unburned conditions if 1-in-50-year storms followed a wildfire.

Proactive planning and activities to mitigate impacts of wildfires and post-fire sediment are key components of becoming a fire-adapted community. Recommended actions include:

• Fuels treatments in strategic places to reduce fire intensity and extent, and therefore reducing the likelihood of post-fire debris flows and sedimentation. Post-fire modeling was one factor used to prioritize fuel treatments for the CWPP.
• Completion and regular revision of the  Colorado Post-Fire Recovery Playbook  by CCCFPD, CDOT, and Jefferson, Boulder, and Gilpin County Road & Bridge to prepare emergency managers to rapidly undertake post-fire emergency response and mitigation measures.
• Low-tech, process-based restoration ( LTPBR ) to improve stream health, decrease the velocity of downstreatm flows, and trap sediment. LTPBR practices include building artificial beaver dams, building rock erosion control structures (also known as Zeedyk structures), and encouraging beaver activity.
• Conserving and restoring stream-side vegetation like willows and cottonwoods to reduce soil erosion, moderate floods, and potentially slow down the spread of wildfire due to elevated fuel moisture.
• Work with CDOT and Jefferson County Road & Bridge, Boulder County Road & Bridge, Gilpin County Road & Bridge to improve and maintain culverts, drainage features, and roadways in areas with elevated risk of post-fire sedimentation and debris flows.
• Steps by residents to protect their homes, including (1) working with their insurance agents to determine the need for flood insurance and/or an earth movement, earthquake, and landslide rider to your homeowner’s policy, (2) elevating and anchoring electrical panels, propane tanks, wiring, appliance, and heating systems, (3) securing important documents in waterproof deposit boxes, (4) ensuring sump pumps are working and have battery-operated backup power sources, and (5) installing terraces or slope drains that could protect their home but without altering drainage patterns that could worsen conditions for their neighbors, and (6) consulting a qualified forester to discuss pre-fire landscape level fuel mitigation possibilities to limit sediment delivery damages from burn scars. Reducing fuel loading in areas of concern can reduce wildfire severity, decrease the likelihood that hydrophobic soils (soils that repel water) form, and reduce the loss of roots, vegetation, and plant litter that hold soil in place.

For more information on how to prepare for post-fire debris flows, visit the storymap  "A Dangerous Path"  from the Boulder Watershed Collective.

Our CWPP divides CCCFPD into 15 planning units. Plan units share similar vegetation, topography, home construction, and social groupings. We assessed relative risk among plan units in four categories (fire risk, evacuation hazards, suppression challenges, and home ignition zone hazards), and we combined these risk ratings to produce a map of overall relative risk. Ratings were based on fire behavior and evacuation modeling and on-the-ground observations. See methodology in Appendix B of the CWPP.

Scroll down for an interactive map with information about the risks and priority recommendations for the plan unit where you live.

Fuel treatments reduce the amount of fuel in strategic locations, reducing fire risk to nearby communities and creating tactical opportunities for wildland firefighters to engage with wildland fires. Fuel treatments can also create healthy, restored forest conditions with abundant understory plants, improved wildlife habitat, and lower the risk of high-severity wildfires

To strategically plan future treatments, we need to know where past fuels treatments and wildfires have occurred. Between 2000-2023, public land managers and private residents have conducted fuel treatments to reduce wildfire risk and restore ecosystem health on about 4,200 acres in and around CCCFPD. The map below shows where recent fires and fuels treatments by land managers and agencies have occurred.

Altering potential wildfire behavior and restoring ecological conditions requires a landscape-scale approach to treatments across ownership boundaries. A key component of the 2024 CWPP was prioritizing project areas for roadside fuel treatments, ecological restoration, and/or stand-level fuel treatments within and around CCCFPD. The goal is to work with partners to implement first-priority projects in the next 5 years

Project areas were identified through partner collaboration with representatives from CCCFPD, Boulder Watershed Collective, Blue Mountain Forest Stewardship Initiative, Crescent Park Community Fire Protection Association, Arvada Water, Timberline Fire Protection District, Mountain View Fire Protection District, Colorado State Forest Service, US Forest Service, Saws and Slaws, United Power, Jefferson County Open Space, CSU Extension Offices, Colorado Department of Transportation, and the Coal Creek Canyon Collaborative (C4). Partners gathered at the Coal Creek Canyon Improvement Association Hall in November 2023 and used maps of wildfire risk, location of homes and important infrastructure, potential evacuation congestion, and post-fire sedimentation to delineate potential projects areas and collaboratively decided which were highest priority. In December 2023 and January 2024, the CWPP Core Team refined these project areas, created goals, and decided on lead organizations, and timelines. Concerns and priorities expressed by CCCFPD residents were considered throughout the process.

Click on a first-priority treatments below for details on objectives, lead organizations, and timelines. Implementation details were not established for second or third priority projects--these projects will be considered during future CWPP updates after first priority projects are completed.

The Core Team, partners, and residents had many ideas and suggestions on actions that would help create a more fire-adapted community. We collected ideas at meetings with the Core Team and partners and from the public survey and focus groups. The Core Team ranked each recommendation by its impact and value to the community and its feasibility, and from this emerged a prioritized action plan for implementing the CWPP. See Section 5 of the CWPP for a table of prioritized actions and responsibilities over the next five years (available on the CCCFPD CWPP  website ).

The CCCFPD CWPP is a call to action! Becoming a fire adapted community and decreasing wildfire risk takes concerted effort, time, and coordination. Use the maps, figures, and implementation recommendations from the CWPP to spark action on your property, across your neighborhood, and throughout your plan unit. The need to protect lives, safety, and property from wildfire is too great to wait.