The Jefferson Conservation District partners with private landowners, communities, Homeowners’ Associations (HOAs) and local government entities to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire in Jefferson, Clear Creek, and Gilpin Counties.
These trees were removed to create a shaded fuel break.
History of Fire on the Front Range
The foothills west of what is now Denver were once a vast forested landscape frequently disturbed by wildfire from lightning strikes. These fires created a patchwork of tree stands of various ages and species. Following American settlement of the Front Range beginning in the late 1850s, human activity began to replace natural disturbance as the primary influence on forests on the Front Range. Since then, public land managers and private property owners generally suppressed all wildfires because of risks to safety and property. This elimination of natural disturbance created a dense load of hazardous fuels that were no longer being burned away every few fire seasons. This suppression, ironically, increased the possibility of a major wildfire that cost significant time and money to fight, and increased the risk of losing lives and property to a major fire.
Over the last twenty years Jefferson County in particular has had its fair share of significant wildfires as Colorado suffered through a period of drought. The Buffalo Creek Fire of 1996 burned over 10,000 acres in just over four days as it spread violently from a smoldering unattended campfire on the Pike National Forest. The resulting flood damage was nearly as destructive. Four years later the area just north of Buffalo Creek suffered the High Meadow Fire, a similar size at just over 10,000 acres.
The 2002 fire season was a particularly hot and dry summer all over the West. Multiple large fires occurred in Arizona, California and Texas, along with other states. In Colorado 2002 is best remembered for the Hayman Fire, the largest wildfire in the history of the state. It burned 138,000 acres in Jefferson, Park, Teller and Douglas Counties over four weeks in June and July of 2002. All three fires continue to affect communities at the southern end of our District.
The Wildland-Urban Interface
This term refers to the transition zone between developed, urbanized areas and unoccupied wild lands. Communities in the wildland-urban interface, or “WUI,” are generally adjacent to or surrounded by forested lands and are therefore particularly susceptible to wildfire. In our district there are hundreds of communities identified as being in the wildland-urban interface. Each fire protection district in Jefferson County has a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), developed from a long process involving multiple public and private stakeholders, that includes a hazard assessment for the identified communities within its boundaries, and a list of recommendations to reduce risk to these communities. JCD staff created or updated the North Fork, Golden Gate, Elk Creek, and countywide CWPPs.
JCD’s Fire Mitigation Program
Now that plans are in place for wildfire mitigation strategies, JCD works with landowners and communities to implement the recommendations of a CWPP. These strategies include shaded fuel breaks- an interruption in hazardous fuels created by cutting down patches of trees- and defensible space- creating a zone 30-100 feet around a home or structure that lacks hazardous fuels, and can be easily defended by firefighters. Both practices reduce the risk of a wildfire destroying property, make fires easier to contain and suppress, and increase the safety o firefighters and the public.
JCD implements these strategies following a professional assessment of the conditions on a property, and designs a specific treatment based on CWPP recommendations, landowner preferences, and JCD staffers’ professional experience. These treatments usually occur at little cost to a landowner. You can schedule an evaluation of your property or your community by contacting JCD at 720-544-2872.
