Living With Wildfire

Wildfire plays a critical role in maintaining the health of fire-dependent forest, shrubland and grassland ecosystems in Colorado. Historic fire cycles have been altered in numerous landscapes, at times resulting in a significant accumulation of fuels.

Coupled with the effects of warming temperatures and drought, these conditions can make living with wildfire a challenge in Colorado. Risk reduction practices and community fire adaptation must be promoted as populations continue to increase in the wildland-urban interface.

Goals and Accomplishments

Select locations on the map to learn about accomplishments toward goals for Living With Wildfire.

Select a goal to learn about accomplishments toward that goal for Living With Wildfire.

Goals and accomplishments are connected to national priorities of state forest action plans: Conserve working forestland, Protect forests from harm and Enhance public benefits from trees and forests

Goal 1: Promote Community Fire Adaptation

In 2022, the CSFS updated the Colorado Wildfire Risk Assessment located within the Colorado Forest Atlas. This publicly accessible resource offers the most comprehensive and comparable geospatial data for wildfire hazard and risk analysis available statewide. The CO-WRA analysis provided the foundational data for the recently adopted state Wildfire Resiliency Code map for Colorado.

The Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control established the Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code Board in 2023 to enhance community safety and resiliency from wildfires through the adoption of codes and standards. On July 1, 2025, the board adopted the Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code, advancing the state’s efforts to strengthen building regulations in areas at risk from wildfire.

Since 2023, the CSFS has coordinated with Fire Adapted Colorado to deliver 11 National Fire Protection Association Assessing Structure Ignition Potential courses for nearly 400 agency staff, partners and residents around the state. This course is the preeminent wildfire mitigation training standard that provides participants with essential risk assessment and mitigation information.

Local, state and federal partners launched the statewide Live Wildfire Ready campaign in May 2023 to raise awareness among Coloradans about wildfire risk and actions they can take to reduce their risk. Through Sept. 15, 2025, the campaign had garnered more than 27.5 million impressions from a diversity of tools and tactics, directed over 24,000 unique visitors to the Live Wildfire Ready website and distributed 52,437 outreach materials to partners. The Live Wildfire Ready campaign will continue through 2027.

The CSFS updated the Community Wildfire Protection Plan minimum standards to establish a clear, common understanding of when a CWPP should be updated, the process to follow, components of a CWPP and other guidance specific to Colorado. In relation, the CSFS administers the federal Community Wildfire Defense Grant program in Colorado, which highlights CWPPs as a critical tool for community fire adaptation.

The CSFS published the Home Ignition Zone guide in 2021 and has distributed over 45,000 copies of the guide to partners and the public since then. The guide contains information about fire’s role in natural systems and guidance essential to reduce wildfire risk. It is one of the most frequently requested and referenced publications on the topic, widely considered to be the consummate, statewide resource for homeowner wildfire mitigation. The guide was translated into a Spanish language version in 2023.

Goal 2: Reduce the Risk of Uncharacteristic Wildfire

From 2020 through 2025, the CSFS has awarded $40.3 million through the Forest Restoration and Wildfire Risk Mitigation grant program to support community-level actions that reduce the risk of uncharacteristic wildfire. With FRWRM funds, partners treated nearly 25,500 acres at risk to the negative impacts of wildfire. This state-funded grant program has leveraged an abundance of federal funding for reducing uncharacteristic wildfire through cross-boundary projects and match requirements.

The CSFS and Colorado Forest Restoration Institute developed a new guide that integrates the spatial wildfire planning framework of Potential Operational Delineations and CWPPs. In addition, the CSFS worked with the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management to develop a guide to integrate Hazard Mitigation Plans and CWPPs. These two resources support connectivity and cross-boundary fuels treatments to achieve landscape-scale reduction of uncharacteristic wildfire risk.

The Colorado Department of Natural Resources established the Colorado Strategic Wildfire Action Program and has awarded over $40 million in grant funds through the program from 2022 through 2025. The program supports landscape resilience projects in strategic focus areas and workforce development efforts.

Goal 3: Promote the Role of Fire in Ecological Processes

The Colorado Fire Commission’s Prescribed Fire Subcommittee released the Colorado Statewide Strategy for Prescribed Fire on Non-Federal Lands in April 2025. The strategy is a collaboratively produced and stakeholder-vetted resource for promoting the role of fire in ecological processes. It identifies state-specific barriers to prescribed fire application and related strategies to address the barriers.

The CSFS has encouraged a diversity of partners to participate in the Colorado Prescribed Fire Council through its involvement with the Colorado Fire Commission’s Prescribed Fire Subcommittee.

To more directly participate in prescribed fire planning and implementation, the CSFS entered into an interagency agreement in 2021 with the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control and Colorado Department of Natural Resources to provide cooperation, assistance and support to collaboratively promote fire’s role on the landscape.

Since 2020, partners in Colorado supported the development of documentaries that educate the public about fire’s natural role in Colorado’s ecosystems, including Fire Lives Here, Fireforest and Co-Existing with Wildfire. Follow the links to these films to learn more about the partners and filmmakers.

Impacts from IIJA Forest Action Plan Funding

Through Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Forest Action Plan implementation funding, the Colorado State Forest Service expanded its wildfire mitigation programs with new resources, more partnerships and greater opportunities to support wildfire risk reduction efforts at every level – from individual homeowners to multi-agency collaborations – helping Colorado communities grow more resilient.

IIJA funding has enabled more direct action and support for community wildfire planning and mitigation. Since this funding has been made available, the CSFS has directly supported an additional 48 Community Wildfire Protection Plans across the state as of the fall of 2025. Colorado has nearly 300 total CWPPs to date. These plans span thousands of acres across counties and fire protection districts, guiding specific strategies in fuels reduction implementation, community engagement and emergency preparedness and resulting in stronger and more coordinated wildfire planning statewide.

In addition to CWPPs, IIJA funding helped the CSFS support more than 250 Firewise USA® sites and growing in Colorado, further empowering communities to take an active role in wildfire resilience at the neighborhood scale.

IIJA funding also supported the creation and update of widely used resources from the CSFS and CSU Extension to provide homeowners, land managers and communities with critical guidance on how to reduce wildfire risk, including La Zona De Ignición Del Hogar (Spanish version of the Home Ignition Zone guide), Fire-Adapted Landscaping Practices, Ignition-Resistant Landscape Plants and Wildfire Fuels Management in Grass-Dominated Landscapes.

Explore Accomplishments for Other Themes and Goals

You can also explore statewide cross-theme accomplishments toward goals.

Visit the Colorado Forest Action Plan Five Year Review homepage.