Gunnison Field Office – Wildfire Mitigation & Education | Colorado State Forest Service

Wildfire Mitigation

Wildfire Hazard Evaluation and Mitigation
Wildfire Training
Wildfire Links

Wildfire Hazard Evaluation and Mitigation

Many rural Colorado homeowners seek secluded, sheltered homesites. Many do not realize services such as fire protection, often taken for granted in the city, are not readily available at their mountain retreat. The photo above right, shows a typical “secluded” mountain hideaway. The photo on the left illustrates a “defensible space” created by the homeowner. Creating a defensible space around your home involves thinning vegetation adjacent to the structure.

This allows firefighters a safer opportunity to protect your home.

Wildfire Hazard Area Mapping

The Gunnison Field Office can identify and map wildfire hazard areas for county planning departments. ARC/INFO software is used in preparing Geographic Information System (GIS) data.

We assist a county at the desired level whether that is the complete process of photo-typing, ground-truthing, and digitizing the data into the GIS, or just interpreting aerial photography and identifying of wildfire hazard areas.

House Bill 1041 Wildfire Hazard Reviews

The CSFS is the designated state agency by H.B. 1041, to review (upon county request) the Wildfire Hazard “state area of concern.” (CRS 24-65.1-202 – 21 KB PDF). We use state and national (NFPA 299) standards for these evaluations.

Mitigation

Active wildfire hazard mitigation by CSFS includes identifying needed mitigation on-the-ground, funding mitigation programs through cost-share grants and disseminating information through educational materials. Mountain home fire safety information sheets are also available for review.

You may also want to view our Protect Your Home & Property from Wildfire page.

Post-fire Rehabilitation

CSFS assists affected landowners with wildfire rehabilitation plans following wildfire events. These plans outline structural erosion control measures and suggest needed re-vegetation to assist the land healing process. Many rehabilitation plans are implemented with cost-share assistance.

For more information, please visit our Post-fire Rehabilitation page.

Wildfire Training

The Colorado Wildland Fire & Incident Management Academy has become the place for Colorado, national and international wildfire agencies to receive nationally qualifying National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) wildfire training.

Gunnison Field Office – Wildfire Mitigation & Education