This Is Not a Normal Year — Act Now!

Elevated wildfire risk this year across Colorado. 

Colorado experienced a historically dry winter with record-low snowpack. Parts of Summit, Routt, and surrounding counties are facing exceptional drought (Level 4 of 4) — the highest category. Fine fuels across the landscape — grasses, brush, and leaf litter — will dry out weeks ahead of schedule, increasing the potential for an early and intense wildfire season. Don’t wait for summer. Prepare your property now.

Pre-Summer Action Plan — Do These Now

Because of the dry winter, the normal window to prepare is compressed. Don’t wait for peak fire season — these are the steps to take in April and May:

1. Clear your 0–5 Foot Zone immediately. Remove all dead leaves, pine needles, mulch, and woody debris from directly around your home’s foundation, under decks, under stairs, and around any attachments. This is your single highest-impact action — this zone is where most homes ignite.
2. Get on the chipping schedule today. The Summit County Chipping Program provides free chipping and hauling of branches, logs, and small trees. Each neighborhood is visited only once — don’t miss your window. Piles must be stacked by 8 a.m. on the Monday of your designated week. Visit SummitCountyCO.gov/chipping for the current schedule or see below, we have it linked on this webpage.
3. Weed whack early and often. Keep all grasses to under 4 inches within 30 feet of your home. Leaf blowers work well to clear cut grasses from drip lines and foundation areas.
4. Burn remaining slash piles now if permitted. The fire districts do not allow slash burning from Memorial Day through Labor Day, or when fire danger is HIGH, VERY HIGH, or EXTREME. If you have slash piles from last season, contact your fire district now about permitted burn windows — before that window closes.
5. Check fire restrictions before using outdoor equipment. Mow before 10 a.m., never when it’s windy or excessively dry. Metal mower blades striking rocks can spark a fire. Spark arresters are required on all portable gasoline-powered equipment.
6. Sign up for SC Alert. Emergency evacuation notices go out through this system. Sign up now at SummitCountyCO.gov/Alert. 
7. Request a free defensible space assessment. Free on-site inspections are available through local fire districts. Call Summit Fire & EMS at (970) 262-5100 or Red White & Blue Fire at (970) 453-2474.

Defensible Space Recommendations: The Three Zones

Zone 0: Immediate / Ember-Resistant Zone (0–5 feet)
In Colorado’s dry, windy climate, this is the most critical zone for preventing home ignition from embers. Remove all combustible materials, including pine needles, wood mulch, firewood, and dead vegetation. Replace with non-combustible materials such as gravel, stone, or concrete. Keep decks, gutters, and roofs clear of debris, especially during fire season.

Zone 1: Lean, Clean, and Green Zone (5–30 feet)
This zone focuses on reducing fuels close to the home. Maintain irrigated, low-growing vegetation and keep grasses mowed to about 3–4 inches. Prune tree branches at least 6–10 feet above the ground (or 1/3 of tree height for shorter trees), and space trees and shrubs to prevent fire from spreading easily—especially important in Colorado’s conifer-heavy landscapes. Avoid dense groupings of juniper or other highly flammable plants near structures.

Zone 2: Reduced Fuel Zone (30–100 feet)
The goal here is to slow wildfire spread and reduce its intensity before it reaches your home. Remove dead trees, downed branches, and excess brush. Thin trees to create at least 10–18 feet between crowns, depending on slope and species common in Colorado forests (like pine and spruce). Keep woodpiles and propane tanks at least 30 feet away from structures and uphill if possible. Maintain natural vegetation but reduce its density to interrupt fire continuity.

Click here to learn more.

Wildfire Prepared Home™

Wildfire Prepared Home™ is a designation program designed to reduce wildfire risks through a set of mitigation actions at the parcel level. The program empowers homeowners to take science-based, proven steps to meaningfully reduce wildfire risk to their home and property. 

Click here to learn more.

Is Your Property at Risk from Wildfire?

Protect Your Home in Summit, Park, Lake, Routt, and Jackson Counties

Wildfires are a constant threat across our communities, and thousands of properties in Summit, Park, Lake, Routt, and Jackson counties are at risk each year. In Summit County alone, over 23,000 properties are vulnerable to wildfire damage. Could yours be one of them?

While these counties have made significant strides in wildfire awareness and mitigation, there’s no room for complacency. With an average of 2,500 wildfires annually in Colorado, the threat remains year after year. Every property owner has a responsibility to assess and reduce their wildfire risk to protect their homes, families, and communities.

How to Assess Your Property’s Risk

Step 1: Review the checklist below to determine if your property is properly prepared for wildfire season.

Step 2: Take action where needed. If you’re unsure about what to do or how to begin, there are plenty of resources and volunteer programs available to assist you. Grant funding may also be available for those who need financial support.

Wildfire Mitigation Checklist

Ensure your home and property are ready to withstand a wildfire by completing the following tasks:

• Create a 5-Foot Fuel-Free Zone
  Maintain a 5-foot perimeter around your home, free of any flammable materials like mulch, leaves, branches, or other debris. Make sure decks, sheds, and play structures are also clear.

• Clear the Area Around Propane Tanks
  Remove all trees, shrubs, and brush within 10 feet of propane tanks or any other fuel sources.

• Remove Debris from Roofs, Gutters, and Yard
  Keep leaves, pine needles, and other debris off your roof and out of gutters, as well as in your yard.

• Trim Overhanging Branches
  Ensure there are no branches within 15 feet of your chimney or extending over your roof. This helps reduce the risk of sparks catching fire.

• Establish a Defensible Space Zone
  Clear brush and other fuels within a 100-foot radius of your home or to the property line (whichever is closer). This is crucial to slowing or stopping the spread of wildfire to your home.

• Prune Trees to Remove Ladder Fuels
  Trim trees so that lower branches are at least 8 feet above the ground or 1/3 of the tree’s total height, ensuring there are no easy pathways for fire to climb up trees.

Summit County Chipping Program

Those of you in Summit County can protect your home from wildfire with help from the Summit County Chipping Program. Summit County government helps residents and property owners create defensible space by providing free chipping and disposal for branches, logs and small trees. 

When it comes to wildfire, it takes everyone to protect everyone. 

Visit SummitCountyCO.gov/chipping for more information, including participation guidelines. 

If you clear Conifer and Aspen from around your home and stack it in a slash pile, they’ll chip it and haul it away for FREE.

Each neighborhood will only be visited once, be sure to check the schedule!

Download the 2026 Chipping Schedule and Fact Sheet

Ready, Set, Go Program

Download the Ready, Set, Go Guide

The Ready, Set, Go! program helps residents prepare for wildfires by promoting early planning and quick action. “Ready” focuses on preparedness and home hardening, “Set” means staying alert and being ready to evacuate, and “Go” emphasizes leaving immediately when danger is present. The program aims to improve safety and reduce wildfire risk for individuals and communities.

Routt County Wildfire Mitigation Council Resources

Routt County Wildfire Mitigation Council are proud to offer the following programs throughout Routt County. Each of these offerings have enjoyed a great deal of success and impact in other areas throughout Colorado and beyond.

• Address Sign Program
• Routt Residents Rebates
• Community Chipping Program
• Neighborhood Ambassador Program
• Firewise USA®

–>Click here to learn more!

The Routt County Wildfire Mitigation Council has recently developed a Home Ignition Zone Evaluation process that residents can sign up for HERE.

Questions?

Josh Hankes
Executive Director
Routt County Wildfire Mitigation Council
Mobile: (201) 927-1313
Office:  75 5th Street, Suite A – Steamboat Springs, CO 80487
Mail:  2667 Copper Ridge Circle #1 Steamboat Springs, CO 80487

Mitigation Tips From the State of Colorado

We Encourage You to Live Wildfire Ready!

Altitude REALTORS® are joining other organizations in Colorado in a new campaign called Live Wildfire Ready. This campaign from the State of Colorado will help you better understand your wildfire risk and what you can do to prepare your home and property for wildfire.

It is especially important to prepare for wildfire if you live in the wildland-urban interface in Summit, Park, Jackos, Routt or Lake Counties. Grasses, shrubs, and trees provide fuel for wildfires. If your home is located in or near the natural vegetation of Colorado’s grasslands, shrublands, foothills or mountains, you live in the wildland-urban interface and are at risk from a wildfire.

Visit LiveWildfireReady.org to explore your wildfire risk and learn simple, practical, relatively low-cost actions you can take to prepare your home and property for wildfire and be ready if a wildfire occurs. Or search for #LiveWildfireReady on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Wildfire Tax Credit Information

For details, visit:  https://tax.colorado.gov/income-tax-topics-wildfire-mitigation-measures

Potential Wildfire policies could increase the cost of home ownership in Colorado.

In 2013, after Colorado experienced some devastating wildfires, the Governor’s Wildfire Task Force submitted policy recommendations for preparedness and mitigation, including those that could impact property rights, values and sales, and the availability and cost of insurance.

Altitude REALTORS® believes wildfire preparedness should be achieved through education, voluntary mitigation efforts, and incentives, not by unreliable risk ratings and government mandates.

As a wildland-urban interface (WUI) – a place where human development is adjacent to or surrounded by wildlands – Summit County has more than 23,000 properties at risk for wildfire. This WUI designation means Summit County homeowners are at increased risk of the negative effects of proposed legislation.

Among the recommendations of concern include:

• A disclosure that a home is within the WUI and at a higher risk for wildfire.
• A website that would rate all WUI properties on a scale of 1-10 for wildfire risk.
• Higher property taxes for homes in the WUI.
• Costly and mandatory defensible space and wildfire mitigation.

The 2013 recommendations were not implemented, but unless homeowners are proactive with mitigation efforts, another bad wildfire season could motivate legislators to approve those detrimental mandates.

Additional Resources

In the State of Colorado, wildfires are increasing due to drought and extensive fuel created by the mountain pine beetle epidemic. Altitude REALTORS® recognizes the need for local fire districts and homeowners alike to develop protections to aid against wildfire activity in our areas, with a focus on proactive prevention.

Altitude REALTORS® is the ultimate home-ownership and property rights advocate for our Counties (Jackson, Park, Routt, Lake and Summit) and is working to educate and inform homeowners and the public to encourage voluntary opportunities for mitigation and creation of defensible spaces in and around our counties.

To read the Altitude REALTORS® Property and Wildfire Mitigation policy in full, please click here.

Elk Creek Fire Protection District:

Conifer, Colorado

Hartsel Fire Protection District

The southern portion of South Park, Colorado

Jefferson / Como Fire Protection District

District 6

Lake George Fire Protection District

Southeast corner of Park County

Southern Park County Fire Protection District

Guffey, Colorado

North West Fire Protection District

Fairplay, Colorado

Please visit parkco.us for more information!

Our partners:

Colorado Project Wildfire and the Colorado Association of REALTORS®.

Colorado Project Wildfire is an educational initiative led by the Colorado Association of REALTORS (CAR) in partnership with fire prevention organizations. Its goal is to reduce wildfire risk by raising awareness and providing resources—like the Wildfire Preparedness Guide—to residents, especially those in the wildland-urban interface. Through education, partnerships, and community outreach, the program empowers individuals to take proactive steps to protect lives, homes, and property from wildfires.

Like CPW, Altitude REALTORS® recognizes our responsibility to safeguard homeownership and property rights.
We’re committed to supporting those at risk from wildfires by serving as a resource for education and advocacy. Our goal is to empower property owners to take part in voluntary, forward-thinking mitigation efforts that lead to lasting, positive change for individuals and communities alike. 

Click here to learn more about Colorado Project Wildfire.