Land treated to prevent a wildfire from burning out of control isn’t a clear cut, barren wasteland.

It can still be a lovely forest, and actually, property owners often have better access and use of their property when oak brush and low-hanging branches are removed.

That’s the message from FireWise of Southwest Colorado and its volunteer ambassadors, who mitigate their land to reduce the risk of a wildfire coming through and destroying their neighborhoods.

Les Kole of Bayfield, Peggy Beach of Pagosa Springs and a group from East Canyon in Montezuma County last month received national awards honoring their efforts.

Of the 12 national awards, six were given to FireWise volunteers in Colorado, and three of those awards were made locally.

Kole was one of the first FireWise ambassadors in La Plata County, and his neighborhood, Deer Valley Estates east of Bayfield, was the first to have a Community Wildlife Protection Plan, which helps homeowners get grant funding to pay part of the cost of mitigating fire hazards on their property. Deer Valley Estates is comprised of 360 acres of ponderosa pine and oak brush surrounded by the Saul’s Creek area of the San Juan National Forest. When a former fire chief from the Upper Pine Fire Protection District first visited the subdivision, he said he wouldn’t be able to send in firefighters to protect homes if a forest fire came through.

Kole said he began mitigating his property, then convinced the homeowners’ group to start clearing brush along the subdivision roads. Today, of 84 lots in Deer Valley, only three haven’t been mitigated.

“It’s not a clear cut,” Kole said during a tour through the neighborhood on Wednesday. By removing dead trees, low limbs and lots of oak brush, “it looks nice.”

Upper Pine Chief Bruce Evans agreed when he helped present Kole his award.

“It’s kind of like a park,” he said of Deer Valley.

Kole and the other recipients received their awards at the FireWise of Southwest Colorado meeting Tuesday at the San Juan Public Lands Center.

They “are truly embracing the concept of creating fire adapted communities,” Pam Wilson, the executive director for FireWise of Southwest Colorado, said in a statement. “They go above and beyond promoting defensible space; they serve as mentors to other Neighborhood Ambassadors and work closely with their local fire departments.”

The Wildfire Mitigation Awards the volunteers received are jointly sponsored by the National Association of State Foresters, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the National Fire Protection Association, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Beach lives in the Loma Linda subdivision in Archuleta County.

“It’s been fun!” she said with a laugh, referring to neighbors who were “kicking and screaming” against it when she first started promoting fire mitigation years ago.

“They said they loved the forest,” Beach said. She added that she does too, “and we need to clean it up, and help save your home!”

The East Canyon volunteers had their work put to the test during the Weber Fire in 2012. The 10,122-acre fire entered the neighborhood, but it wasn’t an “armchair fire,” which is when local fire departments can’t protect homes because of the danger of too many trees and brush next to homes, explained Rebecca Samulski, FireWise chapter coordinator in Montezuma County.

Instead, firefighters were able to use the cleared road in East Canyon as a fire line. The fire came through parts of the subdivisions, but didn’t burn entire trees, and no structures were burned.

One of the FireWise volunteers, Phillip Walters, said he was one of the last homeowners evacuated out of East Canyon, and as he was leaving, firetrucks and personnel were coming in.

“Well, that’s good!” he remembered thinking at the time. “We could see where the defensible space was,” on the images of the fire provided to homeowners after the Weber Fire, he said.

Kole and Beach were both awarded the Community Wildfire Preparedness Pioneer award, while eight FireWise Ambassadors from East Canyon, which includes the Elk Stream and Elk Springs Ranches in Montezuma County, received the Wildfire Mitigation Innovation award.

The awards were presented at the International Association of Fire Chiefs Wildland-Urban Interface Conference in Reno, Nevada, on March 9.

Kole and John Beebe, a board member of Upper Pine and also a resident of Deer Valley, attended the conference, where Kole received his award.