{"id":76978,"date":"2026-03-30T22:02:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/169-3\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T18:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T18:30:13","slug":"wildfire-mitigation-support-available-for-county-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wildfire-mitigation-support-available-for-county-residents\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfire mitigation support available for county residents"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Crews
Crews use heavy equipment as part of mitigation work in Montezuma County. (Courtesy of Wildfire Adapted Partnership)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A series of public forums hosted by county officials have urged residents to prepare for an active summer of wildfires.<\/p>\n

Part of that preparation involves defensible space work around the yard. This includes thinning trees, trimming or clearing brush and low-hanging branches \u2013 essentially removing \u201cladder fuels\u201d officials say largely contribute to a fire\u2019s climb through the canopies.<\/p>\n

Residents have access to a range of wildfire mitigation resources through the Wildfire Adapted Partnership. The nonprofit is providing free site assessments, cost-sharing assistance for defensible space work, equipment rebates and community-led programs that support larger-scale mitigation within a neighborhood.<\/p>\n

After a period of limited resources tied to federal funding delays, the organization says it has secured significant funding for the year. Programs are geared toward homeowners, communities and neighborhood associations.<\/p>\n

Celeste Moore, program coordinator for Montezuma County, encourages people to apply early. The funds are first-come, first-served.<\/p>\n

People can request a home assessment by filling out a short form on the organization\u2019s website, which is sent to staff to schedule a visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s essentially where I come to the property and assess structures and the defensible space,\u201d Moore said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good starting place, it gets you all the information specific to your property.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the site visit evaluates structures using home ignition zones, from zero to 100 feet, to identify specific risks and recommend home-hardening improvements.<\/p>\n

Cost-share to offset mitigation work<\/div>\n

Formerly FireWise of Southwest Colorado, the organization was formed in 2003 in response to the Missionary Ridge Fire, which destroyed around 50 structures near Durango.<\/p>\n

Much of the mitigation work is labor-intensive \u2013 from limbing trees to clearing out dense, overgrown plants \u2013 and can be time-consuming. The organization has a defensible space cost-share program that allows some of the costs to be recouped.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the homeowner or the land owner hires a contractor to do that recommended work, right now, that reimbursement with the two grants we have for this year is anywhere from 60% up to 75%,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

Site assessments are available throughout the county, while the cost share is limited to locations designated as high risk. Those areas include all of Dolores, Mancos and rural areas between Highway 184 and east of Cortez near U.S. Highway 491.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our challenges is letting people know we are here, we are available to help and we do have grant funding available to address the threat of wildfire which is inherent living in Montezuma County,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

\"Participants
Participants gather to tour a burn scar at Mesa Verde National Park to learn about wildfire impacts and recovery. The event was last year's Pinyon Juniper Symposium, coordinated with Dolores Watersheds Collaborative and Mancos Conservation District. (Courtesy of Wildfire Adapted Partnership)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Cedar Mesa Ranches leads as community model<\/div>\n

Wildfire Adapted Partnership has worked with Cedar Mesa Ranches homeowners for years.<\/p>\n

It is one of the largest subdivisions in a heavily forested area with flammable pinyon-juniper woodlands and Gambel oak. The neighborhood sits next to fire-prone Mesa Verde National Park and is surrounded by Bureau of Land Management land.<\/p>\n

Moore said the subdivision\u2019s single-access road \u2013 one way in and out \u2013 adds to emergency managers\u2019 and fire districts\u2019 concerns about its high-risk fire potential.<\/p>\n

In response, residents and partner agencies have carried out extensive mitigation work over the years, including roadside thinning, vegetation clearing and improvements to emergency access, communication and signage. The neighborhood has also adopted a community wildfire protection plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve done a lot of work both with individuals mitigating their own parcels and they\u2019ve also held a couple of events,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

Some activities involved fire professionals and first responders assessing driveway access, while another event was a subdivision-wide evacuation drill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a very helpful thing because in the event that something does happen, you\u2019re in a state of panic. You need to get your go-bag, you need to get your checklist, get your essential things out of the house,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

Cedar Mesa Ranches is an example the organization promotes through its ambassador program. Residents who join the program are trained in wildfire mitigation principles and serve as local points of contact, helping organize neighborhood projects, share safety information and connect neighbors to additional funding.<\/p>\n

\"Bruce
Bruce Short, the main program ambassador for Cedar Mesa Ranches, gives a tour of his mitigated property to discuss risk and mitigation strategies in the forested area. (Courtesy of Wildfire Adapted Partnership)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI mean people who live here have lived through a couple wildfires just even recently. 416 in Durango, the East Canyon Fire in Montezuma \u2026 People think about it, and it is nice to see we can work together,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

The organization also offers a chipper rebate program, reimbursing up to $250 for individual use or covering 50% of costs, up to $1,500, for neighborhoods or HOAs that rent equipment to clear vegetation.<\/p>\n

\u201cMitigation is very labor intensive and can be very expensive, so our goal is to get properties to a maintainable level and help it be affordable for residents,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

awatson@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wildfire Adapted Partnership says it has more funds to give out this year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5737,5736,5735,5741],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-76978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-local-news","category-news","category-newsletter","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76978"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79438,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76978\/revisions\/79438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76978"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=76978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}