Program aims to build fire-shielding measures around every home in one Colorado county

    BOULDER COUNTY, Colorado (KCNC) -- A 0.1% sales tax in Boulder County is paying for structure-saving and life-saving wildfire mitigating measures, one house at a time, all across the county. It's a model that program leaders believe could serve as a model for other counties across Colorado.

The sales tax is the main funding source for a nonprofit called Wildfire Partners, an organization that helps people across Boulder County better prepare for the worst by creating hardscape buffers around their homes, among other measures.

Wildfire Partners will do wildfire mitigation assessments for free at any home and if people choose to do the home-hardening work -- like installing metal siding or clearing brush and trees away from the home's exterior walls -- they can receive a $500 rebate or even potentially get reimbursed for up to $2,000.

"We also have a strategic fuels mitigation program, which really focuses on larger landscape fuels, treatment and community-wide treatments," said Meg Halford with Wildfire Partners.

So far, Halford says 3,000 homes have received the free wildfire mitigation assessments her organization provides.

"We've got a slew of programs," Halford explained. "Community mitigation planning and that's really where, instead of an individual home assessment, an entire community gets assessed, and then those recommendations go to them and it gives them things to work on to become more prepared for wildfire."

The community assessment program just began this spring, and people like Halford are doing outreach to get more communities adequately fortified from potential flames.

While new data shows the community of Lyons has had the smallest amount of participation so far, she says preliminary reviews appear to show that the homes that did participate in the mitigation efforts were able to survive the flames of the Stone Canyon Fire, a wildfire that has been burning all week near that community. She says crews are still reviewing those outcomes, but in the meantime, several additional wildfire mitigation measures have been taking place near Lyons in recent weeks.

"The town of Lyons, with the local fire protection district there, are just in the beginning stages of updating their community wildfire protection plan," Halford said.

There are tens of thousands of homes all across the county, not just in Lyons, that still need assessments and mitigation work, but Halford says her team is up to the task because, at the end of the day, she says making these improvements can make a big difference.

"It's critical, because fire's going to happen, and nothing is a silver bullet," she said. "It's up to the communities, and we always say that the wildfire weather sets the stage, but the community conditions really determine the outcomes, so, the more prepared that landowners, and ideally whole communities, can be for being situationally aware, home hardened, defensible space, really knowing how to get out... it just makes a whole lot of difference when that fire actually hits in their neighborhood."

It is free to get a mitigation assessment in Boulder County, and there are grants to help people afford mitigation efforts who might have trouble doing so otherwise.

For more information on how to participate, please visit the Wildfire Partner's website.