Colorado Statewide Forest Resource Assessment

environment, many homes and other structures are built and/or maintainedin this environment without regard to wildfi re. With more people living inand using the wildlands, a greater chance of fi re starts exists. The currentcondition of many forests in Colorado often means that once started, wildfi reswill burn intensely and be diffi cult to control. As a result of this equation,land managers see potential for greater loss of life and property, moresignifi cant damage to natural resources and increased demand for public fi resuppression funding. 37More than 1 million people currently live in Colorado’s WUI where forests andother vegetation are at high risk to wildfi re. The WUI also includes essentialcomponents of community infrastructure, such as power and communicationslines that may be of concern relative to fi re. The size of the WUI is projected tonearly double by 2030, with the majority of this expansion occurring on privateland. Fortunately, individuals and communities can take a number of stepsto reduce their risk from wildfi re which, in turn, increases fi refi ghters' ability tosafely do their jobs and decreases the amount of public resources that mustbe spent on wildfi re suppression.At least 144 Colorado communities have developed Community Wildfi reProtection Plans (CWPPs) that identify and prioritize fuels treatments andother measures that will reduce the community’s exposure to damagingeffects from wildfi re. 38 Many individual homeowners also have implementeddefensible space, such as clearing trees and brush around homes, cleaningroofs and gutters of pine needles and leaves, stacking fi rewood away fromstructures and replacing such fl ammable building materials as cedar shakeshingles with more fi re-resistant options. These and other proactive stepsmust continue and dramatically increase if Colorado is to address its growingWUI challenge.Analysis: Strategic fuels reduction combined with the implementation ofdefensible space around homes and structures can signifi cantly reducewildfi re risk to people and communities. To assist the CSFS in identifyingareas that could benefi t from forest management to protect communities andessential infrastructure, the assessment team combined data on the currentand projected extent of the wildland-urban interface with two measures ofwildfi re risk, one focused on susceptibility to fi re and the other on the potentialfor wildfi re intensity. 39 The initial layer on the extent of the wildland-urbaninterface includes a community buffer zone of two miles, which identifi escommunities associated with forest vegetation at risk from wildfi re; morethan 1.6 million acres in Colorado are included in this layer. Forty-onepercent (674,742 acres) of this land is within one mile of a communityboundary. These numbers are projected to jump to nearly 4 million acresby 2030; 67 percent (2.6 million acres) are located within one mile of acommunity boundary. The majority of these acres are in private ownershipwith USFS-managed lands close behind. The predominant forest type isponderosa pine, followed by aspen, mixed conifer and lodgepole.37Living With Fire: A Guide for the Homeowner can be found at http://csfs.colostate.edu/pdfs/LWF51303.pdf.38For more information on Community Wildfire Protection Plans, including the CSFS CWPP: Guide to Implementation,please see http://csfs.colostate.edu/pages/community-wf-protection-planning.html and a list of approved CWPPs canbe accessed on this webpage.39For more information on wildfire risk layers, please see the section titled “Restore fire-adapted lands and reduce riskof wildfire impacts” beginning on page 26.44