With the ever-present risk of a raging fire in summer’s dry heat, Montezuma County is up against a July 1 deadline to figure out how it will enforce new statewide rules intended to keep wildfires at bay.
About two years ago, Colorado introduced a Wildfire Resiliency Board to help local jurisdictions protect themselves from wildfires by establishing guidelines; for example how close tree branches should grow to a home in an area at risk of fires. If that tree branch is set ablaze, its distance from a building could make all the difference for a homeowner or a small business.
Earlier this month, the state passed a new amendment, tasking local governments with figuring out how they’d adopt and enforce such wildfire safety rules. Montezuma County will then have nine months to implement its updated policies.
By July 1, Montezuma County needs to know how close its rules will be to the state’s Wildfire Resiliency Board, and whether the county will partner with the state or a third-party contractor to oversee the rules.
On Tuesday, the Montezuma Board of County Commissioners discussed next directions.
But the commissioners emphasized obstacles, especially for the county’s ability to ensure new buildings are compliant.
“We don’t have any code enforcement down here for that, we don’t have the funding for that,” said Commissioner Jim Candelaria.
Candelaria said that the local fire departments also couldn’t take on the enforcement of the rules.
“It's a state code. Let them deal with that,” he said.
Much of wildfire prevention comes down to simply educating people on how to upkeep their properties adequately, he said.
The state’s new requirement revolves around a concept that Coloradans know well – “wildland urban interface,” sometimes shortened to WUI. The WUI refers to places where human development comes into close proximity to wilderness and heavy vegetation.
A little more than a third of Montezuma County residents live in a WUI area designated with a low risk of impact on property and livelihoods from wildfires, according to the Colorado State Forest District. But about half the residents in WUI zones are subject to categories of anywhere from moderate to most severe risk from such hazards.
With embers flying in air on a windy day, the possibility of a fire in one of the county’s more densely urban areas like Cortez is possible, said Roy Wilkinson, fire chief of the Cortez Fire Protection District.
“There’s always the potential,” Wilkinson said.
The commissioners agreed that it would be best to bring state officials in to help the county implement the wildfire prevention codes.
