In November 2022, less than a year after the Marshall Fire destroyed more than a thousand homes, Boulder County voters approved a wildfire mitigation sales tax. Now, funds from that tax are available to help residents make their homes more fire resilient.
Launched on June 18, a new rebate program is offering up to $500 per household to county residents who remove their junipers, cover their vents, get rid of wooden fences or create five feet of “defensible space” around their homes free of brush and vegetation. With a total of $2.5 million allocated, the goal is to create a more fire-hardened county in preparation for a future marked by wildfires.
“We’ve entered a new era of climate-driven wildfire,” said Jim Webster, director of Wildfire Partners, which is running the rebate program. “Boulder is at high risk for future fires.”
Wildfire Partners used to only offer home assessments to Boulderites living in western unincorporated Boulder County, helping residents understand their properties’ wildfire vulnerabilities. Since the passage of the sales tax, the program has expanded its offerings, recognizing that wildfire risk is no longer confined to western unincorporated areas.
Because of this risk, Webster said, wildfire mitigation needs to become a habit accompanying homeownership.
“The worry is that people only think about wildfire mitigation when there is an active fire,” he said. “Our goal is that wildfire mitigation takes place year-round.”
Providing $500 is an attempt to kickstart this mindset shift. Boulderites can be reimbursed for four specific actions under this rebate program:
Junking your junipers
Removing junipers near your home immediately reduces the risk of wildfire reaching your structure. Junipers contain highly volatile oils and resins that burn hot and fast, creating large flames and spreading embers. Their dense growth also traps dead leaves and other dried vegetation, increasing their already high flammability. Unfortunately, they’re one of the most popular landscaping choices in Boulder.
Eliminating fences that are fuses
In the Facilitated Learning Analysis of the Marshall Fire — a state report comprised of stories, analysis and commentary to “help other communities be prepared for these increasingly frequent events” — investigators found that wooden fences played a key role in the spread of the fire within subdivisions. As open space grasses burned up to the wooden fences surrounding neighborhoods, those fences became firebrands, with the wind throwing their embers onto decks, into vents and onto dry vegetation abutting homes.
Clearing the first five feet
Most homes do not ignite from a fire front directly reaching the structure. Instead, embers and firebrands blown by the wind hit the sides of homes, fall to the ground and ignite the mulch and plants at its base. Replacing that flammable material with gravel or flagstone leaves those embers to starve and sputter out.
Screening or replacing vents
Embers carried on a gale can also sneak into attics, igniting a home from the inside. By screening your vents, those would-be arsonists are blocked, bouncing off and falling onto the gravel you wisely installed below.
These steps are a good place to start home-hardening efforts and suitable for county reimbursement, as many are long-term solutions. Once you clear out the first five feet of your home, maintaining that area becomes much easier. But maintenance is still necessary.
“Maintenance is critical,” Webster said. “Wildfire mitigation is not a one-time event.”
It doesn’t matter if the first five feet around your home is gravel if you let pine needles and dead leaves build up in that area. Clearing those leaves is one of many unglamorous chores that form the backbone of wildfire mitigation. Other tasks include cleaning your gutters, mowing and, if you live on a mountain property, cutting the lower limbs of nearby trees to prevent fires from climbing from the ground into the treetops.
“The idea is that this becomes a regular behavior,” Webster said.
Webster said 458 people have already applied to the rebate program, and he hopes all of the $2.5 million is used by the fall. He added that while Boulder County has an educated population regarding wildfires, “education is a starting point, but you need action.”
He hopes those who are diving into home-hardening inspire the rest of the county to follow suit.
“We have early adopters, who are going to be our leaders and are going to be the first to embrace this new culture of living with wildfire, of preparing for wildfires,” he said. “And others will follow.”
Brian Oliver, the wildland chief for Boulder Fire-Rescue, said the home-hardening practices promoted by Wildfire Partners also aid wildland firefighters. When firefighters know a home or group of homes has done mitigation and can withstand embers falling in their midst, it allows them to focus more on fighting the fire rather than defending homes.
“It does make a big difference,” Oliver said. “We can focus more efforts on actual fire-line suppression as opposed to that defensive tactic.”
All homeowners in Boulder County are eligible for the rebate. The application, along with other materials, can be found on the Wildfire Partners website. Once the application is approved, homeowners have 30 days to complete the work and provide receipts to Wildfire Partners for reimbursement. If they complete the mitigation themselves, residents can also track the hours it took them, which the county will reimburse at $23.23 an hour.
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