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Title: |
Eagle County, CO - Wildfire Regulations and Innovative Website
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Type: |
Regulatory
Education
Designation of high risk areas
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Jurisdiction: |
County
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State: |
Colorado
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Program Description: |
Eagle County is centrally located in the Rocky Mountains along Interstate 70, offering easy access to Colorado's best amenity -- the mountains. The county's 2,660 miles of mountain lands vary in topography and climate from temperate river valleys to snow-capped peaks and open ranch lands. Denver is less than 100 miles east; Grand Junction, a Western Slope hub, is about 100 miles west. Many mountain communities are located in Eagle County, including Vail, Beaver Creek Resort, Arrowhead and Aspen.
Wildfire Information Website
Eagle County maintains a very interesting website featuring several short videos, zoomable maps and helpful documents about Wildfire Mitigation efforts in Eagle County, Colorado.
The website is designed to give homeowners the needed information to help protect life, property and the wildlands from wildfire. See Eagle County's Wildfire website.
Wildfire Mitigation Regulations
To address the threat of wildfire, Eagle County adopted Wildfire Regulations effective April 21, 2003.The regulations can be found by clicking on the link for County Resolution. The regulations include Development Standards for new construction, Roadway Standards, Water Supply Standards, PUD and Subdivision Standards, and Building Standards. This discussion of the regulations will only deal with those regulations relating to vegetation management.
Vegetation Management Plan
New homes or remodels, and new subdivisions and PUD's in an area rated as moderate, high or extreme fire hazard risk in unincorporated Eagle County must have a Vegetation Management Plan.
Vegetation Management Plans must be prepared by a natural resource professional with expertise in the field of vegetation management and wildfire mitigation. The plan must include a site-specific wildfire analysis addressing topographic and vegetative features, a vegetation inventory, analysis and map which identifies and assesses the major timber stands and vegetation according to NFPA 299, Standard for Protection of Life and Property from Wildfire, 1997 edition, or the version currently in effect. Wildfire mitigation activities such as overlot thinning, and creation of fuelbreaks must be spelled out.
All applications are referred to the Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS) for review. CSFS reviews the application and considers the Vegetation Management Plan, Defensible Space, and proposed design of the subdivision or PUD. The Colorado State Forest Service assigns a Wildfire Hazard Rating of "low", "moderate", or "high" to each subdivision or portion of a subdivision. This rating is based on slope, aspect, fuel types, fuel continuity, ground fuels, and hazards such as steeper slopes, natural chimneys, ravines, deep draws, or inadequate access roads.
The CSFS comments on the potential effectiveness of the Vegetation Management Plan and the mitigation techniques proposed. They make recommendations based on guidelines promulgated by CSFS, such as "Creating Wildfire-Defensible Zones, No. 6.302. Eagle County considers the recommendations of the CSFS and applies the appropriate recommendations as conditions of approval of the sketch and preliminary plan.
Defensible Space in the Eagle County Building Standards
The amended Building Code regulations "establish minimum design and construction standards for the protection of life and property from fire within the Urban/Wildland Interface. The ordinance applies to "all new building construction, exterior modification to existing buildings, and/or additions that increase a building's footprint or number of stories in moderate, high and extreme hazard zones."
Defensible Space is defined as "a designated area surrounding a building or buildings that will be subject to fuel modification measures intended to reduce fire-spread potential between the structure and adjacent vegetation." Defensible space shall extend a minimum of 70 feet or to the property line for flat lots, and a minimum of 210 feet on the downhill side for lots with a slope of over 40%. Defensible space distance requirements are based on recommended distances in Colorado State Forest Service publication "Creating Wildfire-Defensible Zones", No. 6.302 referenced above.
The defensible space regulations require that slash and flammable debris be removed from the defensible space zone, and that all trees and shrubs within 15 feet of the structure be removed. Trees and shrubs over 5 feet tall must have an average crown spacing of 10 feet. Groupings of trees are allowed, provided their crowns are at least 10 feet from the structure. Trees remaining in the defensible space must have branches pruned to a height of 10 feet, but not more than 1/3 of the tree height, and ladder fuels removed.
Defensible Space is required when a site is assigned Hazard Rating of moderate, high and extreme hazard.
Contact Information
For more information contact Ben Garrett, Wildfire Mitigation Specialist, via email, at Benjaman Garrett; or call Eagle County Community Development, (970)328-8742.
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Zone 2 area before fuels treatment.
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Zone 2 area after fuels treatment.
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