Coal Creek Canyon
Community Wildfire Protection Plan Update
We need you to be part of the effort to update this critical resource for our community.
2023 Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) Update
Life in our beautiful canyon and mountain environment is hard to beat. Vistas, valleys and views along with abundant wildlife, privacy and freedom from urban restrictions make us appreciate and protect our very special lifestyle. Our community has shown we can face hardship together. The massive flood of 2013 unified all canyon communities in action and solidarity. Watching with horror as the nearby Marshall Fire devoured over 1,000 homes in December of 2021 brought us together again, in the realization that, had the wind shifted, our canyon communities could also have been lost that day. We look at our abundant forest differently now. We realize that the fact there has been no large fire here in 100 years is BAD news, not good news.
Residents of Coal Creek Canyon, like all foothills dwellers, understand that the privilege of living in our beautiful mountains comes with the responsibility to protect our environment, lifestyle, and to help our neighbors in times of emergency. We don’t have the municipal resources that urban dwellers take for granted, like water, sewer, snow removal, and municipal fire protection services. We step up and handle these things ourselves. Always have, always will. And now it’s time to step up and help our volunteer fire department draft a new Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) to give our homes, communities and forests a fighting chance when the inevitable wildfire comes.
What is a CWPP?
While we live in a wildfire prone ecosystem, fortunately, there are many ways to make our communities more fire adapted, and thus more likely to survive a wildfire. A CWPP is a plan that takes the specific circumstances of an area and identifies and prioritizes areas for treatments. A CWPP will also recommends the types and methods of treatment for each section on the plan as well as recommend measures that will reduce the risk of structure ignitability. When completed, these treatments will help to protect the communities and essential infrastructure within them. A CWPP addresses a wide variety of issues such as wildfire response, hazard mitigation, community preparedness, evacuation planning and structure protection. The CWPP is developed in through a collaborative framework and agreed to by residents, state and local government, local fire department, and other stakeholders. Our CWPP will document the risk of every community in the Fire District with well researched, step-by-step recommendations and prioritization of the mitigation measures required to allow the Fire Department to safely protect our lives and property.
Why do we need a new CWPP?
The Coal Creek Canyon Fire Protection District (CCCFPD) had a CWPP prepared for us in 2008. It is now outdated. CWPPs are considered outdated if older than 10 years. A lot has changed in the last 15 years. We've seen a lot of development with new structures built within our district. There have also been advances in firefighting science and changing environmental impacts from climate change. Wildfire is now a much higher risk in our beloved canyon and the mountains that surround it. Also, communities with a current CWPP can qualify for application for numerous federal, state, and local grants to implement the fire mitigation recommendations stated in their CWPP.
"It takes a community to protect a community”
Garret Ball, Fire Chief, Coal Creek Canyon Fire Protection District
ABOUT US
Coal Creek Canyon CWPP Community Outreach Committee
Working under the direction of the Fire District, the CWPP Community Outreach Committee is made up of representatives from local organizations and concerned residents.
