The high cost of wildfire.

It’s a fairly simple matter to put a value on the 281-homes lost in the High Park and Woodland Heights fires. County appraisal records put the figure at a conservative $55-millon dollars, but the future cost to the community is a more elusive figure.

Both these fires occurred in Larimer County, and while properties such as those lost in the Waldo Canyon fire are usually replaced quickly, the Larimer County homes were more rural, and they tend not to be rebuilt as quickly, if at all.

So that means Larimer County will have a lot less property tax revenue. Less money for the county resident’s basic services, like school busses, road maintenance and the like.

Then there is the loss in value of the homes that survived. That half million-dollar property with views to die for, becomes worth a whole lot less when those forest views are transformed into a moonscape of dead trees and scorched earth.

The cost of wildfire is two fold: The immediate loss of life and property, and the residual losses that the community suffers for years into the future.

We, as a community have to come together and address the issue of mitigation. Many areas of our district’s forest are horribly overgrown. Look at your property and see what needs to be done, and then talk to your neighbors. Mitigation works best when we work together.

If you’d like someone from Elk Creek to visit your property and give you advice on what your hazards are, and how you can address them, contact Elk Creek Fire Marshall Elizabeth Woodward at 303-816-9385 or email her at:

Or visit the Elk Creek Fire Protection District web site at: [url=http://www.elkcreekfire.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://www.elkcreekfire.org[/url]
Click on the link “Firewise Conifer,” to access an informative guide to mitigation.

Elk Creek has a wealth of recourses and information available to you. We are here to help, all you need do is ask.

It looks like the cost from the High Park and Waldo Canyon is coming in at about $450 million which is quite a chunk of change...

Quite a chunk of change indeed.

But I always wonder when they announce fire fighting costs, that while they are tremendous $ amounts.
How can you put a price on Life, Hometown, Memories, Suffering and Anguish incurred by fire etc ?
Why is the expense so important that it needs to plastered over the news ?
I don't care how much it costs, Fight the fire if it threatens life and hometowns.
Seems that there have not been any conflicts with $ available when fighting fires yet.
But as budgets get tighter will there be ?

I was out of state too far away to be able to volunteer on the food lines, to help move supplies into the support areas etc but had I been here I would have and will do if needed even if it means losing a bit of income on my end for a week or two,

But hey lets hope we not see this type of incident again.

BTW: Elk Creek Fire, great to see you guys stepping up, especially with High Angle rescue training. You have huge footprint to cover and we need more teams like yours in the area !

Would forest management and better zoning in mountain areas have cost less?

And this morning I just heard on Ch.9 that the folks doing the CLEAN-UP in the Spgs are being charged double to use the land fill. Unf----ng real....

And I have to wonder as the economy gets harder if fires will be just allowed to burn as they did years ago. An old timer says there was one that burned from CO Springs to Burland in the late 1800's.

Photo-squirrel wrote: Would forest management and better zoning in mountain areas have cost less?

Good question. As more and more homes burn, wonder if there wouldn't be more plans, LURs, etc. implemented until money runs out.

At the moment though with all the foreclosures, distance, etc. we are losing population, leaving fewer people to do mitigation. Lots of absentee owners who aren't the least bit concerned about mitigation.

Wasn't it back in about 1980 or so when the tree huggers made their voices heard and pretty much of the logging stopped? It seems to me that was about the same time that the forests became infected and overgrown.

It's not the tree huggers. All the logging in the world would not have saved the homes lost in the Waldo Fire. It's the US Forest Service manangement plan and housing being built in the rural areas.
The "infection" that you speak of is caused by mild winters and hot summers that allow the beatle larvae to prosper. BTW The Waldo Fire, North Park Fire and a majority of the recent large and most expensive fires were not in beetle kill affected areas.

Good read on the 2 concepts of forest management. (Yeah it's a bit dated but has good info.)
http://www.fao.org/forestry/6417-0905522127db12a324c6991d0a53571fa.pdf

Look at the house fire yesterday on Bear Mtn. No fire protection, not even a cistern. Log house built at the end of a long, winding, dirt road. If that had happened 2 weeks ago that entire mountain would be toast and Evergreen and Kittredge would have been evacuated. All the fire mitigation that you do on your property could mean squat if your neighbors don't do the same thing.

Read it.

Pretty broad scope.

As to specifics of your post are you saying no building should be done by private individuals. County Commissioners have always recognized that individuals have a right to build as they see fit with some prescriptions by the county.