CLEAR CREEK COUNTY TAKES ACTION TO REDUCE WILDFIRE RISK

Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office
51 mins ·

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Clear Creek County, Georgetown, CO October 23, 2020

Stay Healthy. Stay Informed.

Contact: Christine Crouse, Clear Creek County Public Information Officer
303-679-2424 / 970-389-8724
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CLEAR CREEK COUNTY TAKES ACTION TO REDUCE WILDFIRE RISK

To reduce the likelihood of wildfires and to protect the Clear Creek community, the following actions have been enacted by the Clear Creek County Board of County Commissioners, Open Space and Sheriff’s Office; the City of Idaho Springs; the City and County of Denver; Park County; Colorado Parks and Wildlife; and the U.S. Forest Service; and are in place until further notice:

Land Closures:
• Historic District Public Lands
o The Clear Creek County Board of County Commissioners on October 22 passed Resolution R-20-102:
Closing Certain Lands in the Georgetown Silver Plume Historic Landmark District to All Uses
• Clear Creek Open Space Lands
• Virginia Canyon Mountain Park in the City of Idaho Springs
• Guanella Pass
o Both the Clear Creek County and the Park County sides
• Denver Mountain Parks in Clear Creek County
• Echo Lake, Summit Lake, Hicks Mountain, Pence Mountain, Snyder Mountain, and Forsberg Park
• Colorado Parks and Wildlife Lands
• U.S. Forest Service Stage 3 Closure Order for Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests
o Closes national forests, national forest system roads, and the national forest system trails located in Clear Creek County (and other counties) due to fire danger and the limitation on fire safety resources to other fires in and nearby the forests

Revised County Stage 2 Fire Restrictions – no hunting:

The Clear Creek County Sheriff updated the county Temporary Stage 2 Fire Restrictions effective at 12:00 AM on Friday, October 23. This continues to mean no open fires or shooting, and was updated to include no hunting activities. The full revised restrictions are available at at www.clearcreekcounty.us/DocumentCenter/V...-2-10-22-2020?bidId=

Currently, all public lands in Clear Creek County are closed to public access. Because Clear Creek County public lands are intermingled with Forest Service lands, these actions support the Forest Service’s Closure Order and are protective of the entire County. Suzanne Boccia, Director of the County’s Office of Emergency Management, emphasizes, “Wildfires don’t follow jurisdictional boundaries. We saw that yesterday as the East Troublesome Fire jumped the Continental Divide. What happens on any of these lands affects all the other lands and our community.”

These actions were deemed necessary in light of the historic wildfires occurring in Grand, Larimer, and Boulder counties, as well as severe drought conditions and extremely high fire danger in Clear Creek County and many parts of the state. Additionally, statewide firefighting resources are stretched thin due to high activity. Clear Creek County is continually assessing its available resources for routine public safety calls as well as the potential for larger scale emergency response.

www.clearcreekcounty.us/DocumentCenter/V...ease_October-23-2020