Evergreen Town Hall Meeting this Saturday, June 8th at Buchanan Rec Center

Wildfire is a serious threat to our mountain communities across Jeffco – and it’s a critical issue no matter where you live in the county.

A few months ago, I met with mountain area fire chiefs in my district to learn more about the Wildland-Urban Interface where homes, businesses and other structures are built near or in forested areas.

One person at the meeting said something that stayed with me: “If we have a catastrophic fire and we’re asked – what did you do to prevent this fire – do we have a clear response?”

We know there’s a lot of good work underway to thin our forests and mitigate wildfires, but there’s much more work to do.

How can we enhance collaboration in an environment of finite resources?
What are we currently doing and where do the gaps lie?
How do we raise awareness among our community about how you can help?

None of us wants to leave anything to chance. We want to make sure we’ve explored every avenue to prevent another catastrophic fire from happening here. We’ve seen the devastating impact of the Lower North Fork fire and the Buffalo Creek fire.

In response, the Jeffco Board of County Commissioners last month hosted a work session on wildfire risk to explore these questions and talk about next steps. The session featured mountain area fire chiefs, Jeffco Open Space leaders, the Jeffco Sheriff's Office and other subject matter experts and community members.

Want to learn more? My Mountain Town filmed the work session and you can view it here: bit.ly/2JXZtya . Thanks, MMT! You can read more in the Canyon Courier, too: bit.ly/2WlKfcN

Join us this Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at Buchanan Rec Center for our Evergreen Town Hall and hear directly from Evergreen Fire Chief Mike Weege and Elk Creek Fire Chief Bill McLaughlin about wildfire risk and what we can do together to address it.

Hope to see you there!

Jefferson County Commissioner, Dist. 3
Office: 303.271.8510