Wildfire is not an aberration in Colorado’s forests. It is a natural force that has shaped the landscape for millennia. And while the risk and danger of fire is serious, there are common-sense ways to harden a home to protect it from wildfire and mitigate risk.
Those were the central messages Saturday afternoon as scientists, land managers, and local fire officials gathered at the Estes Park Community Center for a symposium titled “Living With Fire: The Past, Present, and Future of Fire in Colorado,” presented by the Estes Valley Watershed Coalition in collaboration with the Northern Colorado Fireshed Collaborative.
The half-day program drew residents seeking a deeper understanding of how fire has historically functioned in Colorado forests, how climate change is influencing fire behavior, and what homeowners can do to reduce risk to their homes and neighborhoods.
The takeaway was sobering but practical: Fire is inevitable, but catastrophe is not.
“Adaptation is the key word,” said Logan Lasley, the Estes Valley Fire Protection District’s Wildfire Risk Reduction Education Specialist.
The program featured Camille Stevens-Rumann, an associate professor at Colorado State University and co-leader of the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, who spoke about why wildfire is an essential ecological process. Her research focuses on how forests recover after disturbances such as fire and how management decisions affect that recovery.
Peter M. Brown, founder and director of Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research, followed with a historical perspective, using tree-ring records to show that fire has long been a regular feature of Colorado’s ecosystems.
“Fire is not new,” Brown said. “What’s new is the way our forests, communities, and climate are interacting.”
Climate is raising the stakes
Russ Schumacher, Colorado’s state climatologist and director of the Colorado Climate Center, explained how warmer temperatures, prolonged drought and changing precipitation patterns are creating conditions that favor larger and more intense fires.
Colorado entered the spring with unusually dry conditions, Schumacher said, increasing concern about the 2026 fire season. He noted that a developing El Niño could bring wetter and cooler conditions later this year, offering some reason for cautious optimism, but said there are no guarantees.
“Seasonal prediction is always hard,” Schumacher said, adding that wind is one of the most critical and difficult-to-predict factors in wildfire behavior.
Fire as a tool: Returning beneficial fire to the landscape
Nathan Hallam, a fuels specialist for Rocky Mountain National Park and other Front Range national parks, discussed prescribed burning, thinning, and other techniques used to reduce hazardous fuels.
Hallam said his work focuses on “returning healthy fire to the landscape” through such efforts.
He described prescribed fire as an important but highly regulated tool, especially in the wildland-urban interface where homes and infrastructure are intermingled with forest. He approaches a prescribed burn with experience, a great deal of preparation, proper staffing, and the same caution that he would apply to any wildfire.
In addition to Rocky Mountain National Park, Hallam’s work supports fuels projects at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument and Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.
Rebuilding after fire
Morgan Cannon, the Northern Colorado project coordinator for the National Forest Foundation, outlined efforts to restore burned forests across the Arapaho and Roosevelt national forests. Reforestation at the scale needed after large fires requires significant labor, funding, and long-term commitment.
But even with emerging technologies, such as drones and automated planting systems, human crews remain essential, said Cannon.
A local call to action
Lasley closed the symposium with a presentation aimed squarely at residents. As the district’s wildfire risk reduction educator, Lasley has completed nearly 300 free home assessments in the Estes Valley, identifying vulnerabilities that can make homes more likely to ignite during a wildfire.
The biggest threat is often not towering pine trees, but the small, overlooked fuels that accumulate around homes.
“A lot of people want to talk about the big honking trees,” Lasley said. “But the smaller the fuel, a lot of the times, the more hazardous it is.”
Dry pine needles in roof valleys and gutters, juniper shrubs, deck cushions, birdhouses attached to siding and wood fences that connect directly to a house can all provide pathways for embers to ignite a structure.
Embers are the primary threat
Wind-driven embers are the leading cause of home ignitions during wildfires, Lasley said. Last year, more than 18,000 structures were lost to wildfire nationwide last year, he said, with embers responsible for most of those losses.
“These embers get into the little nooks and crannies around the home,” he said. Common vulnerabilities include:
- Openings larger than one-eighth inch in soffit and crawl-space vents.
- Gaps in siding and trim.
- Pine needles and leaves trapped against structures.
- Combustible landscaping immediately adjacent to the house.
- Wooden fences attached directly to exterior walls.
“Sometimes the little things make the biggest difference,” Lasley said, noting that many improvements are inexpensive.
Fire departments can’t do it alone
Lasley offered a blunt assessment of firefighting capacity. Based on staffing and equipment, the Estes Valley Fire Protection District can typically fight only one or two structure fires simultaneously. By comparison, Lasley said he has heard that the much larger Denver Fire Department estimates it can handle about five at one time.
When homes begin igniting one after another, local resources are quickly overwhelmed, he said.
“If one home ignites and produces embers, and those embers fly and ignite another home, and then another, we can no longer focus on putting homes out,” Lasley said. “We have to stay ahead of the fire and try to prevent other homes from igniting.”
That means the work homeowners do to protect their own property also helps protect their neighbors.
Empowerment over fear
“There are things we can do to your home to prevent it from igniting,” said Lasley urging residents to reject the fatalistic belief that wildfire automatically means total loss, and adopt the attitude that, “My home can survive a wildfire.”
He cautioned against fear-based messaging. Rather than motivating people through alarm, Lasley said residents should focus on the practical steps they can take to improve their odds. For residents, that means:
- Prevent by reducing fuels and hardening homes.
- Prepare by making improvements before a fire starts.
- Perform by taking informed action and supporting neighbors.
Lasley encouraged attendees to walk around their homes and ask what they would wish they had done if they were forced to evacuate.
“If you’re driving down the hill and you’re thinking, ‘I wish I had removed that juniper bush,’” Lasley said, “do it now.”
Lasley’s presentation underscored a growing consensus among scientists and fire professionals: Colorado communities cannot eliminate wildfire, but they can become more resilient.
Looking ahead
The Estes Valley Watershed Coalition will host its next presentation on June 11 from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Estes Valley Community Center. Brian Berg, the Town of Estes Park’s arborist, will discuss how homeowners can reduce wildfire risk and better protect their properties through strategic pruning, fire-resistant landscaping, and thoughtful plant selection.
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