What is Wildfire Ready 2030?
Wildfire Ready 2030 brings the city's wildfire resilience efforts together under a shared vision: a safer, more wildfire-resilient Boulder.
The framework connects three important areas of work:
- Resilient landscapes: Managing vegetation and reducing hazardous fuels to help limit wildfire risk.
- Safe and effective response: Strengthening the city's ability to prepare for and respond to wildfires.
- Fire-adapted communities: Helping residents understand their risk and take meaningful steps to protect their homes and neighborhoods.
These priorities work together. The city uses wildfire risk information to help guide investments and projects, while the Wildfire Home Hardening Hub helps residents understand their own risk and identify actions they can take.
The city also measures progress to understand whether these efforts are making a difference and where additional work is needed.
Resilient Landscapes
The city works to reduce wildfire risk by managing vegetation and hazardous fuels across public lands and other priority areas.
This includes projects such as targeted grazing, vegetation thinning, prescribed fire and other approaches that help create more fire-resilient landscapes.
These projects are informed by wildfire risk, environmental conditions and the needs of the surrounding community. The goal is to reduce wildfire hazards while supporting healthy, resilient ecosystems.
What this means for residents: Wildfire mitigation extends beyond individual properties. The work happening across Boulder's landscapes is an important part of reducing community-wide risk, alongside the improvements residents make around their own homes.
Safe and Effective Response
Reducing wildfire risk also means preparing for wildfires that may occur.
The city works to strengthen wildfire response through firefighter training, equipment, operational planning and coordination with regional emergency response partners.
These efforts help emergency responders prepare for rapidly changing conditions and support a coordinated response when wildfires threaten Boulder.
What this means for residents: Emergency response is one part of wildfire resilience. Residents also play an important role by staying informed, preparing for evacuation and taking steps to reduce wildfire risk before an emergency occurs.
Fire-Adapted Communities
Building a more wildfire-resilient Boulder requires meaningful action from residents, property owners, neighborhoods and the city.
The city helps community members understand wildfire risk and identify practical ways to reduce it through education, Detailed Home Assessments and home hardening resources.
The Wildfire Home Hardening Hub supports this work by helping residents move from understanding their risk to taking action, whether that's completing a weekend project, planning a larger home improvement or working with neighbors.
What this means for residents: You don't have to do everything at once. Start by understanding your property's vulnerabilities, prioritize improvements and continue making progress over time. Wildfire preparedness is an ongoing responsibility, not a one-time checklist.
How the City Prioritizes Wildfire Risk Reduction
Wildfire risk is not the same across Boulder. Different neighborhoods, landscapes and properties face different vulnerabilities.
The city uses wildfire risk information, including its Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Risk Index, to help identify where programs, projects and investments may have the greatest impact.
This information helps guide decisions about wildfire mitigation and supports a coordinated approach across city departments.
What this means for residents: The WUI Risk Index helps the city understand and prioritize community-wide risk. A Detailed Home Assessment helps individual property owners understand vulnerabilities specific to their homes and identify practical improvements.
How We Measure Progress
Wildfire resilience is a long-term effort. Completing projects is important, but the city also needs to understand whether those efforts are making a difference.
Through Wildfire Ready 2030, the city is developing measures to track progress, evaluate the effectiveness of its work and guide future investments.
This includes looking at wildfire mitigation activities, changes in risk and whether residents feel better informed and more prepared to take action.
What this means for residents: The goal isn't simply to provide more information or complete more projects. It's to help Boulder become more wildfire resilient through meaningful, measurable improvements over time.
What’s Your Next Step?
Wildfire preparedness looks different for everyone. Explore more ways to reduce your risk and build resilience.
