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La
Plata County is home to 42,506 residents and  covers
1.08 million acres. Some 2.7 million acres of public lands are in
or abut La Plata County, including 1.8 million acres on the San
Juan National Forest, 750,000 acres on BLM property and 156,000
acres in National Monuments. According to the US
Bureau of Census, median home value is $183,900, with 11.8%
seasonal homes. Annual median household income is $41,159. Approximately
60% of the land is owned publicly or by the Southern Ute and Ute
Mountain Indian Tribes, with 40% owned privately. The population
of La Plata County is growing at an average rate of 3% per year
much of it in the wildland urban interface. From 1993 to 1999, 2,895
new lots were created through major and minor subdivisions. Since
1978, over 11,000 residential structures have been placed throughout
the county.
Addressing the Threat
The main effort that coordinates the response
to the wildfire threat in La Plata County is  the
La
Plata County Fire Plan (LPCFP), laying out goals and nine recommendations
on how to address their wildfire hazard. The development of the
Plan was facilitated in 2002 by the Office
of Community Services (OCS) at Fort Lewis State College in 2002
and funded by USFS
Region 2 Economic Action Program.
The La Plata County
Fire Plan
Counties in Colorado are required
to prepare Fire Plans as part of a law passed by the legislature
in 2000. The law emphasizes the need to manage wildfire in addition
to promoting and suppressing wildfire. To encourage better management,
the legislation authorizes counties to prepare and implement fire
management plans that detail individual county policies on fire
management for prescribed burns or natural ignition burns on lands
owned by the state or county. The shift from prevention and suppression
to management created a need for fire planning on non-federal lands
within counties.
The La Plata County Fire Plan has five goals that
guide its efforts in fire mitigation:
1) increase La Plata County's capacity to identify high risk areas
and work to prevent catastrophic wildfire on those lands;
2) improve the effectiveness of fire prevention public education
by taking current education efforts to personal, grassroots and
neighborhood levels;
3) decrease fire risk in the urban interface by implementing key
projects identified in the CFP planning process;
4) increase the number of homeowners implementing FIREWISE strategies[hotlink];
continue to support the myriad partnerships between communities
and local, state and federal agencies to lessen the chances of catastrophic
wildfire in La Plata County. 
The Missionary
Ridge Fire
Ten days after the LPCF Plan was released,
the Missionary
Ridge Fire Complex occurred. The fire
ran from June 9 to July 15, 2002, burning 70,000 acres over 37 days
and resulted in the loss of 54 structures at a total cost of $40
million dollars. Approximately 2,300 homes/families were evacuated
during the course of the fire. The Valley fire happened concurrently.
It burned 400 acres in two hours and came within two miles of Missionary
Ridge. Homeowners and community residents, on the other hand, have
been more interested in taking action to protect their homes since
the fires.
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 La
Plata County is one of five counties in southwest Colorado
addressing their wildfire risk. Planning efforts have been
coordinated by a small group of people with clear synergies
among the five counties. This report focuses on La Plata County,
while also mentioning some of the efforts in Archuleta, San
Juan, Montezuma and Dolores counties.
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The Office of Community Service
The Office
of Community Service (OCS) at Fort Lewis College is a
unique participant in La Plata County's response to wildfire.
OCS directs its resources towards projects based on social,
cultural and economic inclusiveness, participatory democracy,
community ownership and capacity building. The USFS and BLM
have used OCS to assist in the development of forest plans
and other projects. OCS began working with the USFS and BLM
in 1993. According to Thurmann Wilson, San Jaun Public Lands
Center (SJPLC) Public Affairs, OCS focused explicitly on "capacity
building in both the community and the agencies…to build
a lot of skills amongst community members and ourselves".
This ten-year effort has provided dividends in the fire mitigation
arena since agencies and individuals are eager to work collaboratively
to reach their goals and have developed the skill base to
achieve the goals. "The capacity [to get things done
in La Plata County] comes from the relationships that have
formed with county government and municipalities and all kinds
of organizations in the area," according to Sam Burns,
OCS.
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Other Key Participants
The San Juan Public Lands is the USFS and BLM merged together
to give "Service-First" to the public. This innovative
cooperation between the federal agencies to provide seamless
management of public lands has been key to successes in southwestern
Colorado. Another unique participant in La Plata County efforts
is the San Juan Mountains Association (SJMA), a non-profit
foundation that supports education and outreach. SJMA has
been instrumental in funding several educational efforts as
part of the La Plata County Fire Plan.
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Organizing a Community Effort
Interaction among the various participants
coordinating the La Plata County Fire Plan is best described
as informal. There is no formal organization that brings them
together on a regular basis. Rather,the group is characterized
as a loose network of people interested in doing different
aspects of wildfire mitigation. Subsets of this network come
together in ad-hoc ways to accomplish certain goals and then
disband. For instance, there is the Potsie's Agenda Group.
This group continues to meet at a local restaurant, called
Potsie's, to discuss how to keep the implementation of the
La Plata County Fire Plan moving. This group consists primarily
of CSFS District Forester Dan Ochocki, San Juan Public Lands
Center's Allen Farnsworth, Durango Fire Rescue Authority's
Assistant Fire Chief Allan Clay and OCS Contractor Marsha
Porter-Norton.
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