Attachment A- Wildfire Ready Successes Talking Points

WILDFIRE READY Talking points for City Council members to consider and use as they wish to help educate our community about the great work the city is doing to make Boulder more wildfire resilient and prepared. Be Wildfire Ready | City of Boulder What is the history of Boulder and wildfire? 1. Boulder, and Boulder County, have always been at high risk for wildfires. Fire was once a part of how the land stayed healthy and kept its ecosystem in check. That same natural element is now a potential threat to public safety, and it’s important we learn to live with and be prepared for wildfires. 2. Because fire is a part of the landscape, it is not a matter of “if” there is another fire but “when” there is another fire. 3. We live on a wildfire adapted landscape so we need to move our communities to being more fire adapted as well. This means better prepared and more resilient. 4. The city prioritizes wildfire resilience projects and programs. Community members are encouraged to acknowledge that being wildfire ready is a shared responsibility between neighbors, communities, and between the city and its residents. (Note: these talking points avoid talking about wildfire as a “scary” catastrophe that can be entirely avoided. It’s important that our community understands the city’s approach to being Wildfire Ready is about adapting to living with wildfire as part of the natural landscape where Boulder exists. We want to be as resilient and prepared as possible, so that when wildfire happens, we are ready and the loss of life and property can be mitigated.)

Our Roadmap: The Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) Boulder's comprehensive strategy for wildfire resilience, the CWPP was updated in 2023-2024 with extensive community input and data-driven guidance from experts. While the city also integrates insights from multiple strategic plans, the CWPP is our primary framework for prioritizing wildfire resilience efforts across city departments and regional partnerships. Incorporating the U.S. Forest Service’s national cohesive strategy, the CWPP focuses on three priority program areas: 1. Fire Adapted Communities 2. Safe and Effective Response 3. Resilient Landscapes

City of Boulder's Wildfire Resilience and Preparedness: What We're Doing Now You can always learn about our current projects at the Wildfire Ready Projects in Boulder | City of Boulder page. 1. Fire Adapted Communities •

New WUI Code A new expanded Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) boundary was identified and stronger building standards for some areas took effect August 1st to make new homes more fireresistant

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Free Detailed Home Assessments (DHAs) City staff have completed 400+ detailed home assessments for residents; 115 more are underway this fall (Learn more about DHAs). These assessments provide recommendations to property owners that they can make on and around their properties and homes to make them more wildfire resilient.

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Direct Financial Help The city has provided $73,000+ to residents through our Wildfire Resilience Assistance Program. This year, we increased grant funding from $1,000 to $2,000 for eligible home projects, and we are partnering with HOAs to support home communities with financial assistance toward eligible wildfire resilience projects.

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Infrastructure Protection Chautauqua utility lines are in the process of being moved underground right now. Learn more at: Chautauqua Infrastructure Improvements | City of Boulder

2. Safe and Effective Response •

Dedicated Teams o The city maintains specialized wildland firefighters and monitoring specialists year-round. o The city (including BFR and OSMP) staffs up our stations around town during high risk days to make us even more prepared. Extra red-carded staff on duty make us better equipped and prepared to respond to wildfires quickly and effectively. o The Office of Disaster Management (ODM) for the City of Boulder and Boulder County provides excellent, coordinated disaster management. The focus of ODM is to limit the impacts of disasters on humans, property, environment, and infrastructure through community preparedness, mitigation of hazards, effective disaster response and recovery.

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Smart Prevention The city has closed high-risk areas for fire ignition, like Flagstaff Road, during major holidays to prevent human-caused fires. We have also increased enforcement of laws

and regulations in the Flagstaff Road area to lessen the likelihood of a human-caused fire ignition in this high-risk area. •

Enhanced Resources The city added a new wildfire brush truck apparatus to our fleet, to better navigate quickly and effectively over rough terrain to better respond to wildfire.

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Community Education o The city launched our quarterly community wildfire e-newsletter this summer. It’s called Anchor Point and you can sign up here: Sign up o The city created and staffed two “Wildfire Ready” tables at this year’s What’s Up Boulder community engagement event in Scott Carpenter Park. Wildfire experts from across multiple departments engaged with community members to answer questions and talk about what the city is doing to be “Wildfire Ready.” o Community members can learn about disaster preparedness and attend events and workshops offered by ODM – there are several great trainings this month (September) during National Preparedness Month. o Community members can sign up to receive emergency alerts: Sign-up at bocoalert.org and/or downloading and using the ReachWell app. Both of these options deliver the same emergency alert information, but in a different format (BOCO Alert comes through text, phone call, and e-mail, while ReachWell app delivers the same emergency alert information through a phone app, and can be accessed in languages other than English).

3. Resilient Landscapes •

Tree Thinning Actively thinning forests at Bison Drive-Kossler, Shanahan Ridge, Sanitas Valley, and Flagstaff Road. Through strategic thinning and creating fire breaks, we're reducing wildfire risk while restoring our forests' natural resilience.

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Fuel Reduction The city created 4 miles of 30-foot buffer strips in critical areas and completed perimeter mowing at key interfaces. This is a key strategy to slow and decrease the spread of wildfire.

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Cattle Grazing Deployed targeted cattle grazing near Wonderland Lake and Dakota Ridge to reduce grass fuels across approximately 50 acres in priority areas. Additionally, cattle grazing continued on 500-acres in at-risk areas in south Boulder, achieving invasive grass management and hazardous fuels reduction, and covered 16,000 acres of agricultural land in southern and eastern areas. By reducing flammable grasses using cattle, we are helping our landscape stay resilient and less flammable. You can watch this short, great video about our cattle grazing program that we produced and shared with our community in August.

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Agricultural Ditch Burns Completed 5+ controlled agricultural ditch burns covering 6.5 miles along water conveyance ditches. Agricultural burning protects our community by reducing fuel loads, lowering fire intensity, and restoring the natural fire cycles our ecosystems need to stay healthy and resilient.

This work is in part funded by the Climate Tax Boulder voters approved in 2022. Generally, $1.5M is set aside annually for wildfire resilience. The overall total of wildfire resilience spending citywide is considerably higher than $1.5M on an annual basis and the city is currently performing a review within each of the departments that support wildfire resiliency efforts to better quantify that total. Two departments have conducted that review so far for 2025, Open Space and Mountain Parks has identified $3.8M and Fire-Rescue has identified $2.6M of annual support for wildfire resiliency efforts. Once these reviews for all departments involved are completed this detail can be provided. We're implementing our updated Community Wildfire Protection Plan with input from community members and regional partners. Because fire is part of our landscape, we're building long-term resilience and helping our community become more prepared — not just responding to emergencies.