Last year's Lee Fire in northwest Colorado was the fourth largest in state history. It started with a lightning strike and ended up scorching almost 139,000 acres. Some of the impacted counties - like Moffat and Rio Blanco - carry high risk for wildfire but are short on resources for mitigation.
A recent study out of Colorado State University looked at wildfire vulnerability compared to the capacity to deal with fire risk. Unlike Moffat and Rio Blanco counties, Front Range communities' risk and resources are more balanced.
"The Front Range, that's kind of highlighting an area that has a good match, like not a mismatch happening with resources to fire risk...that means that we can hopefully do something to reduce vulnerability," said wildfire social scientist Karissa Courtney.
Courtney completed the research behind the study while she was a graduate student at CSU. She developed an index using publicly available data that lays out risk versus capacity. It's a unique tool that helps highlight the areas of the state in need of more support.
"I think it's mostly going to be funders and policymakers considering prioritizing these communities where the impact could potentially be the most substantial," said Courtney.
That increased funding could go to forest management projects or training on fire mitigation strategies. It's also important for these areas that lack capacity build local collaborations, so they can share resources.
Courtney is working on a second study to get more local context around wildfire risk reduction. That might help researchers better understand why communities with high risk aren't getting the resources they need.
Courtney isn't sure what the future of her wildfire vulnerability index will be - it needs to be kept up to date with more local context - but it's a place to start from.
"I think it could definitely be a helpful tool."
The study suggests the lessons learned from Colorado could also be implemented in other states.
