Learn more about prescribed fire common terminology in this helpful resource!

November 2025 marked an important milestone for prescribed fire across Northern Colorado. In partnership with local fire districts, land managers, and regional collaborators, three prescribed fires were successfully implemented using broadcast burning—demonstrating what’s possible when planning, training, and partnership come together on the landscape.

Fire is a natural and important part of a healthy Colorado ecosystem. Northern Colorado, with its picturesque landscapes and vibrant communities, is no stranger to wildfire. The region’s unique blend of dry climate, dense forests, and gusty winds creates a perfect storm for wildfires to wreak havoc.

Fire managers on the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests are preparing for pile burning season this winter. Current and forecasted weather conditions may create favorable pile burning conditions over the next several months.

Colorado Forest Restoration Institute (CFRI), a key partner of the NoCo Fireshed, recently released a study showing that areas with prior forest treatments, like thinning, prescribed fire, or previous wildfire, burned less severely than in untreated areas during the wildfires in 2020.

Following four years of planning, public involvement and environmental assessment, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service has approved plans to conduct forest management across 43,000 acres of National Forest within the 625,000-acre St. Vrain Watershed west of Lyons, Colo.

A recent survey by The Watershed Center, found strong public support for a wide range of wildfire risk reduction strategies, particularly those focused on proactive forest management in the St. Vrain watershed.

Every prescribed fire plan is a unique recipe of specific and precise conditions that must be in place prior to ignition. Customized for the unique components, conditions, and needs of each individual burn unit, ingredient choice is guided by fuel types and density, soil moisture, topography, aspect, access, infrastructure, natural fire breaks, safety, and project goals.

“Why can’t we just cut it and skip the fire part?” Here’s a quick primer on why partnering with fire instead of banishing it again will always provide better outcomes for nature, society, and the future of both.

The Forsythe II Project is a collaborative prescribed fire project happening across Forest Service lands, Boulder County, and private landowners.

The Canyon Lakes Ranger District of the Roosevelt National Forest completed the decision for the Salt Cabin Prescribed Burn Project located south of Rustic and Highway 14. This project will improve timber stands by thinning and prescribed burning to reduce natural fuel build-up and hazards.

The goal of this project is to restore the ponderosa pine and mixed conifer stands to a more natural state, including reducing surface and crown fuel loading across the landscape, retaining and encouraging old-growth qualities, and improving wildlife habitat.

Prescribed fires take the hands of many to plan and complete successfully. An “all hands” approach is needed to plan meetings, study forests, create maps, process paperwork, test fuel moisture, analyze weather, measure perimeters, dig fire breaks, and ignite drip torches.  

The moment a prescribed fire is ignited is just the tip of an unseen iceberg of research, partnership, and preparation, stretching back months or years before drip torches are lit.

After the Cameron Peak Fire, the incident management team created this video to describe how fuels treatments around the communities of Red Feather and Crystal Lakes helped firefighters to confront the Cameron Peak Fire.