Purpose:

Wildfire Partners is Boulder County’s wildfire mitigation program and is housed in the County’s Community Planning and Permitting Department (CP&P). Our mission is to educate, motivate, and support Boulder County residents in preparing for future wildfire. Wildfire Partners is seeking individual, contract Wildfire Mitigation Specialists a to perform home assessments, inspections, community outreach and education, and other wildfire mitigation tasks on a part-time basis.

Background:

Launched in 2014, Wildfire Partners is Boulder County’s wildfire mitigation program. The program began in western Boulder County. In 2022 and 2023, we started our expansion into eastern Boulder County. The services offered by the program are different in the western and eastern portions of the county. Since this SOQ is for Wildfire Mitigation Specialists, the following background information focuses on the services provided by these specialists. To learn more about all the services offered by the program, visit www.WildfirePartners.org.

Western Boulder County Program

Homeowners, with the assistance from Wildfire Partners, work to reduce their wildfire risk by actively creating and maintaining a home ignition zone with low ignition potential. Homeowners apply to join the program. Applications that meet all program criteria are accepted into the program as funding and mitigation specialist are available. Over 3,400 homeowners from the western county have joined the program.

Participants receive:

• A comprehensive, on-site, wildfire home assessment with a Wildfire Mitigation Specialist
• A Wildfire Partners Assessment Report that identifies the weak links in a home’s defenses and specific mitigation measures to be undertaken.
• Wildfire Partners Financial Awards
• Free access to Wildfire Partners advisors and staff
• Follow up visits and inspections with a Wildfire Mitigation Specialist
• For qualifying homeowners who pass their inspections, a Wildfire Partners Certificate, yard sign and letter stating that they have performed mitigation

Homeowners are required to actively participate in their home assessments so that they learn the principles and science behind wildfire mitigation. Homeowners provide essential input to the Wildfire Mitigation Specialists as they mark vegetation for removal as part of the program. The specialists use an iPad and an assessment app to gather information, take photographs and evaluate 50 mitigation related questions grouped into 10 different categories (e.g., roofs, decks, zone 1, emergency preparedness). Following the assessment, the homeowner receives a customized report containing a Mitigation Checklist with their photos of items requiring mitigation. Wildfire phone advisors, along with the mitigation specialists, help homeowners navigate their individual steps in the process.

Eastern Boulder County Program

Community mitigation is our approach in eastern Boulder County. Communities, rather than individual homeowners, submit applications to join Wildfire Partners in the east. The technical assistance provide in this region will start with education, community/neighborhood assessments, developing community action planning, and project identification and implementation. Individual homeowner assessments will be conducted in some locations in eastern Boulder County, but these assessments are not expected to be the starting point for mitigation efforts in all communities.

Posting SOQ-022-23