Wildfires burned more U.S. acreage in 2020 than in any other year since that information was first tracked in 1983. In essence, the 2020 fire season never ended, continuing through 2021 when the Marshall Fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Boulder County on Dec. 30, causing more than $500 million in damages and becoming the most destructive fire in Colorado history. Even before the Marshall Fire, federal, state, and local governments had begun to ramp up funding for wildfire mitigation. Envision Chaffee County, a nonprofit organization that started as a county government initiative, is championing wildfire mitigation in the ...
