Montezuma County Officials to Launch Early Wildfire Safety Messaging Before Spring

Montezuma County officials plan to launch early wildfire-safety messaging and outreach campaigns ahead of the spring and summer fire season to encourage property mitigation and emergency preparedness. Sheriff Steve Nowlin and county emergency manager Jim Spratlen raised the effort during a meeting with the Board of County Commissioners at Monday’s workshop, citing “this season’s dry, windy weather.”

Commissioners agreed their goal is to notify residents early about property mitigation and help them prepare for emergencies, and county leaders said the outreach will emphasize actions homeowners can take before conditions worsen. The two met with the Board of County Commissioners during Monday’s workshop to discuss fire prevention amid the dry, windy conditions now affecting the area.

Sheriff Nowlin framed the situation with a mix of concern and guarded optimism, saying, “This year is going to be … who knows, its dry,” and adding, “But the thing is, we do have weather coming … we still have a chance for moisture over the next several months,” to explain why officials are pushing outreach now rather than later.

Officials laid out specific precautions they will promote. Nowlin emphasized that residents should break large piles into smaller, manageable ones and avoid burning them all at once. County guidance also instructs residents to “Call dispatch before burning to confirm weather conditions, such as high‑wind days or countywide red‑flag alerts, to prevent unnecessary emergency responses.” The messaging will highlight high-wind days and countywide red-flag alerts as conditions that should stop open burning.

Nowlin and Spratlen urged landowners to be proactive with controlled burns when conditions allow, noting that acting now could avoid steps that follow an early ban. The county framed the early campaign as a way to reduce needless emergency responses and to give residents the best window for mitigation before a potential early fire ban could be imposed.

A March session is planned to discuss fire mitigation on properties; county officials said the session will focus on property-level actions but provided no specific date or location at the workshop. Officials also noted coordination with local partners will be part of the outreach, though other local officials mentioned at the meeting were not named.

“Kevin Lindner, a fire prevention officer with the San Juan National Forest, ignites a slash pile in a thinned area of the forest.” (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

County leaders said the outreach campaign and the March property-mitigation session are the next steps as the season evolves, and they urged landowners to follow dispatch guidance and break up burn piles while conditions remain favorable.