Rico, Dolores County keep fire bans in place amid summer risk

Rico’s fire ban is still in force, and the town is telling residents and visitors plainly that no open fires are allowed. The notice appears on both the town’s home page and its events calendar, while Dolores County’s Stoner Fire information page directs questions to emergency management and the sheriff’s office and points people to Stage 2 restrictions on San Juan National Forest lands.

The practical effect is immediate for anyone trying to camp, host a gathering, run a business, or work outdoors in and around Rico. Backyard fire pits, campfires, and any other open burning are off limits inside town limits, and anyone heading onto federal land near Rico needs to check current alerts, closures, and fire restrictions before leaving home. The San Juan National Forest says restrictions are set when conditions such as human-caused fire potential, firefighter availability, wildfire activity, drought, forecast weather, and fuel moisture line up in ways that raise the risk.

That warning carries extra weight in a place where town streets, trail access, homes, and public land sit close together. The Forest Service’s wildfire information line is (970) 403-5212, and the agency says fire danger is tracked on five color-coded levels, from Low to Extreme. The San Juan National Forest headquarters is in Durango, with district offices in Bayfield, Dolores, and Pagosa Springs, a reminder that decisions about closures and restrictions can come from several offices, not one local bulletin board.

Recent fire history around Rico and Dolores helps explain why the bans remain. In August 2025, the Forest Service said the Stoner Mesa Fire was burning about twenty miles northeast of Dolores and eight miles west of Rico, and the closure tied to that fire affected multiple roads, trails, and campgrounds on San Juan National Forest lands. A September 2025 update said the fire was still active and there was no estimate for when the closure would be rescinded.

Wildfire policy is also moving beyond temporary bans and into local planning. Rico’s March 2026 board packet referenced Ordinance 2026-01, which would adopt the 2025 Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code and amend local land-use rules, and the town’s February 2026 packet said the code was developed under Senate Bill 23-166 and includes standards for structure hardening, defensible space, and hazard identification and mapping. For now, the message from town and county is the same: stay current on restrictions before lighting anything outdoors or planning around fire-prone land.