If a fire has just gone through, there are a few things worth doing before you engage a contractor.
Talk to your insurer first. Document everything before it's touched — photographs, video, an inventory. Ask what your policy covers for debris removal, tree removal and erosion control, because they're often handled differently from structure loss.
Check what's already funded. After a declared disaster, county, state and federal programs frequently cover debris removal at no cost to the property owner, and enrolling usually has a deadline. Paying out of pocket for something a public program would have covered is a genuinely common and avoidable mistake. Start with your county's emergency management or recovery office.
Don't rush the tree decisions. Some trees that look dead recover. Others that look fine are structurally gone. A few weeks of waiting rarely costs anything on the trees that aren't an immediate hazard, and it can save you a stand you'd have taken down.
Be careful who you sign with. Post-fire areas attract operators who follow the news. Check licensing and insurance, get it in writing, and be wary of anyone asking for a large deposit or pressing for a decision today.
We'd rather you did all of that first and called us afterwards.
This is the immediate danger and it doesn't announce itself.
Fire-weakened trees fail without warning. The root collar burns out below ground, or the trunk is compromised internally while the outside still looks intact, and the tree comes down in the next wind. People are hurt on burned ground doing ordinary things — walking a fence line, clearing a driveway — long after the fire is out.
What we assess: structural integrity rather than whether the tree is alive, lean and load relative to structures and routes, root damage, and what is actually at risk underneath it.
Not every burned tree needs removing. Trees away from structures, roads and where people walk can often be left standing, and there's ecological value in leaving some. The question is what's underneath it, not how scorched the bark is.
Priority goes to anything over a house, a driveway, a power line, a fence line you use, or ground where people work.
This is the part most people aren't warned about, and it does more property damage in Colorado than the fire itself in a lot of cases.
Burned ground doesn't absorb water. Intense heat can leave soils water-repellent, and with the vegetation and duff layer gone there's nothing to slow runoff. Rain that the hillside would have soaked up before the fire now runs straight off it, carrying ash, soil, rock and burned timber with it.
The result is flash flooding and debris flows from ground that never flooded before, triggered by rain that wouldn't previously have registered. It can happen on the first significant storm after the fire, and the risk persists for several years while vegetation re-establishes.
What helps: mulch and chip spread on exposed soil to slow runoff and hold ground, contour work and water bars on slopes, protecting and re-establishing vegetation, keeping drainages and culverts clear, and directing water away from structures and access routes.
What we can't do is make a burn scar behave like unburned ground. Some of this is about managing the next few years rather than fixing something.
Once the immediate hazards are handled, there's the ground itself.
Burned timber, downed material, scorched vegetation, and whatever the fire left across the property. On larger parcels this is substantial, and it interacts with the erosion problem — material left lying can either help hold soil or block a drainage and make things worse, depending on where it is and how it sits.
We clear what needs clearing and leave what's doing useful work. Chipping on site is often better than hauling, because chip spread on bare soil is one of the more effective things you can do about runoff.
Where structural debris or anything potentially hazardous is involved, that's a different trade and a different set of regulations. We'll tell you plainly rather than take it on.
Whatever comes next — an insurance claim, a grant application, a rebuild permit — it runs on documentation.
We photograph and map before, during and after, and provide itemized records of what was done and when. That supports insurance claims, cost-share and disaster recovery programs, and your own record of the property.
If you're already working with an adjuster or a program administrator, tell us what they need and we'll structure the documentation around it.
We're not adjusters and we don't handle claims. We provide the evidence.
If you're rebuilding, mitigation isn't a separate project from the build. It's part of it.
In much of Colorado's wildland-urban interface, your building permit now carries defensible space and structure hardening requirements, and a certified specialist has to verify the defensible space before your Certificate of Occupancy. Jefferson County's code took effect on 1 July 2026, and neighboring counties handle it differently again.
We're on Jefferson County's list of Certified Wildfire Mitigation Specialists approved to perform defensible space inspections, and we do the mitigation work as well. On a Jeffco rebuild that means one company for the clearing, the mitigation and the inspection.
There's a harder thing worth saying too. If your house burned and the one down the road didn't, the difference was usually vents, gutters, what was stored under the deck, and the first five feet. Rebuilding is the one moment you get to fix all of that at once, and it's far cheaper now than retrofitting later.
You don't have to have lost anything to be affected.
Properties downhill and downstream from a burn scar carry flood and debris flow risk for years afterward, from rainfall that would previously have been unremarkable. If a fire burned above you, it's worth understanding what changed in the watershed you sit below.
We'll walk it with you and tell you honestly whether there's work worth doing or whether the answer is drainage maintenance and a plan for heavy rain.
How soon after a fire should we start?
Safety hazards first — trees over structures and access routes. Erosion control before the first significant rain, which sets a real deadline. Everything else can wait until you've spoken to your insurer and your county.
Will insurance cover this?
Often, partly, and it varies enormously by policy. Debris removal, tree removal and erosion control are frequently treated differently from structure loss. Ask your insurer directly and get the answer in writing before you commit to work.
Do all the burned trees need to come out?
No. Trees away from structures, roads and where people walk can often stay, and there's value in leaving some. Priority is anything with something underneath it.
Is the erosion risk really that serious?
Yes, and it's the thing people most often underestimate. Burned soils shed water instead of absorbing it, so ordinary rain can produce flooding and debris flows on ground that never flooded before. The risk lasts for years.
Can you help with a rebuild?
Yes — site clearing, defensible space, home hardening, and in Jefferson County the inspection that releases your Certificate of Occupancy.
Do you handle structural debris?
No. Burned structures involve different regulations and a different trade. We'll say so rather than take it on.
Post-fire recovery across the Colorado foothills — Evergreen, Conifer, Bailey, Golden, Woodland Park and Nederland — and throughout Jefferson, Park, Teller, Boulder, Larimer, Douglas and El Paso counties.
The questions we get asked on nearly every property walk — cost, funding, and what it means for your insurance.
Wood production is a complex and vital industry that involves the cultivation, harvesting, processing, and utilization of wood for various purposes. It serves as a cornerstone in numerous sectors.
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