Wildfire defensible-space compliance. Downtown Steamboat Springs, building by building — which structures have trees that the new wildfire code would force out at the next substantial renovation, mapped from satellite with no field survey.
468
of 1,037 downtown buildings (45.1%) have a tree the code would remove or prune
54 remove · 784 prune
trees in the 0–5 ft Immediate Zone (remove) or within 10 ft of a wall (prune to clearance)
Building
has a tree to remove needs pruning only clear
Tree
Remove (Immediate Zone) Prune (within 10 ft) Compliant
Pinch-zoom in to see every building & tree · tap one for the code basis

Which trees the wildfire code forces out — before the renovation, not during it.

Steamboat falls under the 2025 Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code (based on the 2024 International WUI Code), effective for permits July 1, 2026. Its defensible-space rules attach to an existing property the moment a renovation adds ≥500 sq ft of footprint or replaces ≥25% of the roof or an exterior wall — so any owner planning substantial work needs to know which trees become non-conforming.

The rule we applied. Remove — a tree whose trunk sits in the 0–5 ft Immediate Zone (only mature trees ≥10 in across may legally remain). Prune — a tree whose crown reaches within 10 ft of a wall must be cut back to a 10 ft clearance (CWRC §502.1.4 / 503.2.4). Conifers carry extra ladder-fuel hazard.

How we built it. Trees were mapped from satellite with no field survey (USDA NAIP 0.3 m + a tree-crown detector); building footprints from OpenStreetMap / Microsoft ML, which also mask out crown-detector false positives on rooftops. Each tree's trunk and crown-edge distance to the nearest footprint was measured in projected meters. Trunk-size is estimated from crown width, so the remove/prune split near the 10 in threshold is indicative — a field check confirms the exact call. A screening tool to prioritize site visits, not a permit determination. Built by Raiho Consulting.

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