What We Do: Building A Wildfire-Resilient Community
FireBREAK partners at a large-scale fuels reduction project in November 2025.
The FireBREAK Campaign is dedicated to reducing the risk of a wildfire in the Moab Valley. This work focuses on building a wildfire-resilient community while combatting existing fire and flood risks, which are centered along Moab’s Mill and Pack creeks.
Creek corridors choked by fire-friendly invasives
An overgrown section of Pack Creek near Highway 191 in downtown Moab.
Moab’s Mill and Pack creeks are beloved community oases. They also need our help.
On their route from the La Sal Mountains to the Colorado River, Mill Creek and Pack Creek run through the heart of Moab. The two waterways are intimately intertwined with the town, abutting dense neighborhoods, transportation arteries, and critical community infrastructure. The creeks also lie almost entirely on private property near structures and homes. In the Grand County portion of the Moab Valley, the creeks run within 1,000 feet of nearly 1,800 structures scattered across about 1,750 property parcels.
Despite this proximity to structures and people, swaths of the creek corridors maintain high wildfire risk. Invasive trees — mainly Russian olive and tamarisk — dominate many parts of the creek corridors. These trees, which are also considered noxious weeds, are responsible for much of the wildfire hazard. They grow densely, connect grasses and shrubs with tree canopies, and build up loads of dead, dry fuel. The risk of wildfire is further exacerbated by other invasive weeds, including Ravenna grass and cheatgrass, as well as mounds of upstream debris deposited by recent flooding.
While much work has been done to reduce fire risk, the threat of another wildfire along Moab’s creek corridors remains real. In addition, a catastrophic wildfire starting along one of the creeks could spread through the valley by using the overgrown corridors like a wick.
In addition to amplifying wildfire risk, dense thickets of invasive fire fuels hurt Mill and Pack creeks in other ways. They can increase flood risk, outcompete native plants, hamper wildlife movement, decrease biodiversity, and generally make the creeks less functional and resilient.
A coalition of local Moab agencies has spent over two decades working to clear and restore swaths of the creek corridors, often without the true resources to do so. That’s where FireBREAK comes in. Built off these efforts, the campaign extends and expands the work to reduce Moab’s wildfire risk and build a wildfire-resilient community.
Sections of Mill and Pack creeks are swamped by invasive fire fuels like Russian olive, as well as debris left by previous floods.
From impenetrable thickets to open galleries
FireBREAK aims to reduce the risk of a catastrophic wildfire in Moab by working to restore the creek corridors into open, diverse watersheds lush with native shrubs, grasses, and trees.
These areas are sometimes known as “cottonwood galleries” because they usually feature native cottonwoods shading smaller understory trees like willow, as well as many grasses and shrubs. These cottonwood galleries have lower wildfire risk and function as “fire breaks,” or gaps in vegetation that firefighters can use to manage or halt a fire.
While not void of vegetation, these broad, open areas function well as fire breaks because native plants naturally harbor larger gaps between each other and between the ground and canopies. The greater spacing between shrubs and trees makes it much harder for a wildfire to grow in these areas. Maintaining the creek corridors as continuous “shaded fuel breaks” greatly decreases the ability of a wildfire to spread through Moab, and does so in a way that sustains wildlife and is accessible for people.
These kinds of habitats have other benefits, too. Native plants and trees are better able to withstand and safely pass flood flows without creating “debris dams” that make flooding worse. They can reduce erosion and creek downcutting. Plus, native plants increase biodiversity, support wildlife habitat, and create a more resilient creek corridor overall.
While this kind of ecosystem won’t emerge from a cut Russian olive thicket overnight, it is the long-term vision for Mill and Pack creeks. FireBREAK aims to get there by supporting fire fuels mitigation projects on private property and then working with landowners to support the establishment of native plants and to ensure invasive ones don’t resprout.
[Interested in fire fuels reduction and combatting wildfire risk on your property? Request a site assessment here.]
What is a shaded fuel break?
A fuel break, or fire break, is a strategic gap in vegetation established or leveraged by firefighters to control wildfire.
A shaded fuel break is a fuel break in which trees are thinned but not clear-cut, and ladder fuels are also removed. By retaining canopy cover and shade, these fuel breaks maintain habitat while reducing fire risk.
Image courtesy of Washoe County
Examples of shaded fuel breaks following FireBREAK projects
Hover over images to see left-right sliders.
A wildfire-resilient community
In addition to reducing wildfire risk along the creeks and in the Matheson Wetlands, FireBREAK also supports the Moab community in building its wildfire resilience and disaster preparedness.
Through outreach and in-person events like volunteer projects and neighborhood walk-and-talks, FireBREAK can help every Moab resident understand wildfire risk and work together to gird against the threat of wildfires and floods — on individual properties, across neighborhoods, and in the entire community.
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FireBREAK partners talk fuels reduction.
Last updated Feb. 19, 2026.