It's officially spring in the Rocky Mountains, which means many of us find our garden tools in the shed and start poking around the yard doing cleanup and planting on days when it's sunny and dry—in between the freaky wet snow storms that Mother Nature throws at us.

Although fire season in Utah is July through October, this is a great time to look around your property and see if you need to clear or trim bushes that might be fire hazards.

As we have heard in the past year, insurance companies are canceling homeowners' policies left and right, citing high-risk locations for wildfires or if there are property conditions that increase the risk of fire damage, such as thick underbrush, vegetation or if the property is poorly maintained. Some policies have been canceled due to insurers determining that the roof on a home is outdated or not fire resistant by doing a simple drive-by or even flying drones in a neighborhood to review the homes of their clients.

You can call your local fire department to do a home assessment on your property at no charge. They'd love to tell you what to cut down and get rid of—especially if your property is overgrown or backs onto Forest Service land along the higher bench areas. The recommendation is to clear combustible materials and dry or dead foliage at least five feet away from your property and to ask your neighbors to do the same.

Salt Lake City has a terrific resource booklet online called "Ready, Set, Go!" to create your personal fire protection plan. As we saw recently from the California fires, a home within one mile of a natural area is considered to be in the "Ember Zone," where wind-driven embers can attack your home. The booklet also contains information on what is combustible and how to protect things like attic vents and windows. And it gives a checklist on how to evacuate and create "Go Bags."

There's a great checklist in case fire is near, such as shutting windows and doors, removing flammable window shades and curtains, moving flammable furniture to the center of the room away from windows, shutting off your gas meter, pilot lights and air conditioning, and leaving on lights so firefighters can see inside your home in smoky conditions. There are also several stickers you can get on the web to place on a window or near a door telling rescuers how many animals you have in case they are trapped inside and you're not home.

The Avenues Community Council recently sent neighbors info about fire protection, noting that more than 1,500 Avenues residents are highly vulnerable due to their proximity to the wildland urban interface. It's a great time of the year to talk to your neighbors about fire hazards and evacuation plans. Pray we don't ever get a Palisades or Altadena-like disaster in our state!