Free wildfire and land services in Jefferson County, Montana

12 programs in 6 categories in Jefferson County. Every listing names its source; ring ahead before you rely on one.

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Jefferson County is covered by the Tri-County FireSafe Working Group, with Lewis and Clark and Broadwater, and its free wildfire risk assessment is the thing to ask for if fuel is standing near a house. The group publishes no telephone number anywhere, only a postal box in Helena and an office mailbox, so the application form on its site is the way in. Extension is shared with Madison County and run from Whitehall, out of the old Borden's Hotel building. Weatherization is Rocky Mountain Development Council's, from Helena, which the state lists at more than one address there.

This summary was drafted by a machine from the listings on this page, and an editor has not rewritten it yet.

boundary from the US Census Bureau

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Why Sierra Log & Timber cares about your vacant land

Sierra Log & Timber mills cedar log and timber home packages in Chico, California. A good part of our working week is spent with people who have just bought land, and the same thing happens every time: the grants, the chipping days, the defensible space visits and the permit desks are all real, and all scattered across a dozen county websites that do not link to one another. So we put them in one place and left it open. You do not have to be building a log home to use this, and reading it signs you up for nothing.

Nothing local is recorded for Jefferson County yet. What is on this page reaches it from the Montana and national listings above, which is worth knowing before you ring anybody: the help is real, but the desk answering is not in the county. We would rather say that than pad the page. If you know of something here that belongs on it, the second panel below is the fastest way to tell us.

Building on rural land in Jefferson County

What applies here, in Montana and in this county, each line with the source it was read from.

Where the building permit comes from

Jefferson County Planning Department issues building permits here.

Source · Jefferson County Planning Department

Worth knowing here

Montana's list of certified building code jurisdictions shows no county-wide building code program here; outside the limits of a certified city the state Building Codes Bureau has jurisdiction.

Source · Montana Department of Labor and Industry, Certified City, County and Town Programs

Building code

Montana's state building code does not apply to a residential building of fewer than five dwelling units unless the county, city or town makes it applicable by ordinance or resolution.

Source · Montana Code Annotated 50-60-102

Wildfire construction standard

The 2021 Wildland Urban Interface Code is part of Montana's state building code, adopted alongside the 2021 International Residential Code and effective 11 June 2022.

Source · Montana Department of Labor and Industry, Current Codes

Who issues the permit

Six Montana counties run a certified county building code program — Deer Lodge, Missoula, Pondera, Richland, Silver Bow and Toole — and the state Building Codes Bureau has jurisdiction over every other area.

Source · Montana Department of Labor and Industry, Certified City, County and Town Programs

Building it yourself

An owner working on the owner's own property is exempt from Montana's construction contractor chapter, whether or not the owner occupies the property.

Source · Montana Code Annotated 37-45-104

Common questions

Does Sierra Log & Timber run any of these programmes?

No. Every organisation and programme on this page is run by somebody else: a county office, a state agency, a nonprofit, a utility or a tribe. We collect them, check them and publish them, and that is the whole of our part in it. What we do ourselves is mill cedar log and timber home packages in Chico, California.

Is this free to use, and does using it sign me up for anything?

The directory is free and reading it signs you up for nothing. The two panels below are the only places on this page that ask for an address, both are optional, and they do different jobs: one tells you when this county's listings change, the other tells us that something here is already wrong.