Friday, I joined Gov. Bill Ritter in addressing the coming wildfire season. His leadership has ignited renewed collaboration across traditional boundaries to protect homes and resources from wildfire damage.
Our ample mountain snows last winter were a relief after seven years of drought. But signals from climate trends and dry spring weather remind us that we need to stay vigilant.
April 1 is the traditional high point of the mountain snow pack. This year, though, our snow pack declined after March 1, hinting that our heavy winter snows may not be enough to alter the long-term warming and drying trend.
Signs of climate change are already with us. Across the West, snowmelt runoff now starts 10 days earlier and fire seasons average 78 days longer than they did 20 years ago. Large forest fires burn six times as many acres and take five times longer to control. These trends threaten forest watersheds with increased floods and erosion and depleted summer flows.
We’ve already experienced fire activity this spring. Last month, a few warm and windy days dried out the vegetation and set the stage for early wildfires in the plains and foothills.
Summer temperatures this year are forecast to be warmer than normal in most areas. Wildfire danger should be moderate in the higher mountains, thanks to the snow pack, but above average in the plains and foothills.
The past teaches us to keep our guard up.
One warm, dry and windy May day 12 years ago, the Buffalo Creek Fire burned 12,000 acres by nightfall. The severe burn baked fragile soils on steep slopes. That July, heavy rains rushed off the slopes in a flash flood that blew out miles of river, filled Strontia Springs Reservoir with mud and debris, fouled drinking water for thousands, and killed two people.
This year, those same foothills in which the Buffalo Creek Fire burned have above-average fire danger. Portions of the source watersheds that supply our drinking water will be at risk from fire damage this season.
We all need to be careful with fire so we don’t turn that risk into reality. For the sake of our future water supply, we also need to fortify our forest headwaters against severe wildfires.
Many forests are highly vulnerable to fire. Ponderosa pine in the foothills are crowded with small growth, and vast tracts of mature lodgepole pine in the high country are being killed by bark beetles.
We are working on well-placed treatments to thin ponderosa pine and to diversify forest patches in the high country — to reduce wildfire hazards in an ecologically sound way and conserve the forest’s capacity to absorb, store, filter and deliver clean water.
As stewards of your water source, we take forest and watershed health to heart.
Last winter, we forged an alliance with the Colorado State Forest Service, water providers, and others to plan actions that protect Front Range source watersheds from severe wildfires. There is growing interest among water providers to invest and assist in forest health and watershed restoration projects to sustain their source of clean water. This offers hope that we are on a new path to better protect forests and water supplies as concerned neighbors.
Land managers and grassroots groups must work together to conserve the forests that supply us with water and so many other benefits from recreation to wildlife habitats. The task is as vast as Colorado’s forests and will take sustained long- term commitment and cooperation.
When we turn on our faucets, we tap into our forests. Let’s continue to join hands to care for the forests in the headwaters as a legacy for our children.
