Dry conditions, rising heat and road traffic disruptions have prompted Colorado officials to expand forest tree-clearing and grassland mowing along highways in an attempt to prevent wildfires from shutting down transportation.
The will nearly double its spending on vegetation management to protect the state’s 9,000-mile highway network, tapping $12 million not used for snowplowing during this record-dry winter to hire tree-removal contractors, agency officials confirmed Friday.
They’ll cut down thousands of trees, with trunk diameters ranging from 2 inches to 2 feet, along highways and in adjacent forests to create bigger fire breaks. CDOT crews also will expand their twice-a-year mowing and spraying of herbicides.
“Colorado has seen record-breaking fires over the past few decades, and CDOT has to plan for the reality that we may see more record-breaking fires in years to come,” agency spokeswoman Stacia Sellers said.
State transportation commissioners this week approved the effort after agency meteorologists warned them of above-normal potential for large, fast-moving fires due to record-low snow and high temperatures. Wind-whipped fires this winter have forced highway closures along Interstate 25 north of Denver and Colorado 115 south of Colorado Springs.
On Friday, a 1,000-acre fire along Colorado 115 in Fremont County blew up, forcing a closure of lanes in both directions along a stretch north of Penrose.
“The ground will be dry and exposed to warming temperatures weeks ahead of when we’d normally expect it, and dry vegetation along road shoulders is fuel that roadside ignitions feed on. In most years, we have a buffer of snowmelt and spring moisture that keeps fire risk manageable until the summer. This year, we may not have that buffer,” Sellers said.
“When fires move fast through dry terrain and reach a highway corridor, we can go from an open road to a closed road in a matter of hours.”
Over nine months since July, CDOT-backed forest crews have removed 3,848 trees at a cost of $483,167, up from 2,453 trees cut down over the previous year, according to agency records. CDOT crews mowed and sprayed along 27,983 miles of road over the past nine months, costing $3.8 million, up from 27,754 miles, the records showed.
In 2020, fires forced CDOT to close multiple highways. The Grizzly Creek fire, which started in Glenwood Canyon, compelled an unprecedented two-week shutdown of Interstate 70, one of the nation’s most critical freight and travel corridors. The Cameron Peak fire forced the closure of Colorado 14 between Fort Collins and Walden, and the Pine Gulch fire closed Colorado 139 at Douglas Pass.
Climate conditions “affect everything we do,” state transportation commissioner Terry Hart said at a meeting on Wednesday, highlighting increased dangers. “It isn’t just in the mountains. Itap out on the high plains as well.”
The state’s push to protect transportation reflected widening concern about the impacts of unprecedented dry and hot conditions at the end of a record-warm winter. Snow that fell recently in western Colorado and in the windy Front Range mountain foothills has melted. Multiple fires broke out, ignited by falling power lines and other human causes.
CDOT is working with the to prioritize high-risk highways. The agency does not employ arborists. Contractors will focus on removing dead and diseased trees most prone to burning and falling across highways, taking a “surgical” approach, mindful of environmental impacts on water flows and rules protecting migratory birds, a threatened rare mouse, and fish, CDOT deputy director of operations Bob Fifer told state commissioners.
They’ve started the clearing along highways in El Paso and Teller counties near Colorado Springs, Larimer and Jefferson counties in metro Denver, Garfield County along I-70, and in southwestern Colorado’s Montezuma, La Plata, Archuleta, Dolores and San Miguel counties.
Federal and local land managers will work with CDOT to extend clearing into surrounding forests in mountain corridors along U.S. 6, Colorado 72, U.S. 160, U.S. 285 and portions of I-70, officials said.
The idea is to create clear breaks that can slow or stop flames.
“Our highway corridors run through some of the most fire-prone landscapes in the country,” Fifer said in an agency statement. “We have a responsibility not only to keep roads open, but to make sure our right of way isn’t contributing to the fire problem.”
CDOT also plans messaging to ramp up driver safety when driving through Colorado’s forests and grasslands because sparks from discarded cigarettes, hot catalytic converters or truck trailer chains easily can ignite dry weeds and wood along roads.
