On a parched spring morning amid gusting wind, electronic signs on the roads around Deckers blink a warning of wildfire danger. But as Carol Ekarius directs a vehicle up narrow Matukat Road in this expanse of the Pike National Forest, the vista suddenly opens like a portal to the future. Welcome to the now 20-year-old […]
forest fire
Posted inNews, Wildfire
Homes evacuated as wind drives wildfire near Idaho Springs
IDAHO SPRINGS — Evacuations were ordered Sunday in a central Colorado mountain community as fire crews battle a wind-driven blaze. The fire, named the Miner’s Candle fire, began as a structure fire, destroying a vacant cabin and another unoccupied structure near Idaho Springs, Clear Creek County Undersheriff Bruce Snelling told station KKTV in Colorado Springs. […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, Health, News, Wildfire
Smoke from faraway wildfires may be worse for Coloradans than if it came from blazes in their own backyards
For long stretches of the summer the Front Range has been bathed in smoke traveling hundreds of miles from California and Oregon wildfires and it turns out that long-range smoke could be more dangerous than the fumes from homegrown forest fires. Some initial studies have shown that long-range smoke may be more toxic and since […]
Posted inNews, Opinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: 150 fire scientists urge the U.S. West to skip the fireworks this record-dry 4th of July
By Philip Higuera and Alexander L. Metcalf, The University of MontanaDave McWethy, Montana State Universityand Jennifer Balch, University of Colorado The heat wave hitting the northwestern U.S. and Canada has been shattering records, with temperatures 30 degrees Fahrenheit or more above normal. With drought already gripping the West, the intense heat has helped suck even […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Outdoors, Wildfire
20 years of planning saved Rocky Mountain National Park from the worst of the East Troublesome fire. It will take 20 more to fix the damage.
Early on the morning of Oct. 23, Mike Lewelling stood at the Forest Canyon Overlook on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park and stared 2,500 feet down into what he called a cauldron of fire and swirling wood smoke. The East Troublesome fire had Lewelling, the park’s fire management officer for 15 years, […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Wildfire
Opinion: Climate change is making Rocky Mountain forests more flammable now than at any time in the past 2,000 years
By Philip Higuera, The University of Montana; Bryan Shuman, University of Wyoming; and Kyra Wolf, The University of Montana The exceptional drought in the U.S. West has people across the region on edge after the record-setting fires of 2020. Last year, Colorado alone saw its three largest fires in recorded state history, one burning late […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Politics and Government
How much damage does climate change cause in Colorado? Leaders are trying to put a price tag on it.
The East Troublesome fire, Colorado’s second largest ever, was sweeping across Grand County forests on Oct. 25, 2020, part of a record-breaking wildfire season that forced evacuations, destroyed homes and took lives. Half a world away, heavy rains were flooding the Bagerhat District in Bangladesh, in one of the worst monsoon seasons on record. And […]
Posted inColoradans, Culture, Environment, News, Outdoors, Wildfire
Matriarch of Colorado outdoor volunteerism stepping down from “mothership of community stewardship”
BRECKENRIDGE — Ann Baker Easley deftly navigates an icy trail that winds past a wooden troll, an ice rink and a railroad park. “Pretty sure we built this. We worked on a lot of trails around here,” says the chief executive officer of Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, which in the past five years has funneled […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, Health, News
Wildfire smoke accounted for up to half of air pollution in the West in recent years
By Matthew Brown, The Associated Press Wildfire smoke accounted for up to half of all health-damaging small particle air pollution in the western U.S. in recent years as warming temperatures fueled more destructive blazes, according to a study released Monday. Even as pollution emissions declined from other sources including vehicle exhaust and power plants, the […]
Posted inNews, Wildfire
Cameron Peak fire continues to spread, destroy more structures as it becomes Colorado’s 3rd largest blaze
Weekend winds fueled a northern Colorado wildfire that emergency officials said has now damaged more structures and moved beyond barriers established by firefighters to slow the blaze’s spread. The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office said structure damage was reported Sunday from the Cameron Peak fire, the state’s third largest recorded wildfire. The fire, burning west of […]