Environmental groups say the new forest plan for the GMUG “takes a major step backward” by increasing logging areas by 300,000 acres.
wildfire mitigation
Posted inWildfire
Colorado needs thousands more firefighters as climate-change-driven fires become “public safety crisis”
More training and new approaches are needed to fight fires in wildland urban interfaces, experts said Wednesday in Colorado Springs.
Posted inWildfire
Colorado’s 2023 wildfire season has begun. Here’s how counties are responding.
Up and down Colorado’s Front Range and in mountain counties, fire planners are trying anything and everything to make 2023 safer
Posted inWildfire
Colorado may force new homes in wildfire-prone areas to adhere to a state building code
A forthcoming bill would create a new board with powers to tell local governments how houses must be built in the wildland-urban interface
Posted inWildfire
Feds send $930 million to curb wildfire “crisis” in the West
The money will go toward clearing trees and underbrush from national forests in 10 western states, including Colorado.
Posted inEnvironment
Should Jeffco’s forests be thinned? 25,000 acres of trees would like to know.
County leaders asked to approve the first plan in 34 years to handle a large swath of trees amid growth, fire danger and climate change.
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Removing trees from Colorado forests will not prevent wildfires from burning
The large wildfires we have experienced in Colorado and across the West threaten our homes while risking — and all too often, taking — the lives of residents and firefighters. Scientists studying the phenomenon know these big fires are the result of high temperatures and drought exacerbated by climate change and coinciding with high winds. […]
Posted inWildfire
No former prisoners have been hired by Colorado to fight wildfires since a law passed to help
Members of the State Wildland Inmate Fire Team help fight some of Colorado’s largest fires. A 2021 law was supposed to smooth their path toward a full-time firefighting career, but none have been hired or have even applied.
Posted inNews
PHOTOS: Summit County torches 400 acres of beetle-kill ahead of wildfire season
SUMMIT COUNTY — The men stomp through the snow, snaking torches into stacks of timber and sparking flames. Soon, thin wisps of smoke turn dense and dark as orange flames lick the 10-foot tall piles of dead trees. Dozens of bonfires begin melting growing rings of snow, sending smoke high above Summit County last week. […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Give the job of wildfire prevention to nature’s architects
As a wildland firefighter, I have witnessed the impacts of larger and longer fire seasons. I have smelled the charred earth and watched the soil blown away into dust. In 2020, Colorado had its most destructive fires to date, with the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires burning more than 402,725 acres; that’s equivalent to […]