To commemorate the 1 year anniversary of the Four Mile Canyon Fire west of Boulder, a new museum exhibit looks at the history and future of wildfires in the region.
“Burning Issues, the Four Mile Canyon Exhibition” opens Tuesday at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. Last year’s blaze was the most costly and destructive in Colorado history. And Coloradans may need to adapt to these larger and more intense fires.
“We have a high probability of a continued warming climate and all of the understanding that we have about controls on fire and these forests indicate that we’re going to see increased fire hazards over the next two years and certainly over the next several decades,” say Tom Veblen, CU Boulder Geography Professor.
But wildfires do serve a purpose.
“We should think of fire as a regenerating factor in these forests. Basically as long as we have the forest there, there is fuel, and eventually we will have fire. Fire is a natural part of the dynamic of these forests,” says Veblen.
The exhibition commemorates the 1 year anniversary of the Four Mile Canyon Fire by exploring the ecological importance of fires and how human factors affect fires. The exhibition runs through January 26th.