The Hayman Fire burned through a huge swath of forest southwest of Denver in 2002. It left behind a massive burn scar. Workers quickly replanted thousands of trees to reestablish the forest.
But more than two decades later, large areas of the Hayman burn scar still resemble a moonscape, with some scraggly young trees here and there.
Burn scars that take decades to heal are becoming a fact of life throughout the West. It’s partly due to climate change, which is shifting which types of trees will grow naturally in mountain forests.
Camille Stevens-Rumann – assistant director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Insitute at Colorado State University – studies reforestation efforts after a wildfire. In a recent Scripps News story, Stevens-Rumann argues it’s time for a new approach to how we replant forests after wildfires.
Host Erin O’Toole spoke with Stevens-Rumann about what she thinks Colorado’s forests should look like in the future and why trees that have historically thrived in Colorado’s mountains don’t grow back quickly after a wildfire.
