Cameron Peak Fire

Western forests are taking longer to grow back after wildfires. That’s partly because climate change has made it harder for new trees to survive where the old trees would have thrived. Today on In The NoCo, we hear from a CSU researcher with a new strategy for how to regrow forests more quickly.

The U.S. is struggling to replant forests destroyed by increasingly destructive wildfires, with some areas unlikely to recover. Researchers are studying which species are likely to survive — and where — as climate change makes it difficult or impossible for many forests to regrow.

Homeowners in Boulder County are finally starting to rebuild, nine months after the Marshall Fire devastated the area. Many residents are constructing their new homes using fire-resistant techniques.

Deep in the Cameron Peak burn scar, nestled among charred hills, there’s an oasis of green — an idyllic patch of trickling streams that wind through a lush grass field. Apart from a few scorched branches on the periphery, it’s hard to tell that this particular spot was in the middle of Colorado's largest-ever wildfire just a year ago. This wetland was spared thanks to the work of beavers.

It’s been almost exactly a year since the Cameron Peak Fire tore through the foothills outside of Fort Collins on its way to becoming the largest fire in state history. Now, restoration efforts are underway.

When the Cameron Peak Fire raged through the Shambhala Mountain Center last fall, it destroyed an art studio, tent platforms and several staff housing cabins. But most of the campus was left standing. Staff credit forest restoration work.

Amid the devastation from two of Colorado’s largest wildfires in history, recovery efforts are emerging. They're the beginning of what experts say is a complex, yearslong process.

In 2012, the High Park Fire west of Fort Collins burned more than 87,000 acres. At the time it was the state’s largest wildfire, destroying 259 homes and claiming one life. Eight years later, the Cameron Peak Fire burned more than twice as much land, becoming the largest in Colorado history. During both events, one local program sifted through the ashes to create art and help firefighters.

The city of Fort Collins is asking residents to use less water this spring and summer, as the city’s utilities department prepares for incoming ash and debris flows from the Cameron Peak burn scar.

Record-breaking wildfires in 2020 turned huge swaths of Western forests into barren burn scars. Those forests store winter snowpack that millions of people rely on for drinking and irrigation water. But with such large and wide-reaching fires, the science on the short-term and long-term effects to the region’s water supplies isn’t well understood.