Poudre River

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.

Last week, flash flooding in Poudre and Glenwood canyons resulted in multiple fatalities and road closures. Burn scars from the Cameron Peak and Grizzly Creek fires played a big role in the dangerous water flows, but the monsoon was also a factor.

The body of a man missing after flooding and mudslides in Northern Colorado last week was found Sunday in the Poudre River, authorities said. Two other people remain missing but, after a series of searches, the Larimer County Sheriff's Office says no others are currently planned.

Heavy debris flow is complicating search and rescue efforts along the Poudre Canyon west of Fort Collins, where three people are still missing in the wake of flash flooding Tuesday night.

Greeley city council has voted in favor of acquiring a large aquifer on the Colorado-Wyoming border to supply future growth in times of drought.

Over the last couple years, Greeley's leaders have focused their energy on testing and developing an underground water supply to make that growth possible. The Terry Ranch project, estimated to cost upwards of $318 million to fully build out, would give the city access to an untapped water source — a rarity on the fast-growing, water-tight Front Range.

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.

For many communities in the West, the water that flows out of kitchen faucets and bathroom showerheads starts high up in the mountains, as snowpack tucked under canopies of spruce and pine trees. This summer’s record-breaking wildfires have reduced some of those headwater forests to burnt trees and heaps of ash.

Fort Collins residents are reducing their water use below a threshold needed to keep the city from experiencing a possible shortage.

The city of Fort Collins is mandating temporary outdoor water restrictions this fall for the first time since 2013, due to a combination of drought, wildfire runoff and routine reservoir maintenance.