![]() ![]() Since 2016, the local conservation district has restored 2,500 acres of forest in Northern Colorado. “We’re making it into a functional ecosystem where it can function under all of the different threats that forests are facing right now, like climate change and more extreme wildfire conditions and pests.” “We’re not just turning back the clock,” Reuning said. Scientists give each acre they restore detailed consideration, which research shows sets the ecosystem up for long-term health. The process differs from other forest management techniques that solely focus on mechanically thinning out overgrown forests with saws or prescribed burns. The rest are cut down with industrial saws and carted off the land - to later be sold as firewood. Matt Bloom / KUNC Gretchen Reuning (left) stands with Shambhala staff members near a pile of lumber. They use blue paint splotches to identify the keepers. When restoring a section of forest, managers first do what they call “forensic forestry.” They search for old stumps, logs and other clues to what the landscape may have looked like more than 100 years ago.Īfter studying an area, project managers mark a series of living trees they believe mimic the area's historic conditions and will help the forest thrive in the future. Returning them to a more open space creates a natural buffer and gives fires less material to burn, Reuning said. But it's kind of a food desert and a habitat desert for wildlife.”Īnd because the climate is becoming drier and hotter, they’re also tinderboxes for wildfires. “That’s why they're really easy to walk through, because there's nothing growing on the ground. “Historically, ponderosa pine forests were much more open than they are now,” Reuning said. The result is fewer grasses, wildflowers and shrubs that help balance out the ecosystem, said Gretchen Reuning, the conservation district’s forest program director. Government-led wildfire suppression over the past century has thrown off that cycle and allowed forests to become too crowded, reducing their biodiversity. The work aims to bring forests in Colorado’s mountains back to the state they were in in the mid-to-late 1800s, when natural wildfires would regularly thin out overgrown patches of trees. They quickly found an answer at the Fort Collins Conservation District, which, along with other local forest management agencies, had recently revamped its efforts to promote forest restoration. So, Gayner and the center’s main project manager started looking for options to better protect the sprawling campus. While Colorado’s season was tame, California alone logged over 9,000 individual fires. ![]() That year, blazes ravaged communities across the western United States. In mid-2017, the staff of Shambhala was growing increasingly concerned about the threat of wildfires. Most of the Buddhist retreat center survived the fire thanks to a forest restoration project. “If we hadn’t done the work, all our buildings would be gone.”Ĭourtesy of Michael Gayner Blackened ground shows where the Cameron Peak Fire stopped burning on Shambhala's campus in Red Feather Lakes in Oct. “It was absolutely critical to our survival,” Gayner said. What happened at Shambhala during the Cameron Peak Fire, Gayner and forestry experts argue, offers a lesson to other at-risk communities about what needs to happen in the coming years to prepare for large wildfires. And it requires cooperation from various public and private landowners. The labor and infrastructure needed to complete the work at a large scale are scarce. Due to dry conditions and hot temperatures, fires are already a constant threat. Local foresters say it’s vital to protect communities against megafires fueled by overgrown forests and climate change.īut time is not on their side. Some estimates show up to 400,000 acres along the Front Range could use the work. The project is part of a growing effort to restore tens of thousands of acres of Northern Colorado’s overgrown forests to conditions not seen since the late 1800s.Īt least 32,000 more acres of National Forest land is scheduled for restoration. Foresters cleared the 118-acre area in 2018, one tree at a time, in a management style known as forest restoration. The landscape looks more like an open space than a forest. ![]() A thick layer of grasses, shrubs and wildflowers blankets the ground. Unlike most places in Colorado, the ponderosa pine trees around Shambhala are spaced far apart. Courtesy of Fort Collins Conservation District A map of the forest restoration project at Shambhala Mountain Center shows how thinned out sections of forest helped stop the Cameron Peak Fire. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |