Helping Forest Communities Reduce Fire Risk
Three years ago, the largest wildfire in Colorado history burned 137,000 acres and destroyed 133 homes. “We were lucky it wasn’t worse,” observes Tom Fry, a former volunteer firefighter who heads our wildfire team. “No one died, and it proved to be a real wake-up call to folks along the Front Range.
“But luck always runs out. With more people moving into forested areas, the odds of the next fire taking out thousands of homes and claiming lives are increasing,” Fry explains. Concerned that there was too little coordination among those with a stake in wildfire management, The Wilderness Society and others worked with state and federal officials heading up community protection along Colorado’s 200-mile Front Range. We successfully urged inclusion of scientists, sheriffs, conservationists, local governments, fire chiefs, watershed groups, and others.
Called the Roundtable, this collaboration has work groups gathering information on ecological, economic, policy, and social challenges and opportunities in order to create a vision of sustainable fire management along the Front Range—and how to get there. “The Roundtable represents a pragmatic approach to a significant regional issue, and communities up and down the Front Range stand to gain from the knowledge and creativity that this full spectrum of players provides,” says Peter Fogg of the Colorado chapter of the American Planning Association.
One priority is ensuring that funding to head off threats to people and property gets to the right places. A Wilderness Society study found that since 2001 only 7.8 percent of the money allocated under the National Fire Plan has made it to state and community programs designed to reduce the risks. “Community protection is the linchpin that makes broader goals of forest restoration possible,” says Lisa Gregory, a policy fellow in our Denver office.
It is also vital that policy reflect the natural role that fire plays in forest health. “Decades of fire suppression have all but eliminated an essential natural process, and we’re reaping firestorms as a result,” says Fry. “Our ultimate goal is to create fire-adapted communities for a fire-dependent landscape.”
Los Alamos, New Mexico, Fire Chief Douglas MacDonald says, “I commend The Wilderness Society and the Roundtable for their visionary process. These efforts will without a doubt save lives, protect the environment and lessen the risk of devastation.” Carol Ekarius, executive director of the Coalition for the Upper South Platte, adds, “If this is successful, it can be a model for other communities around the nation.”
