Report charts course for mitigating wildfire risks

res more e ectively, and to reseed and restore scarred forests.

BY ERIC GALATAS PUBLIC NEWS SERVICE

As wild re seasons in Colorado and across the American West become longer, less predictable and increasingly destructive, a new report aims to provide an equitable roadmap for protecting communities, watersheds and wildlife.

Rob Addington, Colorado forest program director for e Nature Conservancy, said engagement with tribal nations, who have been successful stewards of lands for thousands of years, will be critical to address the scale of the challenge.

“Developing tribal partnerships and really looking to tribal knowledge, ecological knowledge that many of the tribes hold from their centuries in many cases of working with the land, working with re,” Addington outlined.

Addington pointed out the roadmap represents a paradigm shift in modern forest and wild re management. After decades of re prevention strategies, for example, experts said prescribed burns will be necessary to thin fuel supplies across thousands of acres of dry western lands. e report also called for advanced computer modeling and unmanned drones to improve early detection, help battle e roadmap, created by e Aspen Institute and e Nature Conservancy, compiled input from more than 250 experts in forest and re management, federal, state, local, and Tribal Nation authorities, and the private sector, including the forest products and insurance industries.

Addington noted many of the report’s recommendations are shovel-ready, due to recent public investments such as the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the In ation Reduction Act.

“But what we need in parallel to complement that funding is this set of policy recommendations,” Addington urged. “To really make best use of that funding, and have it hit the ground in the most e cient and e ective way that we can.”

Addington underscored building successful partnerships will be key for work that needs to happen in metropolitan areas and across tribal, federal, state and privately owned lands. e report also identied some potential roadblocks, and o ered policy solutions requiring action from Congress, the executive branch, and partners like states, Tribal Nations, nonpro ts, and industry.

Spring floods a concern

Colorado’s snow season is nearing its typical peak with above-average snowpack, and water o cials are beginning to worry about ooding and gauging potential reservoir releases. But in some places, the snow just keeps coming.

Each year, April marks the point in the season when the snowpack starts to reach its peak as temperatures warm and spring runo begins. It’s also an important point for water ofcials, water users and even emergency managers: How high the snow piles up is a key indicator of water supply for the next year, but how fast it melts can have big impacts on ooding and seasonal irrigation.

“We do anticipate high water,” said Sgt. Todd Wheeler, emergency management coordinator for Mo at County in northwestern Colorado. “Will it be higher than normal? at remains to be seen.”

In the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to 40 million people spread across seven Western states and 30 Native American tribes, the snowpack was above average as it reached its seasonal peak.

In the Upper Colorado Region, which includes Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah, the snow- e Lower Colorado Region, which includes Arizona, California and Nevada, was at 446% of the historical median as of ursday. e above-average snow is welcome news for the parched basin, which is facing its worst drought in 1,200 years. However the basin’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, will need to see this kind of snowfall for multiple years to recover from the impacts of prolonged drought and overuse, experts say. e water levels at Lake Mead are even projected to fall further this year, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. e seasonal peak refers to the snow-water equivalent — the amount of liquid water in snow — in the snowpack. e peaks vary regionally and year to year, and the

Conservation Service data. It was even nearing the highest snowpack recorded since 1986.

“While this year has been really good news in terms of above-average snowpack and above-average stream ows into Lake Powell over the summer, it’s not enough to totally re ll those reservoirs or even get them back to normal,” said Peter Goble, a climatologist with the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University.