Western States Megadrought intensifies - predictions for bad Fire Season and severe water shortages for Colorado (Colorado Springs: new house, neighborhood)

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Phil P

Couple of thoughts:.... . Some trees are dying of drought, but the majority are falling prey to insects here in CO, and that's much more a natural monoculture problem than a climate problem. Parasites routinely clean out monocultures (and are responsible for increased diversity). On one hand the dead trees suck, but on the other hand they are opening up the space for more grass / understory which grazers like elk and deer like, and less trees means the snow sticks around significantly longer. It's not all negative, even if it's ugly. I hope that in 50 years, there's more mixed conifer forests + more aspen that come and replace the old lodgepole and spruce forests.

Odds of the next mega blaze are highest for the eastern San Juan ranges. They have done a lot of mitigating though. Summit county has cleared itself pretty good, they have big logging operations in the Sawatch and Wet mountains... This is what the state needs more of. But I think the next 10 years will be rougher than the ones that follow; I think in 50 years the state will be in a better place naturally. I have no idea about human use and distribution though.

Article today in the NY Times about how some states are making wood-stove pellets out of cleared woodlands. As usual, when someone does something there are those waiting in the wings to call it a crisis and seek donations to fight the 'abomination.' During the Great Recession I proposed turning beetle-kill trees in COLO into wood pellets to provide work and do some public good. Here we are 10-12 years later and risking huge fires again this year similar to what we saw in California the past few years.

All that being said, can someone elaborate on what's being done in Summit County and other areas of COLO to mitigate fires?

[Melanzana92]

I'm on Summit County's text alerts and it seems I've been getting notified of slash burning just about every day for the past month or so.

What Summit County is currently doing basically amounts to an attempt to cut down most of the beetle kill and burn it in a controlled manner before lightning or a cigarette comes along to do the same thing in an uncontrolled, likely destructive manner. You can currently see many slash piles in the Keystone area. Last winter, they burned most of what was most recently cut down along Swan Mountain Road.

This link (https://www.google.com/maps/@39.6197.../data=!3m1!1e3) is an aerial image of the Wildernest and Mesa Cortina neighborhoods in Silverthorne. Note how a buffer zone of sorts has been created between the development and thick forest. A lot of what was cleared there was dead from the beetles. I don't think the County will pursue doing this to every neighborhood, but this is pretty much what saved the upper third of Wildernest (perhaps more) from burning to the ground during the brief afternoon wildfire from 2018. You can actually see the burn scar in that aerial. I lived there at the time and it was pretty frightening.

The eastern flank of the Gore range in particular has a tremendous amount of dead trees. Seems like a large fire could just rip right on down into town.

Another aerial (https://www.google.com/maps/@39.5841.../data=!3m1!1e3) shows some of the slash piles in Keystone I mentioned. Pan westward to Swan Mountain Road and you can see where large sections of forest are starting to regrow. They must have cleared those sections well before my time in the area.

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Article today in the NY Times about how some states are making wood-stove pellets out of cleared woodlands. As usual, when someone does something there are those waiting in the wings to call it a crisis and seek donations to fight the 'abomination.' During the Great Recession I proposed turning beetle-kill trees in COLO into wood pellets to provide work and do some public good. Here we are 10-12 years later and risking huge fires again this year similar to what we saw in California the past few years.

All that being said, can someone elaborate on what's being done in Summit County and other areas of COLO to mitigate fires?

Well, Mike I'm sure that you recall the horrific fires that have devastated California in recent years. The previous administration flew out to the West Coast as often as one or two times in order to revel in the woes of a bunch of coastal elites - errr, I mean in order to restore the morale of the Californians most effected by the unprecedented wildfires. When his plane set down near Pleasure (Paradise?) CA, He even emerged to give out some practical advise to both the people of Paradise and to the government employees who have the job of fire suppression. Rake the forest floors! Nothing else was required.

Well, US Forest Service and National Park personnel and even the mavericks who work for the Bureau of Land Management took the President's words to heart and all have implemented a rigorous program designed to rake away every last branch, twig and particle greater than 2 cm in diameter off from the floors of every single bit of federal land where so much as a single stunted tamarisk tree has dared to grow.

I read on the Internet that this massive nationwide project was included in the infrastructure bill soon to be passed by Congress. It is estimated that this forest clean-up will be complete no later than fiscal year 2125 or whenever every single forest in the US has burned completely down to the ground and the ashes have all been borne eastward on the jet stream where they will land in DC and cover the Capitol Building under 400 feet of ash. Whichever of these events occur first.

Closer to home, the forests in Summit County that are within any federal jurisdiction will be raked by a sort of new Civilian Conservation Corps whose members have lost their jobs due to A) the pandemic or B) the greatest hoax ever perpetuated on the American people. Choose one according to your political affiliation...

Hmmm... While I am a patriotic Coloradan, I have a sudden feeling that I may have been over zealous in my latest attempt to support Colorado's recreational cannabis industry. Let me go eat a chocolate cake, and I'll get back to you.

[Phil P]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

All that being said, can someone elaborate on what's being done in Summit County and other areas of COLO to mitigate fires?

You know what's really cool, Google Earth just released a timelapse addon to their web addition: http://goo.gle/timelapse

If you zoom in over the area around Breck or Frazier / Winter Park, it's amazing to see the amount of trees that have been cleared out. It's really interesting to watch this live! The Cripple Creek mine is fun to see grow too!

[suzco]

Originally Posted by Colorado Rambler

. . .
Hmmm... While I am a patriotic Coloradan, I have a sudden feeling that I may have been over zealous in my latest attempt to support Colorado's recreational cannabis industry. Let me go eat a chocolate cake, and I'll get back to you.

How flammable is cannabis, anyway? could cacao be cultivated here in Colorado? Would either of them contribute to, or in the alternative, mitigate, the risk of wildfires?

[xeric]

Originally Posted by pikabike

CR, thanks for posting the link to that blog! I’ll add it to my bookmarks.

It’s going to be a severely reduced water year for all of us here, whether for aggie or rec use. I’ve never seen reservoir and river levels this low in CO in early spring.

It is high time to emphasize little ways that household users (which is ALL people) can conserve water. Little amounts add up when multiplied by many times and many people.

1. For example, at some restaurants the servers will automatically top up water glasses whether or not you need more. Sometimes they ask before doing so, but sometimes they whisk over and pour even though you finished eating and have received the check. We can put up a hand and say, “No Thanks; I Am All Set” to avoid this top-up, which will get wasted otherwise.

2. Another one which a former neighbor told me she and husband did during an unusually dry summer in a normally not-droughty region: Put a bucket down to collect the cold but clean water that comes out of the shower or tub spigot while you wait for the water to warm up. It is drinking-quality water, sometimes gallons of it going down the drain! She saved it to water the garden with. It could also be poured into jugs or bottles to save as (*gasp*) drinking water for later use, or to rinse dishes off before washing them in detergent.

Confession: I have not yet collected preshower cold water (though I do save cold sink water and put it in hiker bottles for later) but I will so do this year. It is merely a matter of putting a clean bucket in the shower or tub and, after the shower, funneling it into jugs. Minor inconvenience—but it seems that many US people balk tremendously at small inconveniences...

3. When I grew up, nobody thought twice about letting tap water keep running while brushing one’s teeth. Except my foreign-born dad, who appreciated the preciousness of clean tap water. How about wetting the brush and then turning off the tap until time to rinse? Yeah, another small inconvenience that how many of us do (I do). If water were actually priced as an indispensable resource (because it really IS more valuable to life than any liquor), then maybe people would think twice about just letting it run down the drain by default.

I suppose we could collect the allowed amount of rainwater in barrels. Assuming it rains or snows. And I know that the ground needs it, so that seems like just robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Got any other easy ways to conserve water as part of daily routine? You have a creative mind, so please add your ideas.

I sometimes think of these small indoor water usage conservation tips as a parody of what a real conservation effort should be. Having a lawn that requires irrigation (even if done efficiently) will quickly zero out any of these small indoor water savings. Most water utilities that serve residential customers in the west don’t mandate any outdoor conservation but will provide a list of best practices for both indoor and outdoor use (the indoor use ones usually include turning water off while you brush your teeth). Instead they could restrict outdoor watering to 1 or 2 days per week and make a real conservation impact.

[pikabike]

Uh, yeah, my tips were for those who already don’t have a lawn. We wouldn’t even dream of it in our area. Apartment dwellers don’t, either.

Adding more small ways to conserve certainly does NO harm to making bigger reductions. It is not an either-or choice.

[xeric]

Agreed and sorry about seeming critical. It was this post/thread that I saw way back in 2016 (in the Australia/NZ forum) that ruined the “turn off your water when you brush your teeth” suggestion for me - LOL. As with so many natural resource issues Americans are way behind the curve.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/aust...l#post44452399

[StealthRabbit]

While landscape, comercial processes, and AG are the heavy water hitters... Personal water use can also be a big contributor to conservation.

We have renters that consistantly use over 100g / day per occupant, including kids.

Spouse and I seldom use 20g / day combined, often under 10g / day for (2).

That adds up with a Colorado sized population.

• 1.5m when I arrived (big snows in those days, little pavement or rooftops, people were far better stewards of water resources, as they were carrying it up to their house in a bucket...)
• 2.8m when I was pushed out by the crowds
• 5.9m today

Many Colorado residents use over 170 gallons of water per capita per day. In contrast, some western cities use less than 150 gallons per capita per day. Water conservation is vital to enhancing the efficiency of how we use water.

(2014)
https://extension.colostate.edu/topi...%20use%20water.

@170g/day.. = 1b / g/day (1.2m Acre Ft of water / yr)
@17 g / day (reasonable) = 100m g/day = w/ conservation

Annual saving via personal conservation could = 328b gal savings / yr in Colorado alone

Make this REAL to people (including kids) and you might see some results.

[Exwyocowboy]

As an ex-westerner - because of drought, I can direct you to the weekly Drought Report

https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu