Wildfire mitigation work improves water quality for Colorado community
By Tawny Quast
On August 13 , 2020 , the Cameron Peak Fire started burning in the Rocky Mountains in northern Colorado . What started as a fire in an isolated area along the Continental Divide continued to burn and travel east toward Colorado ’ s Front Range for nearly four months . When winter snow finally put out the fire for good on December 2 , 2020 , it had burned through over 200,000 acres , destroyed 42 primary residences and hundreds of other structures , and massively changed the mountain landscapes and communities .
Once the flames died , little was left of the forest ecosystem in sections of the Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forests as well as parts of Rocky Mountain National Park . Where massive groves of lodgepole pines and high mountain spruce once stood , the land was barren .
However , the charred trees and burned landscape told only a part of the story of the fire ’ s destruction . While the physical damage is obvious , such a massive change to the forest ecosystem brought problems far beyond the surface , threatening water quality and increasing the risk of flash floods , among other issues .
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