Cameron Peak Post-Fire Mitigation Project

Photo: Cory Dick

Project Summary

2021 - Present

The largest recorded wildfire in Colorado’s history.

The Cameron Peak Fire burned 208,913 acres in Larimer County in Northern Colorado between August and October 2020. Drought conditions in the summer and fall of 2020 in Colorado also led to the 2nd and 3rd largest wildfires in Colorado History. The conditions were summarized in the US Forest Service Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) as follows.

“On the Cameron Peak Fire, extreme temperatures, low humidity, rough terrain and gusty winds reaching over 70 miles per hour contributed to extreme fire behavior and rapid rates of spread. Another contributing factor to fire growth was the large amount of beetle kill trees and the drought-stricken Ponderosa Pine, Engelmann Spruce and mixed conifer stands available as fuel.”

The Cameron Peak Fire burned primarily on USDA Forest Service land within the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests. However, the fire also burned a large area of private land and additional federal land within Rocky Mountain National Park.

To date, 9,244 acres have been mulched (public and private lands).

Maps documenting Zones of Concern/Ownership, Hazards, and Treatments are shown below.

Partners

  • Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed

  • City of Greeley

  • City of Fort Collins

  • Big Thompson Watershed Coalition

  • Larminer County

  • City of Loveland

  • Private landowners

  • US Forest Service

  • Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)

Project Actions

  • Mitigate consequences of the Cameron Peak Fire on high-priority watershed values in the Cache la Poudre and Big Thompson Watersheds

  • Identify high priority areas for post-fire treatments and create maps to highlight these areas

  • Application and management of post-fire mitigation treatments, including:

    • Aerial wood mulch

  • Assessment of post-wildfire watershed health

  • Organization and coordination of various collaborating stakeholders on this project

  • Post-treatment assessment, monitoring, and reporting of efficacy of mitigation treatments

Benefits

  • Protect critical water supplies and natural resources in the Cache la Poudre and Big Thompson River Watersheds

  • Prioritize areas for treatment in a severely burned, post-wildfire landscape at the 7th level watershed scale

  • Mitigate negative effects of wildfire with hillslope stabilizing and aerial mulching efforts

  • Protect river ecosystem functions and health

  • Implement post-fire mitigation treatments to protect hillslopes, improve stream health, and maintain a consistent high quality water supply

Post-fire Aerial Mulching Treatment

JW Associates has utilized arial wood mulch treatments in multiple wildfires across Colorado, including the High Park Fire (2012). Since then, JW Associates has fine-tuned the procedures and implemented a rigorous protocol for verifying the specific areas to be treated, and inspecting the treatment post-mulching to ensure efficacy. The procedure is outlined below:

  1. Stakeholder Collaboration

  2. Identify Zones of Concern + Mitigation Treatments

  3. Perform Watershed Hazard Analysis

  4. Field verification of treatment areas

  5. Treat areas of highest hazard or concern

  6. Field inspection of treated areas

  7. Post-mitigation Project Report

  8. Ongoing monitoring of the efficacy of wood mulch treatments to prevent hillslope erosion

Overview of Treated Areas

Post-fire Composite Hazard Ranking Map with mulched areas

The Post-fire Composite Hazard Ranking combines four components (Soil Burn Severity, Hillslope Erosion, Debris Flow Hazard and Composite Roads Hazards) by numerically combining their rankings for each small watershed and then re-categorizing the results. The Post-fire Composite Hazard Ranking is used as the basis for targeting small watersheds for post-fire treatments. 

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Cache La Poudre Wildfire/Watershed Assessment

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Catamount Forest Health & Hazardous Fuels Reduction