Last May, when a prescribed burn in New Mexico’s
Bandelier National Monument blew out of control and destroyed 200
structures in nearby Los Alamos, burn programs around the nation
faced intense scrutiny.
But in Boulder, Colo.,
support for prescribed burning in local open space remains strong.
The Boulder Fire Department’s prescribed fire management specialist
Rod Moraga says almost everyone who calls him is very supportive of
prescribed burning.
While Moraga had hoped to
burn approximately 250 acres of Boulder’s open space this spring,
weather limited burning to about 130 acres. He hopes to complete
three more burns this fall.
Boulder’s prescribed
burning program is unusual among municipalities. According to
Moraga, other communities are interested in starting prescribed
burn programs, but the necessary “staffing and commitment level is
hard to reach.” While Boulder’s burn program is almost entirely
city-funded, Boulder does coordinate with fire managers from the
Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest and the Colorado State Forest
Service.
One benefit of Boulder’s prescribed
burning and forest thinning became clear last fall, when a wildfire
broke out in the foothills west of Boulder. The Boulder County Open
Space Department had previously thinned and burned the ponderosa
pine forest in this area. Justin Dombrowski from the Boulder Fire
Department says the fire burned less intensely in the previously
burned areas. As a result, fire crews were able to work safely to
prevent the fire from reaching 150 nearby
homes.
For more information, contact the Boulder
Fire Department, 303/441-3350.
Copyright © 2001 HCN and Elizabeth Pike
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Boulder utilizes burns.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
