Western wildfires & water - why water leaders are so damn worried
Grizzly Creek Fire, Colorado River - August 10, 2020 Credit: John Brockmeir, Whitewater Rafting
Confluence West is a consortium of preeminent western water leaders. Learn more
Friends -
As extreme wildfires rip through our North American communities, forests, and watersheds, now what?
The past few months have been grim – this despite the ever-expanding capacity of the “suppression industrial complex.”
Western water managers, those whose agencies’ water supply relies wholly, on or in part, on watersheds upstream, are asking:
1. What happens if a massive slug of fire debris hits my treatment plant?
2. What will next spring’s runoff look like if the forests upstream are wiped out?
3. Will ash, along with increasing temperatures, create toxic algae in my reservoirs?
We all know that creating and maintaining healthy forests – the source of 60% of our western water supply – takes money. Yes, huge amounts of money – but it also takes consensus science.
Thanks to the work of 40 North American highly regarded wildfire scientists, we now have that consensus. Their current report: “Climate Change and Western Wildfires: The Science Supports Restoration with Climate Adaptation.” Three key findings:
1. High-risk western landscapes can be treated successfully using a combination of science- and evidence-based methods of thinning and prescribed burns.
2. Wildfires can be managed under the right conditions.
3. Pro-active, intentional forest management – which includes fuel reductions – is necessary to create and maintain sustainable western forests resilient to climate change.
Ten answered questions here Full report here
What to do? All of us who manage, drink from, and love western rivers and forests need to follow the science and:
1. Create effective partnerships to pool connections and clout for forest health investments.
2. Advocate for policies that support everything from accelerated prescribed burns to reduced liability for non-government funders of treatment projects on federal lands.
3. Ally with willing partners – some of whom will be “unusual” – e.g., low-income communities downstream who bear the brunt of wildfire smoke and water rate increases, land-based communities, public health officials, irrigation districts. Diverse partnerships equal more effective projects and more political clout.
If you’re grappling with these challenges and want solutions, please be in touch - contact us.
For the West,
Kimery
Kimery Wiltshire Confluence West
Our thanks to Melanie Colavito at Northern Arizona University/Ecological Research Institute; and, Chris Adlam, Oregon State University’s Extension Fire Program for their help with this newsletter.