Let’s get smarter - really fast

Ongoing restoration on the 2002 Hayman fire - at the time the largest wildfire in Colorado history. Courtesy National Forest Foundation.

Let’s get smarter (really fast) – western water supply & wildfires 

Glenwood Springs, Colorado – population 9,972.  The City is desperately looking for $10.5 million to protect its water supply from the ash and sediment headed their way courtesy of last month’s Grizzly Peak wildfire. 

Denver, Albuquerque, Aurora, Phoenix, the California cities of Santa Rosa, Santa Barbara, Paradise, and so many others can tell similar tales - and the millions and millions of dollars spent post-fire. 

As I write, over two million acres have already burned this year in California. (The usual wildfire ‘season’ hasn’t yet begun.) The #creekfire is currently burning in the San Joaquin watershed – water supply critical to Fresno, surrounding communities and farmlands. Sonoma Water is looking at the impacts of last month’s #walbridgefire on both water supply and fish habitat. The list goes on.

The assessment we conducted three years ago shows that the source of water for 54 western towns and cities is on public lands – Forest Service, state lands and the Bureau of Land Management. Almost all ready to burn.

More firefighters, more CL-415 aircraft, more bulldozers are not going to do the trick. The #creekfire has gone to 125,000 acres in less than 36 hours and is zero-percent contained. Right now, they can’t stop it. 

Deep breath … Many smart western cities and communities are already investing in making their watersheds upstream more resilient. That means involving rural communities, science-based thinning, indigenous evidence-based prescribed burning, not allowing homes in high fire risk areas, and yes – beavers. You can read about this in our new report: Three Paths Forward for Western Water Security. 

P.S. Glenwood Springs wasn’t on our 2017 assessment.