Wildfires
January 19, 2010-- Snowpack dangerously close to drought levels (Colorado Independent)
Badly needed snowfall is expected in Colorado’s high country this week, but one expert says the state will need much more than the amount in the forecast to stave off drought on par with the one that marked the parched year of 2002, which saw reservoirs depleted to record-low levels and raging wildfires.
December 29, 2009--A roller-coaster decade (High Country News)
Much of the first decade of the century was marked by drought. If global warming projections are right, it looks like much of the rest of the century will be, too. Devastating wildfires raged across the region. Part of that is thanks to a century of firefighting that left the forests filled with big, old trees ready to burn. Much of it, though, was thanks to year after year of drought.
November 25, 2009--Interior Department bill has $24 million for regional projects (Grand Junction Sentinel)
Projects as varied as Mesa Verde National Park improvements, Rifle drinking-water lines and trail access to Dominguez Canyon would benefit from an Interior Department appropriations bill that is headed to President Barack Obama’s desk.
October 7, 2009--Federal study says winter rains bring high risk of huge debris flows in Calif. wildfire area (Los Angeles Times)
Rainstorms could send huge flows of water laden with mud, rocks and other debris toward cities below steep slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains stripped bare by a wildfire near Los Angeles this summer, federal scientists said Tuesday. The U.S.
More on Dust
Scientists from a variety of organizations, including the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have been able to establish an accurate record of how human activities have increased the amount of dust falling on high country snowpack.
September 26, 2009--Beetle legislation headed to Congress (Aspen Daily News)
The U.S. Congress has a busy fall session on its plate, sure to be
dominated by debate over healthcare reform. But Colorado Sen. Mark
Udall is pushing for quick passage of an emergency bill that would help
treat millions of sick trees in Colorado and throughout the West.
September 13, 2009--San Juan forest gets $1.5M for weed removal (Durango Herald)
The San Juan National Forest will receive $1.5 million from the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to clear noxious weeds,
Colorado's U.S. senators, Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, said Friday. The
grant is part of $67 million the U.S.
September 9, 2009-- Drought makes California vulnerable to busy fire season (USA Today)
Even as a mammoth wildfire still burns in the San Gabriel Mountains, California hasn't seen this year the level of destruction that flames delivered the past two years. That
could change soon however, fire officials say.
August 24, 2009--Beetles, wildfire: Double threat in warming world (Vail Daily)
Beetles and fire, twin plagues, are consuming northern forests in what
scientists say is a preview of the future, in a century growing warmer,
as the land grows drier, trees grow weaker and pests, abetted by milder
winters, grow stronger. Dying, burning forests would then only add to the warming.
July 21, 2009--Polluted rain, snow raises concerns for sensitive landscapes in 16 national parks (L.A. Times)
A pollutant that can slowly trigger changes in the lives of plants and animals is increasingly being found in 16 National Park Service sites, mostly in the Western United States.
