Thread by @MattBergPhD

#Water gets rid of #wildfires, and wildfires get rid of water

#ColoradoFires #colorado #river #wildfire #watersecurity #drought coloradosun.com/2020/08/19/gri…

“In many ways, the #GrizzlyCreekFire is a public works fire, threatening the viral #infrastructure for millions of westerners”

“ground crews are not fighting flames in the precipitous Glenwood Canyon. They can’t even reach them.”

#firefighters #firefighting #cofire

Approaches to battling fires in sensitive water supply watersheds:
1) no fire retardant w/in 300’ of streams
2) no scooping up water from site w/ invasive species
3) no bulldozing on steep slopes or debris zones
4) clean equipment before and after to prevent invasive weeds

Teams thinking though #restoration plans already when fire is 0% contained

If not: #flooding, #roads closed, streams filled in with sediment and scorched debris

#flood #RoadSafety #publicsafety #ecosystems

Interesting: fire severed transmission lines from regional #hydropower facility, triggering unique water rights agreement but threatening rafting industry*

*yeah, #COVID19 already doing a number on #tourism

For next several years, scorched #soil won’t be able to absorb water, so expect loss of #erosion and debris flows. The river will be muddy for a long time. #Utilities will likely spend $millions dredging water supply reservoirs

The 7 largest fires in the history of this National #Forest have all occurred since 2002, thanks to warmer, drying #climate

“these large, complex #fires are going to be more common moving forward”