Researchers watch and learn as fire habits and human development reach a tipping point
Fire season was over, but the blaze still took hold. Residents of Glacier View, a rural Colorado neighborhood near the Wyoming boarder, were evacuated in early October after a prescribed burn set by The Nature Conservancy blew out of control.
Thanks to our changing climate, which is bringing about early snow melt and drier Summer conditions, the news abounds with apocalyptic scenes throughout the West — highways choked with cars making their escape away from a glowing night sky, people standing over a pile of their charred belongings, wondering how they will come back from such a loss. It’s an ironic fact that humans trigger most fires and we continue to increase the amount of damage those fires cause by building into forests that will eventually need to burn. Now some researchers are calling for a renewed relationship with fire, one that prioritizes preparedness over suppression.
Glacier View is a calm neighborhood sparsely dotted with yurts and rustic homes, where social clubs like the “Glacier Gals” provide residents a way to pass the time over potlucks and fundraisers. Neighborhood fishing derbies are organized at a nearby lake, and residents are over 20 years older than the Larimer county average of 40. While some were aware that a century of fire suppression had made…
