Earth Protect Blog

By Conrad Swanson

The Denver Post

Millions of dollars are headed to Colorado State University to study wildfire prevention, mitigation and recovery, after years of drought and record-setting wildfires across the state.

The $20 million grant will be split between CSU’s Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, Northern Arizona University and New Mexico Highlands University, according to Brett Wolk, assistant director of the Institute.

That money comes out of the bipartisan infrastructure bill that Congress passed late last year, U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse’s office said in a release.

Wolk said the universities haven’t yet determined how the money will be split, but it should fund a five-year project during which researchers will create a database of where forest management is happening overlapped with wildfire locations.

“That sounds pretty simple, but actually getting all that data from different agencies and jurisdictions is actually quite complex — and then putting it all on one map,” Wolk said.

That database should give land and wildfire managers, public officials, emergency responders and more an idea of which treatments are effective, where they’ve worked and where management isn’t happening, Wolk said.

Information such as that can inform decisions about how best to stop or minimize fires in the future.

“Sometimes that means stopping a fire,” Wolk said. “But a lot of times it means changing a fire’s behavior so it burns less intensely.”

Researchers will then also use the grant to help public officials, government agencies and wildfire managers understand and use that data, Wolk said.

The money comes at a time when climatologists across the country watch and hope for more winter snows to quench the drought-stricken American West. That ongoing lack of moisture, considered a megadrought and expected to last a year longer, has resulted not only in water shortages but also recordsetting and devastating wildfires.

Neguse in a statement underscored the need for collaboration in the battle against wildfires.

“The catastrophic wildfires that Colorado and other Western states have endured over the past few years are nothing short of a national emergency, and it is imperative that we continue developing proactive strategies to help our mountain communities protect themselves from these growing threats,” Neguse said. Conrad Swanson: 303-954-1739, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or @conrad_swanson