Prior to last summer, 2002’s Hayman fire, which burned 138,000 acres southwest of Denver, stood as the largest wildfire in Colorado’s recorded history.
Then came the cataclysmic fire season of 2020, which saw one, then two, and finally three wildfires burn more acreage than that, with one of them — the Cameron Peak fire west of Fort Collins — surpassing 200,000 acres for the first time on record.
Now, three months after the last of those giant fires was contained, state and federal officials are looking to the next fire season, worrying about what 2021 has in store and what can be done to damper the impacts of conflagrations made worse by drought and a changing climate.
In today’s Denver Post, environment reporter Bruce Finley takes an in-depth look at how Colorado is preparing for worsening fire seasons, and the growing calls for leaders to do more through aggressive prescribed burns and limits on building homes in burn zones.
— Matt Sebastian, managing editor
“They’re getting bigger, faster”: Colorado braces for what’s next after last year’s explosive wildfires
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