Reflection by ML

During the week of June 23^rd – 28^th, I had the privilege to attend this fantastic workshop at the beautiful Nature Place in Florissant, Colorado.  During the week long work shop we learned everything from GPS mapping to Fire wise communities.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Our first night, we met Steve Jennings who is with UCCS in Colorado Springs.  He instructed us on how to use the ETREX by Garmin.  After a brief period of instruction we were on our way to find our waypoints.    After a 20 minute hike across the Boy Scout camp and back we made it safely by to Bristlecone.  I knew this was going to be an interesting week with a great bunch of people.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Dave Root of the Colorado State Forest Service out of Woodland Park office gave a very informative talk about our forests and the health of them.  Fire has been around us for many, many years and will continue to be around to help the health of our wooded areas.  I really enjoyed learning about the difference between the Spruce Beetles and the Pine Beetles and the different ranges that live in and how they have impacted our state.  Amy Slyvester of the Colorado Springs Fire Department presented a power point of the Waldo Canyon Fire and the impact it had on sub-divisions.  It shows what can happen on any given fire that is close to a metropolitan area and the risks that home owners have by choosing to live where they live.  Wildfire Mitigation is a must by all who love living where they live.  Dr. Peter M. Brown of the Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research presented us with a very informative lecture on Dendrochronology.  The best part of the class was the ability to go out and core a tree and be able to read the core like a book through history. 

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Theresa Springer who is the Waldo Fire Rehabilitation Coordinator talked with us about the projects that are ongoing after the Waldo Canyon Fire.  She was able to talk about the importance of a timely fire recovery plan, also the implantation of emergency plans that are in place along HWY 24 from Woodland Park to Manitou Springs.  A great amount of sand bagging is going on through contract work to help save structures, but more importantly to save lives.  After the morning session we traveled to the Blodgett burn area to see the great work that they are doing on the hillsides and gulleys of canyons to try and slow down water flow (from Hydrophobic soils that developed) to prevent any type of flash flooding that may happen, this all being done with timber that was burned.  The afternoon ended with at trip to the Glen Eyre property to see what they have done to be proactive to prevent damage from the predicted floods.  It was amazing to see how they developed two gigantic catch fences for debris that may come along with the floods.  A great design of flood control was put in place to help control and prevent major damage to the castle.  The night ended with a power point by Richard Homann of the Colorado State Forest.  He has designed a very useful tool called the “Colorado Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal.”  This portal will help the homeowners know what kind of risk that they live in by measuring current data that will provide a baseline data for fire risk.

Wednesday, June 26^th, 2013

Rob Jolly, director of the Nature Place, started the morning off with a nice nature walk along the property.  Along this walk, he talked about the diverse plants and trees that are continuing to grow after the fire mitigation that they have done on the property.  The fire mitigation that the Nature Place has done and will continue to do, represent what a healthy forest should look like.  The afternoon session was spent in the conference room learning about the Project learning tree and having a great time with the fire work trunks.  The fire work trunks have a wealth of projects that can help the students learn about fire, heat, and most importantly the forest and what lives in it.  Richard Holmann was able to step in and do a great job of talking about the Incident Command System.  He and the other Colorado State project students did a situational example of what it is like at a fire command system prior to sending out fire fighters for the day.

Thursday, June 27^th, 2013

Started the morning off with a trip to the Florissant fire department, where we met a gentleman (whose name I cannot remember) is with the State Forest Service.  He was able to take us to a prescribed burn area and see how the area has developed back after the fire.  We traveled a little farther into the mountains to look at the Springer fire.  While at the Springer area we were able to do our scavenger hunt.  We continued on to the Hayman Burn area and met up with one of the Colorado State game wardens to talk about the positives that have happened with wildlife and the surrounding vegetation.  The rest of the day we traveled to different burn areas.  It is amazing to me that through this corridor of mountains, the acres and separate fires that have happened in this region.

Friday, June 28^th, 2013

Rob Jolly was able to take us to another part of the property to see how mitigation that was done in the past and how it has responded over the years.  We then travelled up the road to a small fire that had happened only a few weeks and ago and meet up with the Chief of the Four Mile Volunteer fire department and Crickett.  We were exposed to the hand tools that the wild land fire fighter’s use.  Working together, we were able to build a fire line in no time.  The fire fighters were more than happy to discuss their Type 6 fire truck and the capabilities that it has.  We ended up the week in the conference room working on how we can develop lesson plans for future use. 

It was a great learning and working workshop that I would recommend to anyone who has interest in fire ecology.  Thanks to Shawna Crocker and her staff for all their hard work in preparing for this conference and the professional people that she invited to talk to share their knowledge and experience.