Colorado researchers looking into fire mitigation methods for grasslands
Grasslands span from the Great Plains to the foothills of Colorado, and fires are a natural part of the ecosystem. But as more people have moved into these areas, the threat of a wildfire's destruction has prompted local emergency agencies to rethink their strategies. In the wake of the Marshall Fire, city and county leaders in Boulder asked researchers at the University of Colorado about fire behavior. These conversations led to a research effort at the university's Boulder campus that could change how agencies handle fire mitigation in grassland suburban areas.
"This fire is critical to the health of these grasslands, essentially, but they do pose risks. So how do you balance that?" said Jonathan Henn, who is a part of the research team.
CBS
Some key research involves the ecological impact of fires in grasslands as well as its behavior and what mitigation -- like prescribed burns -- could be most effective.
"They're very fast fires," Henn explained. "Because there's sort of nothing stopping wind, they're really wind-driven fires."
Unlike fires in the forest, where mitigation is typically a once-every-few-years effort, something like a prescribed burn in the foothills or high plains requires a different approach.
"In the grasslands, if you reduce the biomass, that might work for a bit. But it's all going to grow back the next year, potentially even more than last year," said Henn.
Boulder County was going to conduct some prescribed burns for the research effort in Marshall Mesa back in December but weather issues called it off. They tried again in the spring, only for weather to be an issue again. With the rest of spring and summer ahead, it is likely that any additional prescribed burns would be delayed, but Henn is confident they'll be able to do the research at some point.
A big piece of interest for fire agencies is how fast these fires can move in grassland.
"It has a really low residence time which is what we call it," Henn told CBS Colorado. "So the fire moves across this really fast because there's not a lot of material to burn. So it burns up fast, there's not a lot of material to burn so you end up with bare ground."
While there is still plenty of work to be done, Henn says that the work can be expandable. What works in Boulder could, in theory, work in other foothills communities and even as far out as Great Plains states that are primarily grassland without any elevation changes.
"We could have some really good potential expandability to this," he said, "And that's something always in the back of our minds is what are we doing that can be applicable to other communities?"
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