RIGHT NOW, our municipal, county, state, and federal governments are proposing millions of acres of aggressive, experimental forest “fuel reduction” across our Front Range public lands, including around Nederland.
Despite evidence from several hundred peer reviewed studies conducted by hundreds of scientists contesting the efficacy of cutting down forests in the name of wildfire—on top of findings from these governments’ OWN studies—and mounting community concerns about what’s shaping up to be the largest land scheme in nearly a century, these agencies (i.e. U.S. Forest Service, Colorado State Forest Service, County Open Space, City Mountain Parks) have unilaterally decided to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to convert much of our public forests into sacrifice zones.
While there are scientifically proven ways to protect our communities from wildfire—home hardening and defensible space pruning up to 100 feet around homes—AT BEST this forest clearing (which often includes clearcutting and mature and old growth tree removal) is hotly debated in the scientific literature, and at worst it’s been shown to INCREASE the threat by drying and heating forests and opening them to wind spread.
As our governments and most elected officials refuse to allow meaningful engagement on the issue, it’s up to ecologically-minded concerned citizens to come together to offer a better vision of how we can co-exist with the forests we love without (often ineffectively and counterproductively) destroying them.
