Since the High Park Fire last June, researchers at CSU, in partnership with local and national laboratories, have been studying the impacts of the fire, providing data on everything from wildfire causes to water quality restoration to sustainable burning of beetle-kill wood. Nine research permits have been issued by the Forest Service and three are pending, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Large-scale Wildfire Impact Study on High Park Fire

-Scientists from CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources

-Partnership with Colorado’s newest research facility, the National Ecological Observatory Network

-Providing critical data to communities about water quality restoration, erosion and ecosystem restoration in areas spanning more than 136 square miles

-First of its kind to integrates airborne remote sensing data with ground-based data to enhance research of wildfire causes and impacts

-Detects remaining vegetation, identifies plant species, ash cover, soil properties, etc. to discover how fire burned

-11 scientists, led by project principal investigator Michael Lefsky, associate professor in the Dept. of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability and researcher with CSU’s Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory

Information from today.colostate.edu

Phoenix Forest Solutions

-Manages local fire mitigation risk for mountain residents through timely and responsible disposal of forest waste

-Working with a partner in Red Feather Lakes, Colo. to help residents deal with “slash,” or smaller pieces of dead trees, sustainably

-Researching and testing ways to sustainably reduce negative environmental impacts of burning dead pines, such as increasing burn efficiency, gasification of burning slash to create energy and applications of bio-char byproducts

-Led by Katie Haynes, co-founder of Phoenix Forest Solutions

Information from blog.biz.colostate.edu