The massive Hayman Fire near Denver in 2002 (Forest Service).

Vail saw eight inches of new snow on Saturday, but it still wasn’t enough to open the vast majority of the mountain. Ski industry woes aside, state water watchers and firefighters are nervously eyeing the miniscule mountain snowpack, which supplies so much of the water used by Front Range cities. As of Dec. 30, snowpack in the Colorado River basin was 44 percent of last year’s record level and just 63 percent of the annual average.

“[The drought] will make the beetle epidemic even more severe,” said state Sen. Gail Schwartz, a Snowmass Democrat who’s introducing a bill in the legislative session starting Wednesday that’s aimed at reducing the fire danger from a mountain pine bark beetle epidemic that has killed millions of acres of Colorado lodgepole pines. “What doesn’t burn down will blow down.”

But just as it lacked scientific validity to point to Vail’s record 525 inches of snowfall last season as proof that climate change is a hoax (which many conservatives gleefully did), ski industry experts say it’s wrong to totally blame the current drought (just 88 inches so far at Vail) on human-caused heating of the planet.

“You can’t take weather, which is what we’re experiencing, and make deductions about climate, which is the long-term trend,” said Auden Schendler, vice president of sustainability at Aspen Skiing Company, which is suffering through an equally dry season. “But you don’t need to, really. All you need to do is look up the GISS (Goddard Institute for Space Studies) NASA global temperature anomaly maps of the world and look at December. It’s insane, and each decade gets hotter.”

Still, it’s turned into the kind of summer-like ski season in the Rocky Mountain West that the new Mitt Romney – the front-running GOP presidential nominee Romney – should love. Not the 2002 version who turned a profit with the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and as recently as June said, “I think it’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may well be significant contributors to the climate change and the global warming that you’re seeing.”

Despite snowfall Saturday, this chairlift into Vail's Back Bowls hasn't run all season (David O. Williams).

But as far as the current conditions, Aspen’s Schendler again emphasizes climate change should not be blamed for the current drought but instead is behind longer term trends like a generally drier American West – one that is more susceptible to water shortages and wildfire.

“It’s key to remember that warming might actually bring bigger storms to the Rockies due to there being more moisture in the air,” Schendler said. “At the same time, because the atmosphere can hold more water, it can suck the land dry of more water than before.”

Schendler says the biggest impact of climate change for the ski industry may be significantly shorter ski seasons.

“The thing to look at — and we’re seeing this trend — is when runoff happens,” he said. “When spring comes, both are happening much earlier, because Colorado has warmed, and warmed disproportionately to the rest of the U.S.”

The last time Colorado’s high country was even close to this dry in mid-winter was during the 2001-02 ski season, which was followed by the worst wildfire season in the state’s history. June of 2002 saw the massive Hayman Fire scorch nearly 138,000 acres of land in the mountains southwest of Denver, darkening Front Range skies and loading key water storage facilities with debris from subsequent erosion.

NASA’s James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climatologists, recently issued a report tying last summer’s massive wildfires in Texas and the 2010 wildfires in Russia to global warming.

“Hansen argues that climate ‘loads the dice,’” Schendler said. “So in an average year you might have a one in six chance of extraordinarily hot weather or a super-violent storm. But in the climate-changed world in which we live, the odds change to something new — perhaps two in six.”

Despite the recent round of wet weather in Colorado – including some snow above 12,000 feet – Colorado politicians and fire officials warned fall can be one of the most active seasons for wildfires.

“We shouldn’t let the recent cool weather fool us; fall wildfire season is upon us again, and this year’s extremely dry weather — particularly in drought-stricken southern Colorado — means it’s important to be especially vigilant,” Colorado U.S. Sen. Mark Udall said Tuesday in a release commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Fourmile Canyon Fire near Boulder.

Charred school buses in the wake of Boulder County's Fourmile Canyon Fire (Photo by Eric Peter Abramson, area resident).

“After touring the site last year, I was struck by the fire’s intensity and the heartbreaking loss of property,” Udall said Tuesday. “My thoughts are with the victims of the fire, many of whom are still struggling to recover.”

Gov. John Hickenlooper also warned that the state is still susceptible to devastating wildfires this time of year. Colorado’s Front Range just experienced one of the hottest and driest Augusts on record.

“The Fourmile Canyon Fire in Boulder County, which started on Labor Day last year, is a haunting reminder of the impacts wildfires can have on our natural resources and communities,” Hickenlooper said.

Meanwhile, Texas firefighters are still struggling to cope with the worst wildfires in that state’s history. According to ABC News, more than 1,000 homes have been destroyed and four people have died as winds from Tropical Storm Lee whipped up massive walls of flames over the weekend.

Despite the ongoing disaster, Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s aides told ABC he will participate in tonight’s Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

Scientists warn that extreme drought conditions and weather events will become more common as the planet continues to warm, but Perry has emerged as the GOP frontrunner for the 2012 nomination by casting doubt on global climate change science.

Perry on Tuesday also took a jab at the Obama administration’s response to the fires in his state, meanwhile failing to mention the draconian cuts he and Texas state lawmakers have made to funding for state firefighting.

Follow David O. Williams on Twitter. ]]> http://coloradoindependent.com/98607/as-texas-blazes-roar-udall-says-colorado-not-yet-out-of-wildfire-woods/feed 0 http://coloradoindependent.com/80924/schwartz-asks-congressional-delegation-to-push-for-more-federal-firefighting-funds http://coloradoindependent.com/80924/schwartz-asks-congressional-delegation-to-push-for-more-federal-firefighting-funds#comments Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:21:25 +0000 David O. Williams http://coloradoindependent.com/?p=80924 The foothills and flatlands of Colorado’s Front Range in and around Denver have so far only seen about a third of the average snowfall typical for this time of year, making March – normally one of the wettest months – an unusually active time for wildfires.

Gail Schwartz

On Thursday, Gov. John Hickenlooper issued an emergency disaster declaration and allocated $1.5 million in state funds to pay for firefighting efforts in Jefferson County. Even as he was doing that the Burning Tree Fire blew up between Parker and Franktown in Douglas County, forcing the evacuation of 8,500 residents. That fire was almost 100 percent contained by Friday morning, with no injuries or homes lost.

Still, state Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass, whose mountain district contains wide swaths of beetle-killed national forest, sent a letter to members of Colorado’s congressional delegation Thursday pleading for a serious push to allocate additional federal fire suppression funds for Colorado this summer – anticipating what could be a long and intense wildfire season.

Last fall saw the most costly wildfire in state history in terms of property damage when Boulder’s Four Mile Canyon Fire destroyed 166 homes. U.S. Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet asked U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to treat Colorado’s ongoing mountain pine bark beetle epidemic as a national emergency.

The recent wildfires on the Front Range have not involved significant beetle-kill tree stands, although the rice-sized insects are moving eastward, but most wildfire experts say it’s a matter of when not if a major, catastrophic blaze erupts in the worst of the state’s beetle-kill areas. For now, the snow pack is above average in most mountain areas. — it’s just the Front Range that’s tinder-dry – but a few weeks of dry, hot weather can change that in a hurry.

“The state and local governments and stakeholders have been working tirelessly to address the growing concerns around Colorado’s forest health,” Schwartz said in her letter. “We need our congressional delegation to stand with us and remain strong partners as we strive for solutions that will protect local communities, valuable resources, and our state economy from disaster.”

(Photo/Bob Spencer)

It’s hard to imagine nearly 2 million acres of dead and dying lodgepole pine trees as anything more than a terrible eyesore and potential fuel for a catastrophic wildfire.

But Vail Town Councilman Mark Gordon says those trees could provide nearly 100 percent of the ski-resort town’s hot water and electricity needs, and he envisions a biomass gasification power plant becoming a model for the rest of the state.

“The stars are aligning to make something like this happen,” Gordon said. “Between potentially the governor’s energy office, the stimulus bill, the new (presidential) administration, our citizens’ very explicit desire for us to be an environmental leader and the technologies changing, at this point it makes sense for us to be pursuing this.”

Gordon said he’s had exploratory discussions with several companies that specialize in biomass technology, as well as with businesses and utility companies in the Vail Valley, and there is a high level of interest in pursuing this unique type of biomass power plant in Vail.

“If a project like this could happen, it is such a huge win-win, because not only does Vail get the benefits of national forest stewardship, relieving the fire danger, it also gives us sustainable energy and makes us an environmental leader, as our citizens overwhelmingly want us to be,” he said, citing surveys that show the more than 4,500 year-round residents of Vail want the town to be greener in every way.

One of the great contradictions of the push in recent years for ski areas and ski towns to become increasingly environmentally friendly is the simultaneous trend toward more and more luxe amenities, such as larger hotel rooms and vacation homes, artificial snowmaking and hot-water snowmelt systems under streets, sidewalks and driveways.

And over the past decade, a massive pine bark beetle epidemic has ravaged millions of aging lodgepole pine trees that surround ski towns; the rice-sized insects feast on forests stressed by decades of drought and fire suppression.

Gordon said wood gasification, which uses extremely intense heat (more than 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit) to convert wood chips into hot water and electricity with minimal greenhouse gas emissions, is already working well in Europe.

Vail is surrounded by the White River National Forest, one of the forests hardest hit by the beetle outbreak, but to access those trees means logging roads and truck traffic, and burning them in pellet stoves or conventional biomass plants means an increase in carbon dioxide emissions.

Still, public opposition seems to be melting away in the face of the devastating beetle epidemic and its potential for massive wildfires.

Gordon is actually resuscitating a concept first floated several years ago by former Vail Mayor Ludwig Kurz, a native of Austria who now works in public affairs for Vail’s sister resort, Beaver Creek.

That ski area also has a long-term relationship with the Austrian ski resort of Lech, where a wood-gasification plant has been providing 90 percent of the town’s hot water and electricity for years.

“It was started because of the beginning of smog buildup in the village,” Kurz said. “Because so many of the heating system use coal and oil and they had this pall over Lech that would sit there, and they realized that in time it would get worse and that with people becoming much more concerned about eco travel and vacationing they would loose clientele.”

There are more than 100 biomass plants in operation around the United States, but Europe — and in particular heavily forested Austria (21 percent of its heat comes from biomass) — is way ahead.

That could change under the Obama administration, because some $200 million of the stimulus package is devoted to biomass research and production and Energy Secretary Steven Chu is a former biomass researcher.

“Having watched what has happened in Europe, and specifically the (plant) in Lech, in my opinion there are very few reasons why it wouldn’t work here if we can afford the infrastructure to get it started,” Kurz said. “We are going to have fuel for that type of plant for a long, long time with all the beetle-kill trees.”

Gordon said the ideal scenario would be for the town to provide land for the plant at its public works complex and sign a long-term contract to purchase electricity and hot water for snowmelt from an independent and newly created utility.

He hopes state and federal funds, and perhaps some private-sector money, could pay for the plant itself, which could then serve as a model for similar facilities around the state.

A separate wood-chipping facility would need to come on line to grind trees into useable fuel. Hopefully it would be built near enoughto reduce transportation costs. Trees currently have to be shipped to lumber mills and wood pellet plants in Kremmling and Montrose, which are up to 120 miles away.

A biomass gasification cogeneration (both hot water and electricity) power plant, which can also use cardboard cartons and other wood waste products for fuel, leaves only potash as a final residue. Potash has commercial value for use in manufacturing, mining and agriculture.

After initially firing up with conventional energy from the grid, such as natural gas, a biomass gasification plant becomes self-sustaining because of its own heat generation.

Actually, small flakes of the pheromone verbenone, found in rosemary and walnut husks and used in herbal teas, could be spread from helicopters, duplicating a pheromone the beetles distribute to signal each other that an infected tree is overpopulated and it’s time to move on.

The study found that spreading verbenone can cut the number of trees infected by the voracious, rice-sized beetle by two-thirds and reduce the cost of treating an acre of trees to $100, compared to $1,000 an acre for thinning projects.

Problem is, it’s too late in Colorado, where upward of 2 million acres of lodgepole pines, stressed by rising temperatures and ongoing drought, have already been killed by the beetles.

The only practical application for the new treatment would be saving mature trees in and around mountains towns, ski areas, campgrounds and other aesthetically pleasing places where dead trees tend to be kind of a downer for the tourists.

Ski resorts have basically thrown in the towel and are just trying to save key islands of trees between trails while thinning to promote new growth and create defensible spaces for firefighters to battle the inevitable wildfires.

Lodgepole pines only live about 80 to 100 years anyway, and decades of fire suppression have left a uniformly old and dying forest anyway, beetles or not. Sprinkle in the effects of global warming, with temps never dropping low enough to kill off the bugs in recent years, and you’ve got a full-blown epidemic.

Others have suggested innovative ways to save pockets of key trees, such as injecting chemicals via tree IV’s, but the bottom line is that the beetles have won the war and even herbal tea can’t cure these sickly trees.

Researchers from the USGS, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and six universities, including the University of Colorado, Boulder, examined historical data from 76 different forested areas in three regions across the West and found that mortality rates were rising across the board due to climate change.

The study was first published last week by Science magazine.

One of the study’s authors, University of Colorado geography professor Thomas T. Veblen, put the findings in perspective for Colorado residents in a Washington Post article last week:

Veblen said the combination of increased wildfires, drought and bark beetles has devastated some of his state’s forests. Temperatures in Colorado’s sub-alpine forests, which are between 8,500 and 10,000 feet in altitude, have risen markedly over the past 50 years during all seasons, he said.

Mountain pine bark beetles have killed roughly 3.5 million acres of lodgepole pine forests in northwestern Colorado over the past decade, wiping out 90 percent of pine forests in that area, Veblen said. During the same time period, spruce bark beetles also killed large areas of spruce forest in northern and southwestern Colorado.

“Our society needs to devise policies that will help us to adapt to the changes that are under way,’” Veblen said. “This is further evidence that we’re seeing continued effects of the warming in increased fire risk.”

Perhaps the most frightening conclusion of the new study is that if current warming trends continue, western forests will move from absorbing carbon and removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere to emitting more carbon dioxide than they can absorb.

Mountain pine beetle-ravaged trees. (Photo/Bob Spencer)

FEMA Region VIII agrees that a catastrophic wildfire in Colorado is not a matter of if but when. Our regional office is well-versed in dealing with large fires, including the busy 2002 wildfire season. Since 2001, FEMA has declared 69 wildfires in Region VIII states for Fire Management Assistance Grants, which reimburse states for fire suppression costs.

Thirty-one of those fires were in Colorado. We have worked with the U.S. Forest Service, Colorado State Forest Service, Colorado Division of Emergency Management, Colorado Bark Beetle Collaborative, Western Governor’s Association, among others, to address such an event. FEMA teamed up last January with the Colorado State Forest Service, Colorado Division of Emergency Management, Colorado Water Conservation Board, Grand County Office of Emergency Management, and the office of then-Congressman Mark Udall to put on a wildfire mitigation grant workshop for local officials and agencies in Grand County, one of the areas hardest-hit by bark beetle.

We’ve also testified before the Colorado General Assembly’s Interim Committee on Wildfire Issues in Wildland-Urban Interface Areas on FEMA’s role in wildfire mitigation, response, and recovery.

We have forged close ties with various fire agencies, including West Metro Fire District and the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center, which coordinates resources to battle wildfires within the Rocky Moutain region. We certainly acknowledge we have areas and relationships where we have a role, and we are actively participating in the preparations and discussions about the catastrophic wildfire threat.

However, the article failed to recognize that under current law, forest health is not FEMA’s charge, nor would it be legal for the agency to reduce fuels on federal forest land. Well-intentioned individuals and organizations have approached FEMA in the past suggesting the agency eliminate the wildfire threat by simply declaring a federal disaster and removing the bark beetle infested lodgepole pines. This is not a legal option since FEMA has no statutory authority to address long-term, large scale forest management issues in undeveloped wilderness.

The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act does allow FEMA to focus on mitigation projects that directly affect the built environment and reduce the costs of all hazards. FEMA funding for such mitigation projects are typically provided on a nationally-competitive basis. Colorado Springs received such a grant in the past for a successful fuels reduction project along the city’s Wildland Urban Interface.

While we do not have the legal authority to remove the beetle kill fuel load in the National Forests, we have used a broad set of mitigation alternatives to prevent losses from wildfire and we will continue to work with our local, state and federal counterparts to prepare for this inevitable disaster. To suggest otherwise is simply ignoring the facts.

Derek Jensen is the Region VIII external affairs specialist for the Federal Emergency Management Agency office in Denver, Colo.

Colorado is in FEMA’s lightly regarded Region VIII, which includes Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. These Midwestern and Western hinterlands see a few tornadoes every spring and summer, but aren’t technically in Brown’s feared “Tornado Alley,” which he referenced on KOA radio Thursday.

Nor does the landlocked region see anything other than the residual effects of the hurricanes that plague the Gulf Coast and Southeast and occasionally the Gulf of California; the ravages of volcanoes and earthquakes that sometimes rock the West Coast and Northwest; or even the regular waves of wildfire that rake California when the Santa Ana winds kick up.

But Colorado lawmakers at the state and national level have been trying for years to get the ear of FEMA officials on the issue of the mountain pine beetle, which has devastated the state’s forests to the tune of 500,000 acres of dead Lodgepole pine trees every year. They warn that the state is rapidly becoming one giant tinderbox and will some day explode into one of the nation’s most costly natural disasters.

While some federal funding has been forthcoming for mitigation projects such as thinning dead trees in areas surrounding reservoirs or major population centers, most of that money came from the extremely cash-strapped U.S. Forest Service.

FEMA, for the most part, turned the same deaf ear to the problem that the margarita-quaffing Brown offered Hurricane Katrina victims. This despite, or perhaps because of, the relative quiet of Region VIII (so far).

Senator-elect Mark Udall may have something to say about that. In the past he’s tried to increase FEMA’s reimbursement for firefighting costs from 75 percent to 90 percent. But that’s after-the-fact spending that in no way funds pre-emptive efforts.

“I think a lot of people living up in the mountains and surrounded by all of these insect-killed trees are feeling a little powerless,” Udall spokeswoman Tara Trujillo told the Colorado Independent during Udall’s successful Senate campaign.

Maybe as powerless as Brown felt on Wednesday? Or at least as powerless as those Katrina victims felt at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans in 2005.

And current FEMA officials would do well to take note that Wednesday’s wildfires near Boulder were fed mostly by grass, shrubs and trees not yet infected by the bark beetle. But bug experts say the mountain pine beetle is on its way to the Front Range in one big, hungry, inexorable wave.

Unless, of course, you’re being interviewed by the crack Colorado Morning News crew on Newsradio 850 KOA.

Disgraced former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Michael Brown went on the air Thursday to chat about his own family’s “ironic” evacuation from raging wildfires north of Boulder. In an unbelievable (and undeserved) display of deference to Brown, neither co-anchor Steffan Tubbs or April Zesbaugh raised even a hint that his incompetent response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster resulted in him being run out of Washington, D.C., on a rail.

Colorado Media Matters is on the case:

TUBBS: The guy, one of the people that actually had to get out, used to be in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and he is Michael Brown, and he joins us on the 850 KOA news line. Mike, good morning.

BROWN: Good morning, April and Steffan. How are you?

TUBBS: Good, more importantly how are you doin’? We were just talkin’ on the air about how we were kind of kibitzing with you, just kind of shooting the breeze yesterday morning and then, boy, did your day change; what happened?

BROWN: Well, we were shooting the breeze, I got back home to Boulder. The winds were just whipping up 60-80 miles an hour. I was working in my home office. The dogs start barking, and lo and behold, there’s a Boulder County Undersheriff in the driveway with lights flashing, said there’s a mandatory evacuation.

ZESBAUGH: So there was a mandatory evacuation for your area. You’re in Left Hand Canyon, we should let people know. And where are you this morning, and what are you hearing about when you can get back in your home?

BROWN: Well, we haven’t heard anything. We’re over in Longmont. We have a friend who has an apartment over here in an apartment complex — has a corporate apartment. So [my wife] and I — I’m on the couch, she’s on the bed, and the three dogs are layin’ around the room.

TUBBS: Do you find this ironic? I mean, you know, you’re in the Bush administration, you’re heading up FEMA, and I don’t know if in your lifetime you’ve ever been on the other side. But how does it feel?

BROWN: Well, you know, growing up I was often in torna — I grew up in Tornado Alley. But it was strange, you know, being told to evacuate, because, you know, I firmly believe in evacuation, so when they told me that, you know, I just loaded the dogs up, grabbed my briefcase, and headed down the mountain.

And it was interesting, because they said there was a fire. You know, I couldn’t smell smoke or see it, because the Chinooks [winds] were just pushing the smoke due east. And so I couldn’t see the fire until I got down to Highway 36. And when I saw it. I was just astonished at how large it was, so I sat and watched it for about two hours. And it’s, you know, and then I heard that FEMA’s approved a fire management assistance grant. And I was just chuckling to myself, ’cause I used to get calls, you know, at 2, 3, 4 in the morning all the time for these grants all over the country. And here I am on the other side of the fence now.

ZESBAUGH: FEMA paying 75% at least of the suppression costs for this fire, so that’s good news for those people who are in it. Tell us a little bit more about what you’re hearing about your home and your neighborhood, specifically. Are there any neighbors that have gotten a bird’s-eye view, or anybody that knows the condition of your neighborhood?

BROWN: Well, I could see, I kept the binoculars and looked and I could see, and the neighborhood looks fine. It started up the ridge toward the neighborhood, and they were able to start backfires to keep it from spreading into the neighborhood. So I feel very good. The firefighters — look, you know, I’ve always been a firm supporter of these men and women, and they just do a tremendous job.

And in this case the Boulder County Sheriff’s office did a great job of doing the, not only reverse 911, but going from house to house and marking the houses and getting us out. So the Boulder County Sheriff’s office, the fire departments from, all the way from Lafayette and Longmont and Jamestown, everywhere, just, you know, came in. At one point they had 300 firefighters working this fire. So they’ve just done a great job, and we’re just, we should be thankful.

TUBBS: Yeah, I know so many people in Boulder County agree with you, Mike. Always good to talk to you. We hope that you can get some rest, and good luck to you and your wife and the dogs, and hopefully you can give us an update and let us know when you’re back.

BROWN: All right, will do. Take care.

TUBBS: All right. You bet. Former FEMA Director Michael Brown and part-time talk-show host here on 850 KOA. Michael Brown joining us on the 850 KOA news line.

Shortly after the hurricane ravaged the Gulf Coast, media outlets across the nation chronicled a series of email from the then-FEMA director making flippant remarks about the Katrina rescue process and begging to leave New Orleans.

According to The Washington Post, Brown currently operates a disaster consulting business. Now, that’s ironic.

Ex-FEMA director Michael Brown.

A series of wind-whipped wildfires north of Boulder, Colo., have forced the evacuation of more than 11,500 residents — among them vilified ex-Federal Emergency Management Agency head Michael Brown.

UPDATE 1/8/09: Hear Brown recount his harrowing fire evacuation and couch-surfing adventure while a wildfire refugee on Newsradio 850 KOA.

Brown was lauded by President Bush for doing a “heckuva job” in the botched response to Hurricane Katrina, which took the lives of 1,836 people and caused more than $81 billion in damage. Brown resigned in disgrace and the event looms as a national turning point against the Bush administration.

This week PBS’s Frontline broadcast a heart-wrenching investigative report, “The Old Man and the Storm,” about struggling post-Katrina rebuilding efforts more than three years after the massive hurricane destroyed much of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

FEMA has promised to pay up to 75 percent of firefighting costs, according to a Daily Camera story.

The latest images and ground reports via Twitter can be found at twemes.com/boulderfire.

h/t Westword

UPDATE 1/9/09: Read Colorado Media Matters’ coverage of the Newsradio KOA 850 interview with Michael Brown.