Could this bold new strategy for replanting trees after a wildfire help save Colorado’s forests?

The Hayman Fire burned through a huge swath of forest southwest of Denver in 2002. It left behind a massive burn scar. Workers quickly replanted thousands of trees to reestablish the forest.  

But more than two decades later, large areas of the Hayman burn scar still resemble a moonscape, with some scraggly young trees here and there.  

Burn scars that take decades to heal are becoming a fact of life throughout the West. It’s partly due to climate change, which is shifting which types of trees will grow naturally in mountain forests.  

Camille Stevens-Rumann – assistant director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Insitute at Colorado State University – studies reforestation efforts after a wildfire. In a recent Scripps News story, Stevens-Rumann argues it’s time for a new approach to how we replant forests after wildfires.  

Host Erin O’Toole spoke with Stevens-Rumann about what she thinks Colorado’s forests should look like in the future and why trees that have historically thrived in Colorado’s mountains don’t grow back quickly after a wildfire.

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Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner
Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.