{"id":47505,"date":"2021-04-08T19:13:13","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T01:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/polis-warns-wildfire-season-is-a-year-round-phenomena\/"},"modified":"2021-04-09T01:13:13","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T01:13:13","slug":"polis-warns-wildfire-season-is-a-year-round-phenomena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/polis-warns-wildfire-season-is-a-year-round-phenomena\/","title":{"rendered":"Polis warns wildfire season is a \u2018year-round phenomena\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"In
In this Oct. 22, 2020, file photo, flames rise from mountain ridges as a wildfire burns, near Granby. Colorado fire officials and Gov. Jared Polis announced the 2021 wildfire season mitigation plan Thursday. The plan comes after Colorado\u2019s 2020 season, which included three of the largest fires in state history.<\/span>David Zalubowski\/Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIn 2021, we have already experienced fires,\u201d Polis said. \u201cOne of the things that is a change of paradigm is Colorado used to talk about a fire season. It\u2019s now a year-round phenomena.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan comes after Colorado\u2019s 2020 summer and fall, which included three of the largest fires in state history and an unusual, extended wildfire season well into October. The 2020 fires burned more than 935 square miles, said Mike Morgan, director of the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control.<\/p>\n

The new approach to combating and mitigating wildfires across the state will be an \u201caggressive initial attack,\u201d Morgan said. By allocating resources to local governments sooner, they hope to lessen a fire\u2019s impact by shortening the length of time its burning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spend a little bit more money today, but we don\u2019t have as many long duration events as a result of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After a devastating 2020 season, Colorado is undergoing a \u201cmetamorphosis of the change of the culture of how we respond to wildlife fire,\u201d said Stan Hilkey, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety.<\/p>\n

With excess money, heightened aviation support, tactical prepositioning and mutual aid across local, state and federal partners, Hilkey praised the state\u2019s mitigation efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen a more state of readiness than we have today,\u201d Hilkey said.<\/p>\n

Several bills passed in the Colorado Legislature set aside millions of dollars for wildfire mitigation including money for more aviation tools and the extension of several contracts for air tankers and helicopters used to fight fires from above.<\/p>\n

Throughout the Southwest, extreme drought and lack of precipitation are contributing to higher and more severe wildfire risks.<\/p>\n

In an April 1 report, the National Interagency Fire Center Predictive Services said \u201cabove normal risk is predicted to expand from southwest Colorado in May to much of southern Colorado in June. A shift northward of the above normal significant fire potential is projected across west-central and northwest Colorado into southwest Wyoming during July.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe true nature of this fire season won\u2019t be apparent until we see the April and May precipitation,\u201d Polis said.<\/p>\n

Polis said the state\u2019s growing population will lead to an increasing number of people affected by wildfires over time because of more people moving into the wildland interface and more people using outdoor areas for recreation.<\/p>\n

The state demographer estimates that Colorado\u2019s current population of 5.7 million people will increase to 8.5 million in the next 19 years, Polis said.<\/p>\n

Officials encouraged the public to take their role seriously in preventing wildfires as the season ramps up.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn average across the country, human-caused wildfires make up 87% of wildfire occurrences every year. Most of these fires can be prevented,\u201d Hilkey said.<\/p>\n

Cigarettes, campfires, fireworks and even sparks from a trailer chain can ignite a small fire that spreads fast, damaging lands and homes, Polis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA seemingly minor act can cause great devastation in our state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this Oct. 22, 2020, file photo, flames rise from mountain ridges as a wildfire burns, near Granby. Colorado fire officials and Gov. Jared Polis announced the 2021 wildfire season mitigation plan Thursday. The plan comes after Colorado\u2019s 2020 season, which included three of the largest fires in state history.David Zalubowski\/Associated Press file \u201cIn 2021, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-47505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47505"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=47505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}