The Douglas fir stood 163-feet tall and 17 feet in circumference \u2013 making it one of the largest trees in the state. It was nominated in 2013 by Sandy Young, a rancher in the Animas Valley who recently died.<\/p>\n
The Douglas fir was named the \u201cOutfitter Tree\u201d because Young had a camp at the base of the tree, Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n
The blue spruce was listed as a champion tree in 2014, standing at 166-feet tall with a circumference of about 12 feet. Despite its size, Fitzgerald said blue spruce are not very fire-tolerant trees.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, there is some good news: The other three champion trees did survive.<\/p>\n
Fitzgerald said forest managers hiked up Hermosa Creek on Aug. 31 and found that the ponderosa pine, southwestern white pine and the other listed blue spruce tree had been spared the 416 Fire\u2019s deadly flames.<\/p>\n
The 181-foot-tall blue spruce is located near the Hermosa Creek trailhead. The fire burned all around the area, but the tree, which has a circumference of about 11 feet, is located in a sheltered valley.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fire was close,\u201d Fitzgerald said. \u201cBut the tree is in this little pocket, and it didn\u2019t look like the fire went in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ponderosa pine, standing at 148-feet tall with a 12-foot circumference, survived likely because it\u2019s located in an open grassland and there were no fuels around it to burn and get hot enough to take down the tree, Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful, old-growth tree,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n And, the southwestern white pine, which is actually a hybrid unique to Southwest Colorado, also survived the 416 Fire. The tree is 109-feet tall and has a circumference of about 9 feet.<\/p>\n \u201cI was excited to see those other trees made it,\u201d Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n Mark Loveall with the Colorado State Forest Service, which partners with the Colorado Tree Coalition on the Champion Tree Program, said the agency will independently verify what trees survived once access to Hermosa Creek opens.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll wait until it\u2019s safe to get in there,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they didn\u2019t survive, we\u2019ll take them off the list.\u201d<\/p>\n In areas where the 416 Fire didn\u2019t burn at high intensity, Fitzgerald said there are already signs of vegetation coming back.<\/p>\n \u201cThe oak and aspen are coming back beautiful,\u201d she said. \u201cBut in the real high-severity areas, it burned like a candlestick, and it\u2019s pretty devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n For the Forest Service\u2019s McCaw, the burning of Hermosa Creek elicits complicated emotions.<\/p>\n On the one hand, his family has run cattle in Hermosa Creek for the past 100 years, and he\u2019s grown attached to the towering trees and the lush green vistas.<\/p>\n On the other hand, he\u2019s a forest manager, and knows the vital role fire plays on the landscape.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s sad to see those two big trees move on,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it is a resilient landscape. It was hard to see the smoke going up, but it\u2019s OK that it did. Everything will come back in there, it\u2019ll just take a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n