Proactive & Prepared: Wildfire in the Roaring Fork Valley

TACAW is pleased to partner with the Wildfire Collaborative Roaring Fork Valley and Aspen Public Radio on an event designed to increase awareness and preparedness as wildfire season approaches.

Colorado is experiencing its warmest year in 131 years of record, and one of its driest. The Roaring Fork Valley sits at the epicenter, among the hardest-hit areas in the state for severe drought. With snowpack now peaked at historic lows, climate scientists are drawing comparisons to years that defined what catastrophic wildfire looks like in Colorado. This spring, wildfire risk across the our valley is as serious as it has ever been.

On May 6, TACAW is partnering with the Wildfire Collaborative Roaring Fork Valley and Aspen Public Radio to bring our community together for a direct conversation about what these conditions mean for our valley, what local fire departments and researchers are doing about it, and what each of us can do to protect our homes and our neighbors. The evening begins with a community preparedness fair, followed by presentations and panels featuring climate scientists, local fire chiefs, and researchers whose work is focused specifically on this region.

If you’ve been wondering where things actually stand, this is the event to attend.

The evening is organized around three questions:

What are we facing this season?
What is being done about it?
What happens when fire comes?

Drawing on the Wildfire Collaborative Roaring Fork Valley’s work in fire behavior modeling and fuels mitigation, Aspen Public Radio’s deep ties to this community, and ACES knowledge of historic environmental science, the program brings together the people best positioned to answer those questions — climate scientists, local fire chiefs, researchers, and emergency response leaders — in one room, for one conversation.

Additional Resources from Wildfire Collaborative Roaring Fork Valley: WEBSITE