Forest Service– U.S.D.A U.S. Department of Agriculture
In places like the Pike-San Isabel National Forests across the country, fire has shaped the land for thousands of years. Many forests depend on fire to stay healthy. Fire cleans out old needles, leaves, branches and dead trees, recycling nutrients and making space for new plants to grow.
However, over the last decade, large destructive wildfires have become far more common. In Colorado, all of the biggest fires have happened in just the past 25 years. More effective suppression by humans over the past century combined with lack of active management has changed the natural vegetation and allowed thick layers of fuel to build up. These heavy fuels can now feed large, intense wildfires, like the 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire.
The 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire not only damaged tens of thousands of acres of ponderosa pine forest, but it also destroyed homes and caused tens of millions of dollars’ worth of damage to water infrastructure. The Pikes Peak Ranger District includes drinking water sources for more than one-million people. Events like this show why proactive forest management is a top priority of the Forest Service.
“One of the reasons I do this work is I believe the public deserves to have healthy forests. Over the last 20 years, I’ve watched entire forests disappear in large-scale, high-severity fires on the scale of 300,000 to 1,000,000 acres,” said Christina Barba, a prescribed fire and fuels specialist for the Pikes Peak Ranger District.
Yet within those burned areas, Barba says patches of green often remain where prescribed fires were used in the past. These surviving areas show how effective active management and prescribed fire can be.
“Seeing the forest within prescribed fire units survive leads me to believe I am making a difference and helping preserve part of America’s heritage,” she said.
Over a century of scientific research confirms that reducing fuels through active management, like mechanical thinning and prescribed fire lowers the risk of severe wildfires. Using this science, the Forest Service creates safer, more fire-resilient landscapes and communities.
Working with communities
For people across Colorado Springs and the Front Range of Colorado, Pikes Peak is a beacon that crests out over the range and looms over the sleeping city. You can see the large, often snow-covered peak from almost everywhere in the city. As the tallest peak in the Pike National Forest, the surrounding forest and recreation opportunities along the mountain are critical sites to the Colorado Springs community. Protecting the drinking reservoirs, the abundant wildlife and the communities that surround that area is an important mission of the Pikes Peak Ranger District.
“For over 140 years, Colorado Springs has supported the U.S. Forest Service through cooperative agreements that protect vital watershed lands and manage forested landscapes on Pikes Peak through adaptive forest management and prescribed fire,” said Jeremy Taylor, forest program manager for Colorado Springs Utilities.
A public information map of the Crystal Reservoir Prescribed fire. These efforts were completed with support from Colorado Springs Utilities to implement forest health and wildfire mitigation project work directly adjacent to the city of Colorado Springs drinking water reservoirs. (Forest Service image)
Recent projects include the Crystal Reservoir and Rainbow Gulch prescribed fires, which included fuels reduction work next to the city’s drinking water reservoirs that service the city.
Community partners made the Crystal Reservoir burn possible. The Crystal Reservoir prescribed fire included both federal and city land. Colorado Springs Utilities provided equipment and personnel during prescribed fire operations, and Pike’s Peak America’s Mountain provided traffic control, outreach to visitors, and water for fire engines. Firefighters from Green Mountain Falls Fire, Manitou Springs Fire, and Colorado Springs Fire Department, whose communities are also served by the reservoir, also helped.
“Through collaboration and cooperation, together these forested landscapes and water resources can be protected,” Taylor said.
More to come
Prescribed fire is not just a spring or winter activity; it is a year-round process. When fire managers are not actually burning, they are planning or preparing for other projects. Upcoming work in the Pike National Forest includes the Mothball and the May Peak prescribed fire projects. Both are planned for Spring of 2026. Early work includes removing small trees and brush and pruning larger trees around trails to construct holding features to keep the fire within the project area.
The Mothball prescribed fire project will build on previous thinning projects and aims to reduce the surface fuels in an area just east of Woodland Park. The May Peak prescribed fire project is located near the community of Colorado Springs and will aim to protect the Bear Creek watershed; one of the only self-sustaining populations of greenback cutthroat trout.
“I’m proud of our collaborative efforts across boundaries to reduce wildfire risk by jointly implementing hazardous fuels reduction projects,” said Barba. “We strategically planned these projects to protect Colorado’s Front Range. We are making headway in protecting communities, property and natural resources within this landscape.”
Managing the land is an ongoing process that must be built upon year after year and community to community. Through sharing the responsibility of active forest management and supporting prescribed fire activities, long-standing and sustainable watersheds can continue to function and provide vital water resources to the local community and environment.
