© 2024 KVNF Public Radio
THE ROAD THAT GOT US HERE...
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

New study: Burned forests may never grow back

Lon&Queta/Creative Commons

With major wildfires in Colorado this summer and a hotter, drier climate predicted across the West, many of us are wondering what our beloved forests will look like in a few decades.

A new University of Colorado Boulder-led study offers a glimpse into the future, suggesting that when forests burn across the Southern Rocky Mountains, many will not grow back and will instead convert to grasslands and shrublands.

KVNF spoke to Kyle Rodman, the study's lead author, about what landscapes might look like after the Pine Gulch and Grizzly Creek fires.

Jodi Peterson grew up on Colorado’s Front Range and attended Colorado State University, earning a B.A. in English and an M.A. in communication development. She spent 16 years working as a technical communicator with computer company Hewlett-Packard, then made a career shift to journalism. In 2005, she became news editor for the award-winning nonprofit newsmagazine High Country News; later she served as its managing editor for five years. In 2017, she went part-time as a contributing editor. Jodi was hired as KVNF’s news director in April 2019, and shifted to the news editor role in November 2020, before going freelance in January 2021.