O∞cials say the burning will benefit wilderness

cañon city» Burning more than 16,500 acres and with full containment not expected until this fall, the Hayden Pass fire has left a large scorched aftermath.

However, despite burning a substantial piece of the wilderness, this wildfire is not necessarily a bad thing, officials said.

Kale Casey of the Type 1 Incident Management Team explained the Hayden Pass fire is a natural occurrence.

“This is what Mother Nature does. This is the ecosystem, and this is a forest that needed to burn for a long time,” Casey said.

More than half the trees and brush that fueled the Hayden Pass fire were dead, one reason why the fire grew so large so fast. High winds and high temperatures were other factors. Beetle-kill trees provided a ladder of fuel for the fire that allowed it to keep burning.

However, now that most of those trees have been burned and fire lines have been established, it will better serve the forest in the future.

“This fire will now allow new, healthier trees to grow there,” said Mike Smith of the Cañon City Fire District.

Smith explained that the Hayden Pass fire consisted of two types of fires: the kind of wildfire nobody wants, which threatens private land and homes; and the other, which is the type that cleans up dead trees.

Jim Pitts, district ranger with the U.S. Forest Service’s Salida office, said that because they are now able to see what the fire actually has done in the wilderness, they can see the negatives and benefits it has created in its wake.

Pitts agreed with many other fire officials that the benefit of the Hayden Pass fire is that most of the beetle kill in the area was burned.

Pitts also said that the way the fire burned was a “mosaic burn,” which was also beneficial.

A mosaic burn is where a wildfire doesn’t scorch every tree in the area, but burns sections of the forest, while leaving other areas completely untouched.

“It’s not all black sticks left standing,” Pitts said.

He said in areas where the fire burned, it will allow new trees, such as aspens, to grow, but in the areas where it didn’t burn, there will be fully grown trees.

Pitts said that because they’re still standing, the trees will help with watershed protection.

But one of negatives to come from the Hayden Pass fire is the threat it poses to the watershed. Pitts said potential flooding may occur in the area.