From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
Wildfires can send irritating smoke into the air for days or even weeks, but the damage to water lingers much longer. So the Arkansas Basin Roundtable agreed this week to form a committee that will look at watershed health. Roundtable groups are open to all members who are interested in the topic.
Mark Shea, a Colorado Springs Utilities employee who has spearheaded recovery efforts for the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest fires, will head the committee.
“After the fires of 2012-13, watershed health popped up on everyone’s radar screen,” Shea said. “The reclamation of watersheds in the state has become a huge issue.”
Collaboration, one goal when the basin roundtables were formed in 2005, would have benefits leveraging federal money for watershed health projects.
“The future of competing for federal dollars is going to be dependent on the ability to show that all stakeholders are working together,” said Paul Crespin, ranger for the San Carlos district of the U.S. Forest Service.
Carol Ekarus, director of the Coalition for the Upper South Platte, reinforced that viewpoint. CUSP has stepped to help with efforts to stabilize the Waldo Canyon burn scar and other damage throughout the state.
“There are interests that stretch across an entire watershed,” she said.
The danger from large wildfires to water supplies comes from ashes, sediment and debris washing into reservoirs when rains return after the burn.
The damage was evident after the 2002 Hayman burn and large water suppliers like Denver, Aurora and Colorado Springs were sounding alarms even before the disastrous 2012-13 fire season.
Water providers already are working with the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to reduce the danger of fires in watersheds that have not burned as well as recovery in those that have.
More effort is needed.
“This has more to do with forest health,” Crespin said. “We feel the forest is in very poor condition.”
Jeris Danielson, a former state engineer who now runs the Purgatoire Conservancy District, pointedly asked Crespin if water rights issues are involved.
The Forest Service has tried in recent years to insinuate federal water rights in ski area contracts and it’s feared that ranching contracts also could contain such provisions if not checked.
“Water rights issues have to be resolved at the local level,” Crespin said, adding that he is not the Forest Service expert on water rights.
Others on the roundtable enthusiastically supported forming the committee, noting that Shea, who has been working with watershed health issues for the past two years, is the best choice to head it.
“I see it as a bigger umbrella than just fire prevention and restoration,” said Jay Winner, general manager of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District.
“Watershed protection, what more can you do to deal with water quality?” said Reeves Brown, a Beulah rancher.
“This is a good idea,” said Terry Scanga, general manager of the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District.
More IBCC — basin roundtables coverage here.