More than a hundred people gathered at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center in Estes Park on Sunday, February 2, 2025, for a unique Winter Speaker Series – a screening of the film Fireforest followed by a panel discussion with its director and park resource managers.
Director Evan Barrientos, a conservationist and filmmaker, kicked off the event by introducing his documentary, Fireforest, which explores the relationships among fire, healthy forests, and wildfire mitigation treatments. Audience members came prepared with insightful questions for the panel of wildfire experts, ranging in topics from fuel management to what makes a healthy forest. Moderated by Conservancy board secretary and retired lead interpretative ranger Rich Fedorchak, the panelists were Barrientos, and Rocky Mountain National Park staff members Kevin Gaalaas, forest ecologist; Nathan Hallam, fuels specialist; and Kyle Patterson, management specialist and park public affairs officer.
Fireforest recounts events from the historic 2020 Cameron Peak Fire and what happened during the fire and after as the firestorm moved through dense forests and through areas treated with prescribed burning. Once the fire reached a previous U.S. Forest Service prescribed burn near the Drala Mountain Center, firefighters were able to take advantage of the impacts of the prescribed burn and forest thinning conducted by the Larimer Conservation District at the Drala Mountain Center. This space acted as a buffer and stopped a portion of the fire from reaching communities downslope. While the Drala Mountain Center did lose some of their facilities to the fire, key program spaces were saved from destruction.
With knowledge in forest ecology and experience working on prescribed fire crews, Barrientos saw a need for a new kind of story about fire, one that would “show us as more than warriors against fire or helpless victims suffering from fire,” said Barrientos. While severe wildfires pose a serious threat to Colorado’s forests, intentional forest management is an essential part of the solution to megafires. The film “encourages us all to look at fire more holistically and open ourselves up to proactive forest management so that we can keep our forests healthy and intact,” said Barrientos. Every fire is different, and the right kind of fire can foster a healthy forest.
“Fire ecology is a branch of ecology that studies the origins of wildland fire, its relationship to members of an ecosystem, and its role as an ecosystem process,” according to a National Park Service website (NPS.gov). Fire is a natural part of the cycle for landscapes in Rocky Mountain National Park, and they have the natural ability to recover. “A healthy forest provides a diversity of life, and it can keep doing that in the face of disturbance,” said Barrientos. In Rocky, many species and ecosystems rely on periodic fires for ecological regeneration and growth to occur. Species such as ponderosa pine and lodgepole pine have fire-resistant adaptations that allow them to endure recurrent fires.
Although National Park Service policies aim to allow natural processes to run their course with minimal human influence, “there are cases where the Park Service can get involved with doing restoration of ecosystem function,” said Kevin Gaalaas. These include removing hazard trees and conducting prescribed burns in the park. Hazard trees, which are typically diseased or dead, are assessed and removed within the park if they pose a risk to property or human life. Similarly, the main goal of prescribed burns is to reduce potential fuels for wildfires, maintain ecological processes and biodiversity.
Rocky Mountain National Park Wildland Fire Management goals include reducing the risk for the safety of employees and the public, reducing the risk for communities, infrastructures and natural and cultural resources, and maintaining fire-adapted ecosystems. “We fortunately have amazing fire history from research in the park, and we do make management decisions based on that fire history,” said Kyle Patterson.
While there is no specific formula for what a healthy forest looks like, biodiversity and age diversity are essential to creating a more resistant forest system that can endure disturbances such as fire. The natural fire return interval, the average time between fires in a specified area, is another variable to a healthy forest content. “My job as a fuel specialist is to try to return things back to the natural fire return interval that was in the area,” said Nathan Hallam, “and that varies upon aspect of the slope, elevation, and fuel continuity.” Taken together, the work of the wildfire and forestry teams at Rocky aim to support forest health and preserve the park’s landscapes for future generations.
Through the film and panel discussion, Barrientos shared that there are many ways to be involved and make a positive impact on forest restoration efforts on an individual level. The film also advocates for widespread action in forest and watershed restoration to reduce the threat of out-of-control wildfires in urban wildland interfaces.
To learn more about fire and forest restoration, NPS.gov has extensive resources and information relevant to Rocky Mountain National Park. You can find those resources at Fire Ecology – Rocky Mountain National Park (U.S. National Park Service). Fireforest is also accessible and free to watch online at Film — Fireforest and includes links to educational materials on fire.
We would like to thank Evan Barrientos, our panelists, and Rocky Mountain National Park for sharing their time and expertise at this Winter Speaker Series. These free events are made possible by the Rocky Mountain Conservancy, and we hope you’ll join us for upcoming presentations.