Conservation Corner: Wildfire and Watershed Management Planning

A century ago, how many trees would you have found in an acre of Ponderosa Pine forest in Colorado?  The answer is 20 to 50 trees.  Colorado’s forests were historically more open and diverse than they are now. Today, the average tree density in our Ponderosa Pine Forests ranges from 300 to 900 trees!  What changed?  Fire suppression.