colorado 2025 briefing book for blm

https://www.blm.gov/sites/default/files/docs/2025-01/2025_Colorado_Briefing_Book_3.pdf

47 pages

not much said about fire mgmt here

lots of discussion of minerals and and oil and horses etc

WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT Wildfire threats grow each year. From
2013-2022, BLM Colorado averaged 268 fires per year with an average of
30,343 acres of BLM land burned each year. During the same period, BLM
CO completed an average of 23,100 acres per year of mechanical,
chemical, prescribed fire and seeding treatments. The BLM integrates
fuels management efforts with wildlife, forestry, range, and other
programs to enhance efficiencies and effectiveness of treatments on
the landscape. BLM has 16 community assistance recipients completing
such work as supporting counties, fire protection districts, and
non-profits with efforts to mitigate fuels in the Wildland Urban
Interface (WUI) complete wildfire protection plans, educating the
public on wildfire prevention awareness, and providing financial
assistance for local fire training through grants or agreements.
Adding additional recipients in FY24.

There are four District fire programs in BLM Colorado: Northwest
District Fire in Craig, Upper Colorado River District Fire in Grand
Junction, Southwest District Fire in Montrose, and Rocky Mountain
District Fire in Cañon City.

BLM Colorado hosts several fire suppression resources in the state
during the fire season (May - September):
● 1 Interagency Hotshot Crew (20 people)
● 1 Wildland Fire Module (7-10 people)
● 7 Type-6 wildland fire engines
● 10 Type-4 wildland fire engines
● 1 Initial Attack Squad (5 people)
● 1 helicopter and staff for a 90-day contract
● 1 Large Air Tanker Base in Grand Junction
● 1 Single Engine Air Tanker (SEAT) reload base.
● A contingent of Great Basin Smokejumpers

(note - the reload base might not include any aircraft - they might
just reload itinerant aircraft - not sure why there are no SEATs
listed - would expect BLM to have 5 of them in Colorado - unless they
moved them out when the State started to fly some tankers - smoke
jumpers are based in Grand Junction iirc)

FORESTRY BLM Colorado manages five million acres of forested land.
More than 2.5 million acres are woodlands, dominated by pinyon pine,
juniper and oak. The remaining forested acres consist of commercial
tree species like ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine and Douglas fir. Wood
products harvested include sawtimber, firewood, Christmas trees, post
and poles, and biomass. Forested lands in Colorado tend to have low
productivity rates, so management focus is to restore forest health
conditions. BLM Colorado works cooperatively with the U.S. Forest
Service, Colorado State Forest Service, and other partners to mitigate
bark beetle-associated impacts and improve forest health.

Tyko Isaacson, State Fire Management Officer, 303-239-3687,
tisaacson@blm.gov Tyko started his fire service career in 1996 in
Eastern Oregon. He has spent his last 25 years as federal employee
with the U.S. Forest Service and BLM. Tyko worked for BLM Colorado in
2017-2020 as a Fire Management Officer and has served as the State
Fire Management Officer since late 2024.

The Rocky Mountain District Fire covers about 1.2 million acres of
BLM-managed lands within the Royal Gorge and San Luis Valley Field
Office boundaries. The unit covers all BLM public land east of the
Continental Divide to the Colorado-Kansas state line and from the
Wyoming state line to the New Mexico state line. The unit works
closely with the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Fish and
Wildlife Service, Colorado Department of Fire Prevention and Control,
counties, and numerous Fire Protection Districts. Eighty percent of
all fires within the planning area are caused by lightning during the
annual southwest monsoon. Fuels management includes mechanical,
chemical, biological, and prescribed fire treatments, with
approximately 2,500 acres treated annually.

FIRE MANAGEMENT Some natural fires caused by lightning are managed to
benefit resources including wildlife, range ecology, vegetative
diversity, and hazardous fuels. The fire management program handles
prescribed burns and mechanical fuels treatment projects, which
eliminate hazardous fuel conditions to benefit wildlife.

FORESTRY The GFO is approximately 30 percent commercial forests and
woodlands. Timber types include Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, aspen,
Engelmann spruce/subalpine fir, lodgepole pine, blue spruce, juniper,
and bristlecone pine. Approximately 200 forested acres per year are
managed to reduce insect and disease outbreaks, improve wildlife
habitat, reduce the effects of historic fire suppression, and meet
demand for forest products. FIRE & FUELS MANAGEMENT The GFO has
completed extensive planning for a fuels project focused on the North
Powderhorn area. Fuels specialists will employ various treatments on a
range of vegetation types within and adjacent to the Powderhorn
Wilderness to address changes in vegetation composition that have
reduced the area's resilience to disturbances, including insects,
fire, and other impacts related to climate change. The consideration
of treatments within wilderness requires the preparation of Minimum
Requirements Analyses, which are currently under way. identify and
recommend the minimum actions necessary for wilderness administration,
per the 1964 Wilderness Act

etc