‘It doesn’t look good’: Colorado transportation officials will use $12 million in leftover snowplowing funds to up roadside wildfire mitigation amid drought

Amid a historically hot and dry winter, the Colorado Department of Transportation will repurpose $12 million in unused snowplow funds for summertime wildfire mitigation efforts along the state’s highways.

CDOT Deputy Director of Operations Bob Fifer told the Colorado Transportation Commission at its work session this month that amid a record-low snowpack statewide, the transportation department is shifting its strategy to proactively address wildfire risk.

“It just doesn’t look good for us,” Fifer said at the March 18 meeting. “We are expecting a drought across the state.”

Almost the entire state saw snowfall totals well-below average this past winter, Fifer said. Most years, the state’s snowpack doesn’t peak until April, but this year the snowpack has already peaked and has melted off rapidly, he said.

According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report, more than half the state is experiencing severe drought, Level 2 of 4, with the northwest corner of Colorado experiencing extreme drought, or Level 3 of 4, and parts of Summit, Grand, Eagle, Routt, Garfield and Pitkin counties facing exceptional drought, or Level 4 of 4.

By June, Colorado’s Western Slope — including the Interstate 70 mountain corridor — is expected to be at above-average risk of significant wildland fires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

To determine where to focus the highway vegetation management, Fifer said the transportation department will leverage a Colorado State Forest Service Wildfire Risk Map to target roadside mitigation to the areas of the state that have the highest probability of burning.

“When you have 9,000 miles, or 24,000 lane miles, of road, where do you start mitigation?” Fifer asked. “What’s the most surgical area? How can we do it to get the most bang for the limited dollars we have? We’re going to use this data to drive that decision-making and we’re going to start with the most vulnerable areas.”

After choosing priority areas, Fifer said the transportation department will remove diseased trees and trees that are 50% dead or more, especially within the first 15 feet of the right-of-way. He said most of the wood will be chipped and slashed, then left on site to decompose, while larger blocks and diseased trees will be removed.

Ladder fuels, like lower branches, that could carry a fire up into the crown of the forest, will also be removed from trees within the right-of-way, Fifer said. He said stumps will be cut to about 4 inches off the ground.

In addition to their importance as evacuation routes, Fifer noted that “the highways are natural fire lines or fire breaks” that can help slow the spread of wildfires and that firefighters can use to strategically hold the fire at bay.

CDOT Deputy Director of Maintenance Jim Fox told the Transportation Commission that crews typically mow the right-of-way along the state’s highways twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall.

So far this fiscal year, which began last July, Fox said the transportation department has already completed nearly 28,000 swath miles of roadside mowing, or slightly more than it did in the previous one-year period. He said the transportation department has also removed 3,848 trees from the right-of-way so far this fiscal year, compared to 2,453 trees in the previous fiscal year.

CDOT Director of Maintenance and Operations Shawn Smith noted that the $12 million in snow and ice contingency funds that are left over from the winter, due to the low snowfall, are among the dollars that will help fund the increased roadside wildfire mitigation.

Although the transportation department already has some funds to dedicate toward increasing roadside wildfire mitigation, Fifer said, “We’ll probably need more to handle this.”

He did not provide an estimate for what the additional wildfire mitigation might cost.