Fish Creek Watershed Wildfire Protection Plan

Why Does It Matter?

Wildfires burn vegetation and alter soil properties, causing rainfall to run-off rather than soak in to the soil. With the loss of vegetation and root systems, landscapes can easily erode. Consequently, rainfall in burned watersheds often produces floods that carry debris, sediment, ash, and contaminants into water sources.

This has implications for water supply. Sediment fills reservoirs, decreasing storage capacities. Debris, sediment, ash and contaminants lower water quality, making the water more difficult and expensive to treat and make safe for drinking and cause unwanted tastes and odors.

Protecting Our Water

The plan will help protect our valuable resource by:

The foundation of the plan is an analysis of expected fire behavior based on forest conditions and weather patterns to identify the areas with Fish Creek Basin the greatest wildfire hazard potential.
The wildfire hazard analysis will be incorporated into a watershed risk assessment that uses predicted fire behavior along with watershed characteristics (terrain and soil properties) that identify areas within Fish Creek basin that present the greatest risk to water quality should wildfire occur.
The identified areas of concern will be evaluated along with existing forest management plans, knowledge from fire experts and information from land users to prioritize fuels mitigation projects.
Expected water quality impacts will be analyzed to identify improvements and/or modifications that can be made to the water treatment facility and reservoir operations to address post-fire water quality.
Ultimately, the assessment will produce a priority list of forest management and water quality projects designed to protect municipal water supplies.
The CWP² is being developed in collaboration with stakeholders and land/ resource management agencies through the summer of 2019. Partnerships formed through the planning process will help to facilitate project implementation.