Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Climate change redefines the wildland-urban interface
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Friday, January 7, 2022
A map created by 9News ([link removed]) shows the wide area over which homes were damaged and destroyed in Boulder County, Colorado on December 30. Larger version ([link removed]) .

Climate change is forcing Western communities to redefine what is considered the wildland-urban interface, or WUI—the area where homes are most at risk of wildfire. The Marshall Fire, which destroyed 1,091 structures and damaged 179 in Boulder County, Colorado on December 30, immediately became the most costly wildfire in state history.

The fire destroyed entire subdivisions in and around Superior and Louisville, two suburbs that had not been part of the county's wildfire planning, according to the Wall Street Journal ([link removed]) .

Seth McKinney, fire management officer for the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, told the Journal, “This fire is certainly a game changer for us. It redefines what we think of as the wildland-urban interface.”

A map of the destroyed and damaged homes created by 9News ([link removed]) shows how strong winds carried embers for thousands of feet. Those winds, which gusted to 100 miles an hour during the fire, combined with an unprecedented warm and dry winter fueled by climate change, creating a situation that extended the Boulder County WUI into areas that had not been considered to be at serious risk of wildfire.

“The wildland urban interface extends over a far broader area than many folks realize – and it is also dynamic,” according to Climate scientist Daniel Swain, who lives in Boulder County. Swain told The Guardian ([link removed]) “Most of the time it is true that these areas are safe from wildfire but given conditionally extreme wind conditions and extreme drought, they became part of that interface.”
Quick hits


** Judge cites wildfire evacuation risk while blocking 16,000 acre California resort development
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Press Democrat ([link removed])


** Study: Wildfires are fueling a toxic combination of air pollutants
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E&E News ([link removed])


** Marshall fire expedites reintroduction of Rep. Neguse's wildfire prevention, recovery bill
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Denver Post ([link removed])


** Hunters kill 20 gray wolves that roamed out of Yellowstone
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Associated Press ([link removed])


** Election misinformation fueled the Jan. 6 capitol attack. Now climate misinformation threatens the planet.
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Washington Post ([link removed])


** Everything you need to know about the environment in 2022, and what to watch for this year
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Outside ([link removed]) | Nevada Independent ([link removed])


** BLM hosts roundtable discussion on plugging orphaned oil wells
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New Mexico Political Report ([link removed])


** National parks and forests bring back reservation systems to control crowds
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Washington Post ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” What we have really seen is that reactions to covid generated new intersectional tribes online, including anti-vaccine influencers and far-right conspiracy theorists. And now, climate change is becoming a new domain in which separate communities with their own distinct ideologies are merging and finding common cause.”
—Ciaran O'Connor, Institute for Strategic Dialogue
Washington Post ([link removed])
Picture this


** @usfws ([link removed])
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Yo-Ho, Yo-Ho, a pirate’s life for me! Did you know that gadwalls act as food pirates? Gadwalls will often steal food from diving ducks and coots who are surfacing from their underwater food forage. Photo: Tom Koerner

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