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Anyone in the vicinity of the state of Colorado last summer felt, and smelled, the wrath of the forest fires that raged across the Centennial State. And none raged more fiercely than the historic Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires in Northern Colorado.
The fires have since been extinguished, but their memory lives on in our watersheds as black soupy water churns downstream carrying ash and debris.
The Cameron Peak Fire, which started near Chambers Lake on Aug. 13, 2020, is the state’s largest wildfire burning more than 208,913 acres. The East Troublesome fire burned simultaneously to the west starting on Oct. 14, 2020, and burned 193,812 acres.
The combined fires ripped through dense forest, much of it dry dead pine beetle kill, and sent towering plumes of smoke and ash into the sky, covering the region. Right in the middle of it all was the Cache la Poudre River. From its source high in Rocky Mountain National Park, the Poudre falls 7,000 feet through the Poudre Canyon into Fort Collins.
Anglers who frequent this scenic river know how magical it can be to catch a wild trout on the fly with the backdrop of the towering cliffs that flank the banks. But now the land around the river is filled with charred trees and burnt soil, and with rain and gravity, the sediment is poised to end up in the river as runoff.
How will this affect the fish population and fishing in the Poudre? Kyle Battige, Colorado Parks and Wildlife aquatic biologist for the Poudre River, said time will tell.
“There are a lot of potential impacts out there. We have seen some direct impacts on some localized populations and some tributary streams. A lot of the main stream stuff is yet to be determined,” Battige said. “There is some potential for some pretty drastic impact if we get a bad rain event during the wrong time of year, during a low-flow season in heavily burned areas due to the (emerald) ash borer beetle.”
Wildfires can burn so hot that soil becomes hydrophobic, which means water can’t penetrate it, thus new plant life can’t take root and prevent erosion. Such soil sitting up the canyon is the concern for fish this summer.
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CPW Senior Aquatic Biologist Jeff Spohn said in a press release that CPW has had some initial reports of fish loss from the East Troublesome Fire. He predicts there will be other impacts to come as well. Looking to past fires, following the Hayman Fire, the South Platte watershed saw detrimental effects and fish kills in the area for years after.
“It’ll come down to how intense the burn was in a specific drainage and where the moisture hits,” Spohn said in the release. “You get these valleys and watersheds that have burned, and then have a rain or snow event. That moisture filters down to a drainage which is a river system and it brings all of that ash and debris into the system. And that impacts aquatic wildlife.”
Reseeding burn areas can help, however anglers fishing the Poudre or other rivers in burn zones this summer can expect to see some effects from the fires.
St. Peter’s Fly Shop, located in Fort Collins, shared a video on social media in early July of some of the sediment in the Poudre from the Cameron Peak Fire. Brett Muller with St. Peter’s said that such sediment events are not lasting for too long, around 24 hours, and that to this point they have not seen any fish kill in the river from the runoff sediment.
Muller said that their guides are reporting that the water gets clearer as anglers go further up the river. He, like Battige, said that later in July and into August is when the real impacts will come. If the river levels drop and the canyon gets some big rains he said that could pose an impact on the fish and fishing.
Cameron Peak Fire Impacts:
- 325 mile-long fire perimeter
- Over 1,050 stream miles (596 mi are in the Poudre watershed)
- 124 trail miles (95 mi in the Poudre watershed)
- Over 41,700 acres of designated Wilderness Areas burned
- 32 miles of wild and scenic river corridor burned
- Three watersheds affected – Poudre, Big Thompson & Laramie
- At least five reservoirs store and deliver water to the Front Range for agriculture and drinking water needs
- At least 16 mountain communities and neighborhoods in the burn area or immediately adjacent to it have been affected
- 492 structures destroyed (residential and outbuildings)
*Source: Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed
