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<br />e <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />News - Department of Natural Resources <br /> <br /> <br />News about Colorado's Natural Resources <br /> <br /> <br />7I2l2OO2 <br />Division of Wildlife <br /> <br />COLORADO FOREST FIRES' IMPACTS ON WILDLIFE <br />REMAINS TO BE SEEN <br /> <br />Ongoing fires will change forests and impact wildlife. <br /> <br />Multiple forest fires raging through Colorado this summer can be measured in numbers of acres <br />and buildings burned, and the risk to human lives, but there is another factor that is harder to <br />measure. Forest fires have a major effect on wildlife. <br /> <br />'The long-term effects of a forest fire on wildlife and wildlife habitat can't be known this soon after a <br />fire," said Ron Zaccagnini, district wildlife manager for the Colorado Division of Wildlife's South <br />ParklLake George District, which was heavily impacted by the Hayman fire. "It depends on how fast <br />the fire traveled, how hot if was, how quickly the fire changed direction. .Often, most wildlife is able <br />to flee a slow-moving fire and some small mammals are able to wait out the fire by staying put in <br />deep burrows." <br /> <br />Many of the latest forest fires -- likely to be remembered as the largest fires in Colorado's recent <br />history - however, have been very hot and very fast and happened during a time when many <br />animals are tending newborns or still nesting. Wildlife biologists speculated there were a number of <br />individual animals lost in the blaze, particularly young and newborn animals that were unable to <br />travel quickly. <br /> <br />"Larger animals have the best chance of getting out quickly. It's likely that many adult animals were <br />able to escape the fire, but younger ones may have been trapped. We won't be able to enter areas <br />to check on damage until everything has been cooled down," Zaccagnini said. "Adult birds would <br />have been able to fly away, but nests left behind may have held flightless young or unhatched <br />eggs." <br /> <br />Zaccagnini and other wildlife officers have been asked what to do if people find wildlife that may <br />have been displaced by the fires. <br /> <br />"Leave fawns alone, leave wildlife alone, especially young ones. Displaced wildlife will find a new <br />home, or may return to their original range when the fire is over. You may see what appears to be <br />'not normal' behavior, but it is most likely stress from the event and from being in a new area." <br />Always keep pets away from wildlife, but particularly at this time, as stressed wildlife needs peace <br />and quiet to recover the energy spent to escape from the fire. <br /> <br />"Not all the large animals escaped the Hayman fire," reported Mark Lamb, wildlife manager for the <br />South Park/Fairplay district. 'We know of two herds of elk that were caught in the Hayman fire - <br />with 20 to 30 animals per herd - that didn't get out. From what we can tell, they escaped one part of <br />fire, but were caught in another danger. The plumes of smoke get so heavy, that when the fire <br />slows down late in day as the humidity changes. the smoke column collapses, and ifs like an <br />explosion on the ground. Anything in the area at that point isrlt going to survive." ' <br /> <br />htlp:/! dnr.state.co. uslnewslpress.asp ?pressid= 1978 <br /> <br />Page 1 of 3 <br /> <br />7/25/02 <br />