Explore the Virtual Exhibit and Learn More About the Project:
https://louisebean.wixsite.com/blazee...
Follow the Project on Instagram: @blazefireecology 
Listen to the Pod on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/louise-bean-85...

Sources:
Yongli. “High Park Fire.” Articles | Colorado Encyclopedia, 15 Oct. 2020, https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/arti.... 

“Learn from the Burn: The High Park Fire 5 Years Later: Rocky Mountain Research Station.” Learn from the Burn: The High Park Fire 5 Years Later | Rocky Mountain Research Station, https://www.fs.usda.gov/rmrs/learn-bu.... 

Podcast Transcript:
I remember the first time I ever saw catastrophic fire change my familiar home into an unfamiliar landscape. 2012, I was 11 years old. Another hot and dry June on the Front Range in Northern Colorado. News of a growing burn dubbed the High Park fire spread quickly like a blaze through the community as the adults in my life looked uneasily up and over the foothills. Despite the sweet release of summer break, back doors were locked and the streets and parks were empty of kids as smoke rolled over the town, making it too dangerous to breath in too deeply outside.

The famously bluebird Colorado sky was a billowing, cool gray, that appeared to be barely concealing a light as orange and bright as the sun itself. The true sun, when it dared to show itself through the smoke, was red. All the world was an uncanny dim, orange turning the familiar to alien outside my bedroom window. At the height of the fire, our local pride, Horsetooth Rock, appeared to be glowing as the fire inched closer to the edge of the reservoir serving as the barrier between the blaze and my hometown.

The fire and smoke went on for 21 days, burning 87,284 acres, making it the second largest fire in recorded Colorado history and one of the most destructive. The awe at the spectacular smoke clouds turned to dull horror as we drove through the canyon in the aftermath to find hills once carpeted with trees, now riddled with thin, charred sticks, appearing not unlike some spikey mideval torture device.

 I grew into a teenager as low shrubs grew in, and eventually the hillsides were woven with aspen stands. Wildlife like deer and elk, who had quickly fled, returned to the Poudre River for a bright green feast in due time. The swiftness of recovery was astonishing.

I’ve interviewed lots of folks for this project, and one of the most surprising things I’ve heard from almost every fire steward is an appreciation for the beauty of wildfire. With a large majority of them working in positions to extinguish and manage burns, you might expect there to be a wholly adversarial feeling towards the flames. You might expect someone like me, whose community has been threatened not only by the High Park fire but several other high-profile incidents, to see nothing but destruction in the blaze. But the grandeur of a wildfire, the dramatic plumage of smoke, the haunting burnt landscape, and the hopeful cycle of renewal all have their unique ability to capture eyes and hearts with their beauty.

My name is Louise Bean and I’m a woodworker, outdoorsman, and a concerned citizen of a changing globe. My identity is intertwined with a sense of place, both ecological and humanistic and my work seeks to blur the lines between a sense of self, a sense of human lineage, and land. I am so glad that you’ve decided to join me in this endeavor to create an educational and healing space of curiosity as fire changes the shape of our lives in a world rocked by climate change. I hope my story was meaningful to you, and I hope you’ll continue listening as we interview new guests each week, and maybe even hear your story too.

For the BLAZE project, this has been Burning Questions. See you again next week.

BURNING QUESTIONS Episode 1: Origins

Thank you to this week's guest Melissa Stellar!
Melissa Steller is a plant biologist in Yosemite National Park specializing in meadow and wetland restoration. In the summers when wildfire activity ramps up, she’ll swap her NPS ball cap for a hard hat and respond as a Fireline Qualified Resource Advisor. Melissa has been working in fire both in her home park and across the west since 2020. Through her experience she has developed an expertise in giant sequoias and their response to high intensity fire. During both the Windy and Washburn fires she worked alongside a group of specialized responders to prepare giant sequoia groves as high intensity fire quickly approached. When she’s not protecting giant sequoias or romping through meadows you can find her playing Professional Ultimate Frisbee with the Arizona Sidewinders.

Sources:
“Giant Sequoias.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/seki/learn/nature.... 
“NPS: The Giant Sequoias of California (Differences between Giant Sequoia and Redwood).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/onlin.... 
“Giant Sequoia Trees Face ‘Drying’ Times.” US Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/features/gian.... 
“Giant Sequoia Pinecone.” Giant Sequoia Pinecone | U.S. Geological Survey, https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/gia....

BURNING QUESTIONS Episode 2:  Sequoias

Thank you to this week's guest Katie Oliver and Blake Rouse for the theme music. 
Explore the Virtual Exhibit and Learn More About the Project:
https://louisebean.wixsite.com/blazeexhibit
Follow the Project on Instagram: @blazefireecology 
Listen to the Pod on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/louise-bean-85...

Works Cited:
Johnson, Nick. “East Troublesome Fire.” Articles | Colorado Encyclopedia, 23 Oct. 2020, https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/east-troublesome-fire. 

“Mountain Pine Beetle: Frequently Asked Questions.” US Forest Service https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5304956.pdf

BURNING QUESTIONS Episode 3:  Rebuilding

Thank you to this week's guest Ryan DeMoe and Blake Rouse for the theme music. 
Explore the Virtual Exhibit and Learn More About the Project:
https://louisebean.wixsite.com/blazeexhibit
Follow the Project on Instagram: @blazefireecology

BURNING QUESTIONS Episode 4:  Fire + Air

Thank you to this week's guest Dr. Todd Aschenbach and Blake Rouse for the theme music. 
Explore the Virtual Exhibit and Learn More About the Project:
https://louisebean.wixsite.com/blazeexhibit

Follow the Project on Instagram: @blazefireecology

BURNING QUESTIONS Episode 5:  Grasslands

Explore the Virtual Exhibit and Learn More About the Project:
https://louisebean.wixsite.com/blazeexhibit

Follow the Project on Instagram: @blazefireecology

BURNING QUESTIONS Episode 6:  Pyrogeography

Explore the Virtual Exhibit and Learn More About the Project:
https://louisebean.wixsite.com/blazeexhibit
Follow the Project on Instagram: @blazefireecology

BURNING QUESTIONS Episode 7: Fuels Management

As wildfire claims a larger and larger place in the fabric of our modern lives and we manage the impacts of climate change, Blaze seeks to create an interactive educational exhibition that shifts the paradigm towards a holistic, ecological perspective of fire in hopes of creating better understandings of truly effective forestry practices. Growing up at the base of the Rocky Mountains, catastrophic fire has claimed precious ecosystems close to my heart.

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Blaze is an interactive museum style exhibition with a companion website and educational materials based on my independent research project for my Environmental Science minor. This research has involved reaching out for perspectives and information from indigenous fire stewards, forest managers, wildland firefighters, and ecologists. The exhibit is broken up into 8 topics covering key concepts for civic engagement with fire ecology in forests and the future of forestry and fire as the effects of global climate change unfold.

BLAZE: Ecology of Fire