Wildfire in the Watershed: 2024 Post-Fire Restoration Recap
Four years after the historic Cameron Peak Fire burned more than 208,000 acres across three watersheds in Northern Colorado, CPRW staff and partners continue to plan and implement post-fire restoration work across the Upper Poudre Watershed. In 2024, we completed over a quarter mile of instream restoration work at two project sites on U.S. Forest Service Arapaho Roosevelt National Forest properties in the Cache la Poudre Watershed. Our crews installed 63 point mitigation structures - 10 Log Structures (each 20-30 feet long), 12 log jams (also 20-30 feet long), 18 wood roughness features, 8 BDA’s, 12 PALS , and 3 willow wattles.
The South Fork Post-Fire Restoration project in the Upper Poudre Watershed (Cory Dick).
The South Fork: Three Years in the Making
The South Fork restoration project, designed by Ayres Associates and originally proposed in 2021, was finally implemented between September and November of this year. An amazing crew from Aloterra and Flywater installed 40 wood mimicry structures along 3,400 linear ft of river. This is the largest instream restoration project that CPRW has completed to address water quality impacts from the Cameron Peak Fire (CPF).
With heavy machinery in action, operators from Flywater moved large logs—20 to 30 feet long—into the stream channel. These trees were sourced from a nearby 50-acre wildfire mitigation project on Fish Creek (just upstream of the site), completed earlier in the year through our partnership with Larimer Conservation District. This project marks CPRW’s first successful pairing of upland pre-fire thinning treatments with in-stream restoration—an innovative model we hope to replicate across the region.
The Fish Creek Wildfire Mitigation project provided wood for the S. Fork restoration project (Larimer Conservation Corps).
Flywater building engineered logs jams at the S. Fork wood from Fish Creek (Cory Dick)
Beyond improving water quality, the South Fork project enhances riparian vegetation and wildlife habitats. Early signs of success were evident as beavers and muskrats began interacting with the new structures before construction was even complete!
Little Beaver Creek: A Great Spot to Start Building BDAs
The second project completed this year was on Little Beaver Creek - a smaller tributary to the South Fork - and was installed concurrently to the South Fork project by Aloterra’s crew. This was the first project where CPRW was able to install “beaver dam analogs” (BDAs) that mimic wood brought into streams by beaver.
Crews from Aloterra Restoration Services construct a post-assisted log structure at Little Beaver Creek.
Little Beaver Creek is an ideal location for this type of process-based restoration treatment, with historic evidence of beaver activity and over 14 years of research led by Colorado State University professors Dr. Ellen Wohl and Dr. Ryan Morrison, who study the impact of wood on stream ecosystems. Both the South Fork and Little Beaver Creek projects are being closely monitored by CSU researchers, and we’re excited to share their findings as they become available!
Challenges Met and Big Plans Ahead
This year brought its share of challenges. Project manager Taryn Contento led her first post-fire restoration season, navigating new complexities like the potential listing of the Tricolored Bat as an endangered species in Colorado’s Front Range. While this caused delays for projects like the one at Elkhorn Creek, it also offered a silver lining: more time for careful monitoring and permitting in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service and other partners.
Looking ahead, we have ambitious plans for 2025. Upcoming projects include work on private properties along the Poudre River’s main stem, an area impacted by the Cameron Peak Fire and rich with evidence of past beaver activity. Additional restoration efforts are planned for Sheep Creek, a site affected by fire, human disturbance, and beaver activity.
Our ultimate goal? To address stream health at a landscape scale, improve water quality post-wildfire, and pioneer pre-fire restoration strategies that bolster stream resilience against future wildfires and floods.
Thank You to Our Partners
None of this impactful work would be possible without our incredible project partners and supporters. Thank you for standing with us as we restore and strengthen the watershed we all depend on!
Strong partnerships make all of our work possible!