Fireforest Film Screening + Panel Discussion

Join filmmaker Evan Barrientos and local fire leaders on July 23rd, from 4-6pm, for a Fireforest film screening and panel discussion about forest restoration and fire mitigation initiatives on the Front Range. Representatives from the Boulder County Fire Management Program, the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests (U.S. Forest Service), and other local collaborators will offer insight into the complexity and comprehensiveness of planning and implementing fire mitigation efforts.

In August 2020, the Cameron Peak Fire was racing uncontrollably towards communities in northern Colorado. As it reached the footprint of a past U.S. Forest Service prescribed burn and the Drala Mountain Center (formerly Shambhala Mountain Center), a near-miracle occurred. The prescribed burn, combined with forest restoration treatments at Drala, gave firefighters a foothold to halt a portion of the fire and avert disaster for the communities downslope.

This 16-minute film tells the story of what happened there through the accounts of a U.S. Forest Service fire specialist, a Larimer Conservation District forester, and the Drala land manager. Together, they urge us to see fire and forest management as natural and essential parts of the landscape. By shifting the way we perceive fire and actively preparing forests to receive it, we can create hope for living with wildfires.

Fireforest, the film, is one product of a larger multimedia project, also called Fireforest, created by Evan Barrientos. Fireforest is meant to build support for forest restoration by explaining it with high-quality visuals. These include long-term timelapse videos of the Cameron Peak Fire’s effects on the Cache la Poudre River, high-precision photo monitoring of the fire’s effects on different forest types that were thinned and not thinned before the fire, a photo essay, and the film. Together, they aim to help people understand the nuance and complexity of forest fire and build support for holistically addressing the root issues.

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