CSU offers expertise for the Sunshine Canyon fire and upcoming year anniversary of the Marshall fire

Contacts for reporters: Jennifer Dimas at Jennifer.Dimas@colostate.edu and 970-988-4265, Allison Sylte at Allison.Sylte@colostate.edu and Jayme DeLoss at Jayme.DeLoss@colostate.edu.

Tony Cheng, forest and rangeland stewardship professor, director of Colorado Forest Restoration Institute
Cheng can speak to how urban areas adapt and evolve as their exposures to wildfire risk increases, and to issues relating to wildfire at broad landscape scales, linking local issues to national policy. Cheng works on wildfire hazard reduction.

Camille Stevens-Rumann, fire ecologist with Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, forest and rangeland stewardship assistant professor
Stevens-Rumann can speak to issues relating to climate change, restoration ecology, fuel dynamics and more. Her research focuses on ecosystem disturbances, including wildfires.

Hussam Mahmoud, civil engineering professor
Mahmoud researches how wildfires spread from home to home and community resilience.
He used the Marshall fire as a test case for his model that predicts wildfire impact on communities and said the model predicted which buildings burned and which survived the Marshall fire with 74% accuracy.

Ragan Adams, Veterinary Extension Specialist (CVMBS), Extension emergency management role
Adams was on the state animal response coordination team for the Marshall fire and met often daily for three weeks to support local animal response/recovery. She represented CSU Extension on the state-level Recovery Task Force for the Marshall fire (a large task force that encompassed all aspects of recovery and met for six months). Adams has co-led the state ag recovery task force since the summer of 2021 (it only met a few times since there was not much ag land involved).

Laura Larson, Boulder County Extension director
The Boulder County Extension office was involved in updating the “After the Disaster” guidebook for Boulder County in the early hours of the Marshall fire tragedy. Although the Boulder Office of Emergency Management coordinated the response effort for the county, Boulder County Extension had a supportive role, volunteering at the Disaster Assistance Center and contributing to recovery for affected residents (ongoing) by assisting with landscaping, soil and garden assessments; providing education on rehabilitating exterior yard and garden areas; and planning future fire mitigation efforts.

Russ Schumacher, Colorado State Climatologist, professor of atmospheric science, director of Colorado Climate Center
Schumacher can speak to climate and weather conditions related to the Sunshine Canyon and Marshall fires.