In the winter (2021-2022), an intense fire broke out near the Marshall Mesa area of Boulder and spread downwind toward the cities of Superior and Louisville. It was the most destructive fire in Colorado history, damaging entire neighborhoods. The fire had spread quickly through the grassy plains of Boulder County, pushed by wind over 100 mph. I heard of the fire while spending time with family in New York state. We watched news reels of the flames and evacuation orders. It was the first fire I had "experienced" close to an urban center, and I wondered how it could be different from the more typical wildland fires of the West.
Dr. Noah Fierer and Dr. Eve Hinckley were kind enough to bring me on their project to quantify soil contamination by heavy metals within a few months after the Marshall fire, but before reconstruction at damaged sites. So, during the months of April and May, Cliff Adamchak and I lead the sampling campaign in both burned and unburned neighborhoods. And then the 250 samples were sent to a lab at CSU for processing. More details to come, but you can follow progress on this project here. The published manuscript for this project can be found here.
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AuthorSierra is a graduate student in the Barger Lab at CU Boulder studying microbial ecology for dryland restoration. Archives
August 2023
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