Feds to increase monitoring after Grizzly Creek fire raises risk of catastrophic landslides in Glenwood Canyon

Chris Dillmann | cdillmann@vaildaily.com
Wildfires burning away trees and shrubs along the Interstate 70 corridor through Glenwood Canyon, perennially plagued by falling rocks, have raised risks of catastrophic landslides — prompting federal geologists to install more monitoring sensors.
Barren slopes above I-70 have become so unstable that modest rain could set off sediment catapulting far beyond flames, a U.S. Geological Survey assessment has found.
And federal authorities aim to improve early warning capabilities — even by a couple minutes — and minimize false alarms, to protect the growing population drawn by residential and commercial development around Glenwood Springs.
U.S. Geological Survey director Jim Reilly joined a team of federal hydrologists in Colorado on Thursday assessing the impacts of the 32,302-acre Grizzly Creek fire in Glenwood Canyon and the 139,006-acre Pine Gulch fire near Grand Junction in the broader context of climate change.
Adapting to landscapes where warming temperatures accelerate changes — rising sea levels, flooding, shifts to aridity — will require increased monitoring, Reilly and a team of agency scientists said in an interview.

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