RESTORING THE FOREST
Students help examine best practices after wildfire
By Jayme DeLoss | Photography by John Cline | Sept. 23, 2025
On a clear June day, six Colorado State University students and two crew leaders hiked up a mountainside burned by the 2020 Cameron Peak Fire – the largest wildfire in state history, having scorched nearly 209,000 acres in Northern Colorado. Trekking in Pingree Park west of Fort Collins, the students carried equipment and two giant duffel bags of seedlings. Soon, they bored into the forest floor with tools called hoedads, similar to pickaxes, and deposited seedlings in the rocky ground.
The students were working for the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, contributing to a study that will help determine which tree species will survive in future forests and where seedlings should be planted to maximize forest resilience to wildfire. They had the uncommon experience of contributing to research that will shape how forests are imagined and revitalized after wildfires across the West.
“The results may have a direct impact on our environment in the future,” said Kyle Lukowich, an Army veteran working on a degree in natural resources management. “This project means a lot to me because I feel like I have a hand in making a positive impact on the environment.”
Camille Stevens-Rumann, a former wildland firefighter and interim director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, leads a study into forest regrowth after wildfire. The study involves about 20 undergraduate student researchers each summer.
The institute’s study is critically important as wildfires become more frequent and severe in the face of worsening longterm drought and a related onslaught of insects and disease in Western forests. Study findings are expected to influence forest restoration, which, in turn, affects resources ranging from watersheds to wildlife habitat and recreation spaces.
“Understanding how our forests are performing and bouncing back post wildfire is really important, especially with increasing wildfires,” Kate Laidlaw, a junior in ecosystem science and sustainability, said as she planted seedlings.
Every summer, the institute hires about 20 undergraduate students to help with research. Yet, the goals are much larger than providing summer work experience.
“A big part of our mission is to help train students to work in this field in the future,” said Camille Stevens-Rumann, the institute’s interim director, study leader, and a CSU associate professor of forest and rangeland stewardship. “Our goal is to teach students the scientific process but also help them understand the importance of applied research and how that may improve decisions in management.”
Students involved in the reforestation research plant seedlings and examine their growth after wildfire. The seedlings are planted in precisely designed plots so they may be tracked as they grow.
The institute has trained about 220 students for careers in forestry and wildland fire.
By summer’s end, CSU crews would plant 10,000 seedlings, and by the end of the 10-year study, the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute will have collected valuable data for future forests.
The researchers’ goal for the experimental planting study is not to regenerate the forest burned by the Cameron Peak Fire, but to learn the best ways to regenerate high-elevation forests after wildfire, so land managers and agencies will have knowledge to be successful on larger scales. The study will help determine which tree species will grow into future forests and where they should be planted.
For instance, in a separate study, Stevens-Rumann and colleagues recently discovered that stands of aspen trees could resist wildfire by slowing a fire’s advance or changing its course. The researchers found that even modest increases in aspen cover dramatically reduced the rate at which fires spread. Their findings suggest that aspen forests can act as natural firebreaks, which is valuable information for land managers and agencies.
Kate Laidlaw, studying ecosystem science and sustainability, measures a research plot.
Wildfire is a natural part of the ecosystem. But recent evidence shows a lack of regeneration in burned landscapes. Between 30 percent and 50 percent of burned landscapes are not becoming forest again, Stevens-Rumann said.
“This project is to understand the potential for forest recovery after wildfires,” she said of the study to which students are contributing. “We are hoping to understand what trees will be able to establish in forests as the weather gets hotter and drier.”
“Our goal is to teach students the scientific process but also help them understand the importance of applied research and how that may improve decisions in management.”
Forests provide many benefits for people, including watershed health, wildlife habitat, recreation access, wood products, and carbon storage. Watershed health is among the most important: Forests protect water quality for downstream communities and prevent snowpack from melting too quickly too early in the season. “In the Western U.S., 70 percent of drinkable water comes from mountain forests,” Stevens-Rumann noted.
Wildfires contaminate the water supply, and denuded slopes can lead to hazardous flooding. Many recent wildfires in the West have been so large and severe that in much of the burned area, natural regeneration isn’t possible because there aren’t enough nearby seed sources, and soil attributes have changed. Active management is needed to regenerate forests burned by large, high-intensity fires, Stevens-Rumann said.
The Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, based at CSU in Fort Collins, studies how to improve forest resilience and reduce wildfire risk. In response to severe wildfires in the Southwest, Congress created the institute in 2004 to more seamlessly connect research to land management. The institute works closely with forest managers to offer science-based solutions and to track results, evaluating whether and how management decisions are working.
They study best practices before, during, and after fire, for instance, examining treatments to limit wildfire severity, identifying where firefighters should be positioned during a wildfire, and the most successful restoration methods after wildfires.
John Chandonais, who studies fish, wildlife, and conservation biology, plants seedlings in a research plot.
The U.S. Forest Service is required to reforest areas that have been harvested for timber or disturbed by wildfire. Forests are replanted with tree species similar to those removed, and seedlings are sourced from nearby seeds or those within the same “seed zone.” However, research has shown that tree species’ ranges are shifting as climate changes. The restoration institute’s current planting study will determine whether a modified approach to reforestation – planting species for elevations and latitudes outside their current range – is more successful than traditional reforestation practices when the two are compared side by side.
The project was designed in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service. Stevens-Rumann and colleagues chose plots that met Forest Service requirements for replanting, so the results can be applied by the agency to effectively use limited resources.
Since 2022, the institute has planted 32 experimental plots within the burn scar of the Cameron Peak Fire. This year, crews planted 60 sites in the Cameron Peak, East Troublesome, and Cal-Wood fire areas.
The study will identify ideal planting conditions and barriers by monitoring the many variables at each plot: burn severity, aspect, slope, elevation, pre-fire forest type, soil type, competing vegetation, precipitation, and temperature.
“It’s smart science,” said Maddie Catterson, a crew leader who is working on a master’s degree in natural resources stewardship. “We’re trying to be purposeful about reforestation.”
Catterson is from Colorado but attended a university out of state for her undergraduate degree; she didn’t earlier have this kind of hands-on research experience. “Being surrounded by the cutting edge of research within the natural resource field is really beneficial,” she said. “CSU does a good job of preparing students to have a solid knowledge of natural resource management.”
Maddie Catterson, a crew leader, works in the field. She is pursuing a master’s degree in natural resources stewardship.
Locating the planting sites might be the most challenging part of the fieldwork. The crew has coordinates and a compass; then, it’s a matter of finding tiny metal stakes installed by study leaders to mark the center and several edges of the study plot. It’s like a scavenger hunt on rugged terrain. Five years after the Cameron Peak Fire, ground vegetation is springing up on these slopes, and the 1-inch-diameter stakes are inconspicuous in the vast forest.
Once the center stake is found, the crew plots out 10 1-by- 1-meter squares at a specific distance from the stake in each direction, in an asterisk formation. Each square is divided into a grid for planting 12 seedlings, two for each of the six species in the study.
The study replicates how forest managers plant trees for reforestation, which is why the students were trained to safely swing a hoedad, the official tool of the trade. It is rigorous work, but no one complains, and everyone takes a turn.
Left: Sierra Flood, a recent CSU graduate and crew leader, plants seedlings in a burned forest. Right: Maddie Catterson and John Chandonais team up to plant seedlings.
Top: Sierra Flood, a recent CSU graduate and crew leader, plants seedlings in a burned forest. Bottom: Maddie Catterson and John Chandonais team up to plant seedlings.
In June, the crew was working together for a fourth week, and students functioned like a well-established team. It was physically demanding: They hauled heavy equipment up mountains and planted two or three 120-seedling plots a day, if weather allowed. They planted and collected data Monday through Thursday, camping nearby during the week.
The crew members wouldn’t have it any other way. Each expressed a love for being outdoors. “All my former high school classmates are working indoors at business internships, and I’m here right now,” said Thomas Hansen, a senior studying restoration ecology, as he and Laidlaw planted seedlings.
It was Hansen’s first research project, and he enjoyed thinking about how collected data would be used. Laidlaw, the junior in ecosystem science and sustainability, had some previous research experience that kept her at a computer all day. This job appealed to her because she could do research outdoors.
“I like being active and outside, so it’s the perfect combo,” Laidlaw said. “I’m interested in research, and CSU’s a huge research institution, so there’s a lot of opportunities to be able to connect with professors on their research.”
Thomas Hansen, a CSU student majoring in restoration ecology, was among the undergraduates working in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests this summer.
The students recorded detailed data about each plot. After planting, they measured the seedlings and calculated canopy cover using a densiometer – a small wooden box with what looks like a concave disco ball inside. Some cover can give seedlings a survival advantage, protecting the fragile plants from the blazing sun.
They tagged the seedlings that normally would be found at lower elevations and noted the conditions for each plot and any natural regeneration. When all 120 seedlings were nestled in the forest floor, the crew packed up and headed back down the slope. Next summer, a crew will be back to this location to track seedling growth or mortality.
Hansen noted one other data point he tracked in his Garmin app: 6,627 steps. Some days they hit 10,000, he said.
Left: A pleasing fungus beetle, which is not harmful, makes its way through the forest. Right: The Cameron Peak Fire of 2020 is the state’s largest recorded wildfire, having burned nearly 209,000 acres in Northern Colorado.
Top: A pleasing fungus beetle, which is not harmful, makes its way through the forest. Bottom: The Cameron Peak Fire of 2020 is the state’s largest recorded wildfire, having burned nearly 209,000 acres in Northern Colorado.
The weather was cooperative on this day, but it isn’t always. The next day, the crew was caught in torrential rain while driving down the canyon to their campsite. Crew leaders are trained in how to assess weather systems in the field and protocols for when they should leave the area. They work outside cell service range but communicate by satellite phone with coordinators, who monitor the weather from the Fort Collins campus.
Inclement weather is seldom an issue, Catterson said, and wildlife encounters are rare, but crews carry pepper spray and air horns in case they cross paths with bears, moose, or mountain lions.
The job has its serene moments too. Sierra Flood, a crew leader and 2024 CSU graduate, recalled a particularly beautiful sunrise at the campsite and how lucky she felt to have witnessed it. This is her third summer working with the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute and first year leading a crew. Before her first summer with the institute, she had camped only twice. Now she camps for fun – even on the weekends after camping with the crew during the week. “I grew up in Colorado, and this has taken me to places I’ve never been before,” she said.
From left, Kate Laidlaw, Kyle Lukowich, Sierra Flood, and Thomas Hansen were part of CSU’s summer research crew in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests.
The crew members’ reasons for participating in the project varied, but they were all passionate about natural resources and the benefits they provide.
“I want forests to be able to come back in a good way,” Catterson said, “so future generations can experience the same love for forests as I do.”
Stopping fungal diseases during reforestation
By Christopher Outcalt
As CSU researchers plant and study seedlings to better understand regrowth after wildfire, another group of university scientists is examining whether those newly planted trees could inadvertently introduce destructive fungi to forests.
As wildfires burn with more frequency and intensity across the West and beyond, reforestation is critical to mitigating climate change, providing wildlife habitat, halting soil erosion, and improving air and water quality. The stakes are high: There are 146 million acres in the United States that could benefit from reforestation, according to the Nature Conservancy.
However, replanting trees across the country can be tricky. One significant challenge is the potential to unintentionally introduce a devastating, non-native pathogen into a new ecosystem. So, researchers are searching for clues that might help prevent the spread of fungal diseases.
“We’re interested in seeing if conifers from two different nurseries planted in a burned area are moving fungal pathogens with them, and, if so, how,” said Grace Ganter, a student pursuing a master’s degree in CSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences. She is leading work for a lab run by CSU Professor Jane Stewart.
It has happened before: California, Europe, and Australia are all dealing with reforestation challenges related to unwanted fungal or similar pathogens. In California, a tree disease known as sudden oak death is believed to have been introduced to the area in the 1990s via replanted, nursery-raised trees. Now, it plagues oaks in coastal forests in California and Oregon.
Researchers at CSU have partnered with New Mexico State University to better understand how nursery trees might transfer unwanted fungi to forests – and how to prevent that from happening – all by sampling microbes in the soil. Last year, the team planted 800 trees in a forest ravaged by the largest fires in New Mexico history, the 2022 Hermit’s Peak and Calf Canyon fires, which burned nearly 350,000 acres.
Every six months, Ganter will sample the soil directly touching the trees’ root surfaces to assess what communities of fungi, bacteria, or algae are present. She also sampled trees and soil prior to planting. The idea is to track what pathogens may have been transported from nurseries and survived – and to understand whether planting trees from nurseries can somehow create an environment for an altogether different pathogen to take hold.
“Ultimately, if a tree is healthy, we can then say this healthy tree has this healthy microbiome,” Ganter said. “If we have enough of those, then we can profile a healthy microbiome and start potentially recommending amendments to nurseries – something they can add on their end to keep the trees healthy.”
Photo at top: The Cameron Peak Fire of 2020 left behind a scorched forest that is prime ground for CSU’s wildfire-related research.
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