Prescribed burns on Marshall Mesa rescheduled for weather conditions in Colorado

On Tuesday morning, just hours before a prescribed burn was scheduled to begin near the Marshall Fire burn area in Colorado, authorities decided to reschedule. Boulder County announced at 8:30 a.m. that the prescribed burn would not happen due to weather conditions. 

The statement read, "Today's prescribed burns near Superior to be rescheduled - The Fire operations scheduled at the Cohig, Bush (Rodney Dean), Mayhoffer, and Zaharias-Thomas properties near Superior, will not take place today due to a change in the forecast. The prescribed burns will be rescheduled for a later date when favorable conditions return."

There was concern about the timing of the prescribed burn in the area around Marshall Mesa being so close to the three-year date marking the destructive Marshall Fire that started on Dec. 30, 2021, and burned nearly 1,000 homes. 

The prescribed burn was designed for research purposes in the pursuit of figuring out the most effective means of fuel management and mitigation in the foothills area. According to Boulder County, the research requires that similar conditions to the Marshall Fire be present -- the cold, some degree of wind, and relative humidity conditions -- in order to be able to get the right data to help in the future. 

A rescheduled date for the prescribed burn has not been announced.