EAGLE COUNTY, Colo. — New research out of Colorado State University (CSU) found that wildfires have increased in size, frequency and variability over the last 30 years in the Centennial State.
The author of the report, Thomas Gifford, is an environmental economics Ph.D. candidate at CSU. The research was published in March of 2025 and is titled "Battle Scars: Trends in Wildfire Size and Impact across Colorado."
"What drew me to wildfires in the first place is that they aren't in and of themselves a bad thing. In fact, they're ecologically necessary," Gifford said. "It's really hard to predict whether a given year is going to be a good year or a bad year, but one thing we can say confidently is that these, you know, historically unprecedented megafires — like the Lee Fire that just happened out near Meeker — that they are becoming more frequent and it's harder for ecosystems and communities to recover from them."
Gifford analyzed wildfire activity between 1990 and 2023, and discovered a small number of fires burned the majority of acreage. The top 1% of Colorado's largest wildfires have accounted for 50% of all acres burned, according to Gifford.
Eight of the biggest fires in the state's history have occurred since 2012. Three of those were in 2020 alone.
The five larges wildfires in Colorado are as follows:
- Cameron Peak (208,913 acres) 2020
- East Troublesome (193,812 acres) 2020
- Pine Gulch (139,007 acres) 2020
- Hayman (137,760 acres) 2002
- Lee Fire (123,222 acres and growing) 2025
Wildfire
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Colorado experienced roughly a dozen fires a year in the 1990s, according to Gifford's research. In the 2020s, the average number of fires annually increased to 72.
"Temperatures across the world tend to get warmer. We're seeing that fires are more frequent and that the areas that are affected by those fires are being affected more severely than they were before," Gifford explained. "There's also kind of a background of institutional factors as well. We had, you know, over a century of, well, quite frankly, really effective fire mitigation strategies, where we were putting out all of the fires very quickly. And what that did is it kind of disrupted natural cycles that these forests were used to burning."
The new research from CSU comes as the Derby Fire continues to burn north of Dotsero. As of Sunday evening, the Derby Fire had burned more than 5,000 acres and was 0% contained. 648 personnel are battling the blaze.
"It's drier. We don't get the rain we used to. The river doesn't run as high as it used to," Jona Nykreim, who evacuated her home on Wednesday, said. "But also, as I was just explaining to my 10-year-old in the car, we need these fires to clean out the old growth so that we can make room for new growth and keep things healthy."
Denver7 met with Nykreim as she was returning to her home for the first night since being evacuated.
"There's such an outpouring of support. People have donated money to the local restaurant so that those of us that were displaced could go and have lunch or dinner," Nykreim said. "I've had whole homes offered to me by people I don't know, to stay in for as long as I needed... The community is strong."
Nykreim has faith that the firefighters will protect the community she loves.
"I was very nervous, but I have so much respect for the crews that have been up here," Nykreim said. "I'm very confident in that we're being told the truth, that we're being well taken care of, that the crews that are on this fire from all over the country are doing the very best they can to keep us safe."
According to those fighting the Derby Fire, rain on Sunday helped calm conditions that were fueling the fire for the time being.
