Living in Boulder spiritually connects me to the natural world and the wildlife that surrounds me every time I step out my door. I love the surrounding mountains, forests, streams and trails. I am anxious to better understand the interrelationships of the natural world systems.
I do know that my energy lifestyle needs can rapidly deplete resources. I do know that I can create waste of resources that future generations and life systems will need to survive. I believe I can, and I am cumulatively, with the rest of humanity, disrupting critical life cycle processes with some of my lifestyle choices. I intuitively know that no human technology can compete with forests for uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide and its storage.
Boulder had a fire on the Boulder hill area around 2000. Some of that fire burned so hot it sterilized the soil and new growth has not returned; some is returning very slowly. This summer 2021 brought a 24,000-acre fire from Haystack to Boulder’s doorstep. As of April 9, 2022, we were still in a drought mode surrounded by dried out fuels and trees struggling to survive. Climate change seems to be accelerating at an unprecedented rate.
