| The Hayman Fire of June, 2002, was the largest in Colorado History. This picture looks Southeast from Forest Service Rd 211, the Matukat Rd., in the Pike Nat’l Forest, over the Hackett Gulch area of the South Platte River valley, and shows a large portion of the devastation suffered from this fire, which resulted from an act of infamy committed in a forest that had not been thinned in 120 years, according to the US Forest Service. It burned 137,760 acres, 133 residences, and cost: $237.8 million, according to the USFS. The cost to the ecosystem is incalculable at this time.
Recovery should take at least 100 years.
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