LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — A new assessment of the Cameron Peak Fire, now 100% contained, shows a potentially devastating impact to lynx habitat.

According to the Dec. 15 assessment from Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER), about 73,330 acres of lynx habitat is mapped within the fire area. BAER says approximately 52,770 acres, or 72% of suitable lynx habitat incurred crown fire that largely removed the habitat.

“Consequently, these acres won’t provide potential lynx habitat for several decades until regenerating conifer trees grow tall enough to provide snowshoe hare and lynx cover,” BAER’s report states. “In the long term, burned areas are expected to re-vegetate and re-forest over time through natural recovery. Crown fire in this type of ecosystem is a natural disturbance process that ultimately provides different age classes of forest for lynx habitat.”