Accepting ecologies of impermanence: Sensemaking in the aftermath of the Cameron Peak fire

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Drawing on sustained ethnographic engagement over 2 years with the upper Poudre Canyon community in northern Colorado, I offer empirical examples of how community members, practitioners, and scientists are making sense of the CPF, the flooding and debris flows which came after it, and how they relate to a transformed landscape subject to the material consequences of fire and flood. In response to experiences of extreme wildfire and the cascading hazards which unfold as a result, I suggest that people undergo a process of recalibration in ways of knowing the environment, in relation to past wildfires, present and future conflagrations, risk assessment, reconciliation with loss, and orienting toward ecological patterns and cycles. I find that recalibration is born out of cumulative sensemaking, indicating that people can cope with significant personal and environmental changes wrought by wildfire by engaging in processes of sensemaking over time. This paper highlights how sensemaking can shape our understanding and relations with the material world in a way that allows for broader temporal and ontological expansiveness in contending with extreme wildfires, post-fire flooding, and uncertain climatic futures.