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Forest thinning starts at Meadow Wood Sports Complex
  
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Norma Engelberg
The first project of the Woodland Park Healthy Forest Initiative started at Meadow Wood Sports Complex Dec. 3. Woodland Park received a $6,000 grant to thin areas of the urban forest through the Colorado State Forest Service Front Range Fuels Partnership for Wildland Urban Interface forest fuels mitigation.
Nearly all of Woodland Park, but especially the edges, are part of the Wildland Urban Interface where homes and businesses meet the forest.
“We’re hoping to use the grant to thin 10 acres in Meadow Wood,” said Amanda Brush, Woodland Park city planner. “Our match for the grant is the labor. The money will be used to pay the Coalition for the Upper South Platte for chipping the slash and for signage. We hope to have signs up explaining what we’re doing and how it helps mitigate fuels and create a healthier forest.”
Much of the work will be done by the city’s parks, buildings and grounds crews. When there are no streets to plow, street crews also will be available to help out.
“This is the best time of year to thin the forest,” Brush said. “In the summer, the fresh sawdust draws more beetles and thinning in the winter keeps our crews busy.”
Some of the work will involve removing smaller trees.
“The way we measure density, the trees we’re taking out won’t affect the overall density much,” said Dave Root, assistant director of the Colorado State Forest Service Woodland Park office. “This is a good spot for a public demonstration project because after the trees are cut the forest will look pretty good.”
He said the thinning will create a kind of fuel break to slow down wildland fires and will improve the health of the forest because crews also will be removing beetle and mistletoe-infested trees.
“This is a great start,” he said. “But one fuel break on city-owned land doesn’t guarantee the city will be safe. We also want to involve private land owners in fuels mitigation. Of course, on a bad day a fire can cross any fuel break so we don’t want to create a false sense of security.”
Brush added that the Meadow Wood project fits nicely into the puzzle of projects being created around the city.
“We’re trying to concentrate our efforts in 2009 on the western edge of the city where a wildfire is most likely to come from,” she said. “This project complements projects on the Sturman property and at Majestic Parkway. Also there was another thinning project at Meadow Wood a few years ago.”
As workers were thinning that first day they realized that while the trees had a lot of dead lower limbs, the tops were still alive.
“They thought some of them would make good Christmas trees,” Brush said. “So we’re donating the tops to Help the Needy for distribution to needy families.”
Parts of the thinned trees suitable for firewood, larger trunks and limbs for example, will be available to the public for firewood. Most of the trees that will be thinned in the area across Evergreen Heights Drive from the entrance to the complex are too small to be useful for firewood. Slash from that cutting will be piled on Sturman property to await chipping.
“The part of the park that was planted by the [Civilian Conservation Corps] will have larger trees,” Brush said. “That’s where most of the firewood will come from. We haven’t decided yet where the public will be able to get firewood.”
The CCC was created in 1933 as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal to get unemployed people back to work . Trees planted at the time were usually planted on a grid that is still visible more than 75 years later.
“They’re lined up like a toothpick farm,” Root said. “When we’re through the forest will look more natural.”
Root was instrumental in helping Brush apply for the grant.
“I filled out some of the paperwork but Dave filled in the technical information,” Brush said. “The state forest service will be overseeing the project.”
While this is the city’s first initiative project, it has been awarded more than $100,000 in grants for other initiative projects.
“Some of that will be used for cost sharing with private property owners to perform fuels mitigation,” Brush said.
Another project also began on Dec. 3 — a beetle-tree removal project on county land near the Wishing Well Motel on U.S. 24.
“We’re working with the county and [the Coalition for the Upper South Platte] to get that work done,” Brush said.
The first project of the Woodland Park Healthy Forest Initiative started at Meadow Wood Sports Complex Dec. 3. Woodland Park received a $6,000 grant to thin areas of the urban forest through the Colorado State Forest Service Front Range Fuels Partnership for Wildland Urban Interface forest fuels mitigation.
Nearly all of Woodland Park, but especially the edges, are part of the Wildland Urban Interface where homes and businesses meet the forest.
“We’re hoping to use the grant to thin 10 acres in Meadow Wood,” said Amanda Brush, Woodland Park city planner. “Our match for the grant is the labor. The money will be used to pay the Coalition for the Upper South Platte for chipping the slash and for signage. We hope to have signs up explaining what we’re doing and how it helps mitigate fuels and create a healthier forest.”
Much of the work will be done by the city’s parks, buildings and grounds crews. When there are no streets to plow, street crews also will be available to help out.
“This is the best time of year to thin the forest,” Brush said. “In the summer, the fresh sawdust draws more beetles and thinning in the winter keeps our crews busy.”
Some of the work will involve removing smaller trees.
“The way we measure density, the trees we’re taking out won’t affect the overall density much,” said Dave Root, assistant director of the Colorado State Forest Service Woodland Park office. “This is a good spot for a public demonstration project because after the trees are cut the forest will look pretty good.”
He said the thinning will create a kind of fuel break to slow down wildland fires and will improve the health of the forest because crews also will be removing beetle and mistletoe-infested trees.
“This is a great start,” he said. “But one fuel break on city-owned land doesn’t guarantee the city will be safe. We also want to involve private land owners in fuels mitigation. Of course, on a bad day a fire can cross any fuel break so we don’t want to create a false sense of security.”
Brush added that the Meadow Wood project fits nicely into the puzzle of projects being created around the city.
“We’re trying to concentrate our efforts in 2009 on the western edge of the city where a wildfire is most likely to come from,” she said. “This project complements projects on the Sturman property and at Majestic Parkway. Also there was another thinning project at Meadow Wood a few years ago.”
As workers were thinning that first day they realized that while the trees had a lot of dead lower limbs, the tops were still alive.
“They thought some of them would make good Christmas trees,” Brush said. “So we’re donating the tops to Help the Needy for distribution to needy families.”
Parts of the thinned trees suitable for firewood, larger trunks and limbs for example, will be available to the public for firewood. Most of the trees that will be thinned in the area across Evergreen Heights Drive from the entrance to the complex are too small to be useful for firewood. Slash from that cutting will be piled on Sturman property to await chipping.
“The part of the park that was planted by the [Civilian Conservation Corps] will have larger trees,” Brush said. “That’s where most of the firewood will come from. We haven’t decided yet where the public will be able to get firewood.”
The CCC was created in 1933 as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal to get unemployed people back to work . Trees planted at the time were usually planted on a grid that is still visible more than 75 years later.
“They’re lined up like a toothpick farm,” Root said. “When we’re through the forest will look more natural.”
Root was instrumental in helping Brush apply for the grant.
“I filled out some of the paperwork but Dave filled in the technical information,” Brush said. “The state forest service will be overseeing the project.”
While this is the city’s first initiative project, it has been awarded more than $100,000 in grants for other initiative projects.
“Some of that will be used for cost sharing with private property owners to perform fuels mitigation,” Brush said.
Another project also began on Dec. 3 — a beetle-tree removal project on county land near the Wishing Well Motel on U.S. 24.
“We’re working with the county and [the Coalition for the Upper South Platte] to get that work done,” Brush said.
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