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While Congress continues its partisan wrangling over public land wildfire issues, local units of government will actually be doing something this summer.
Locally the issue is creating room, or defensible space, between homes and trees in case of a wildfire. This year, it's a continuing series of baby steps consisting of small projects.
Last summer's unprecedented drought and attendant wildfires across the state focused attention on those flammability issues. For homeowners it means removing trees and brush from near the home that could fuel a fire.
Cutting trees near your cabin in the woods may be antithetical to mountain living, but it needs to be done, according to fire experts.
But last year's catastrophic wildfires in Colorado, which burned 350,000 and destroyed nearly 1,100 structures, may have changed that mindset.
A consortium of land management agencies and local units of government have identified 336 acres of woods that need to be thinned or removed, from East Vail to Avon astride Interstate 70. This high wildfire danger "wild/urban interface" or "Whoo-ee" contains both public and private land.
It's an intermediate step in a larger Vail Valley Forest Health project that will take many years to implement. In the mean time, something needed to be done this summer.
"We decided to do something more immediate," said Karl Mendonca, of the Forest Service. "This is an opportunity for some immediate treatment. When you start talking about the immediate wild/urban interface there's an ignition zone for homes - the first 100 or 200 feet - is what poses the biggest hazard. We want to modify fire behavior (so it goes) away from homes. People are telling us this year they don't want to wait."
He said the Forest Service will be removing trees from near its compound south of Minturn to demonstrate a defensible space.
Getting homeowner buy-in
In Vail Bill Carlson, the town's environmental health officer, is promoting a similar project on Columbine Road in the Bighorn area. There a handful of homes that are surrounded by potentially flammable forest.
He's been busy working with homeowners in that area, working to get a buy-in on what needs to be done. He outlined some of the steps in a letter to homeowners.
"The really key piece in this plan is homeowner involvement and education and participation," he said. "The government doesn't have the resources to mitigate and do treatment on private property.
Mendonca agrees.
"The challenge is going to be working with neighborhood communities and having them reach consensus on what they would like to do," he said. "Sometimes that can be difficult."
But the baby steps of removing trees in high-risk areas is a start Carlson said.
"You have to take small steps now. If you do small steps over the next 15 years it could have impacts," he said.
Suppression hangover
Compounding the problem is a 100-year-old policy of fire suppression that has allowed potential fuel for wildfires on public and other lands to build up, and a pine beetle epidemic that is killing more and more trees.
"The pine beetle thing is expanding on a logarithmic scale," Carlson said. "For every tree infected this year, there will be three more next. We feel in 10 to 12 years we could have Yellowstone type fuel levels."
In 1988, more than 1.1 million acres of Yellowstone National Park burned, and ignited a public land management debate about reintroducing fire into public lands.
The Vail Valley Forest Health Project envisions a combination of intentional fires, tree thinning and even timber harvest on 2,000 out of a total of 65,000 acres of land astride Interstate 70 from Vail Pass to Edwards that extends from ridgetop to ridgetop. It's going to take a number of years to complete, said Mendonca.
The idea is to diversify both the types of trees in forest and to create areas where new fire-resistant growth will occur.
This summer's project will chip away at the high-risk areas. A total of 26 acres are on federal land and the remaining 310 acres are on private land.
Not all the acreage will see activity this summer.
Farther west in Eagle's Eby Creek, the homeowner's association is working with Eagle County and the Bureau of Land Management to develop a thinning program and firebreak. The subdivision is built in heavy pinion and juniper stands.
Homeowners atop Bellyache Ridge at Wolcott are engaged in a program to thin the heavy tree cover near the homes there.
Ben Garret, Eagle County's recently-hired wildfire mitigation specialist, is helping to coordinate the activities of homeowners and government agencies throughout the county.
At a glance
For defensible space information, call the U.S. Forest Service at 827-5715 or 328-6322; Ben Garrett at Eagle County 328-8742; Bill Carlson Town of Vail, 479-2333.
Websites: Firewise: www.firewise.org - Firesafe Council: www.firesafecouncil.org - U.S. Forest Service: www.fs.fed.us/r2/fire/rmacd.htm - Colorado State Forest Service: http://lamar.colostate.edu/-firewise
High risk areas:
- Deer Boulevard, Eagle-Vail. 39.4 acres that need treatment.
- Elk Lane, Eagle-Vail, 23.6 acres.
- Whiskey Hill, Eagle-Vail, 44.6 acres.
- Minturn near the Forest Service Compound 51.9 acres.
- Intermountain, Vail, 65.8 acres.
- Streamside, Vail, 26.8 acres.
- Davos/Chamonix area, Vail, 38.7 acres.
- Bighorn, Vail, 8.4 acres.
- Eby Creek
- Bellyache Ridge
Creating a defensible wildfire perimeter on your private property*
- Remove dead standing and downed trees that are within 150 feet of a structure.
- Remove juniper and flammable vegetation within 30 feet of structures.
- Prune conifers that are 30 to 50 feet from a structure 10 to 12 feet from the ground or up to one-third of their total height.
- Thin live green conifer trees focusing on the weakest and those infested with pine beetles.
* Fire Wise, Colorado State Forest Service.
Cliff Thompson can be reached at 949-0555 ext 450 or cthompson@vaildaily.com
Locally the issue is creating room, or defensible space, between homes and trees in case of a wildfire. This year, it's a continuing series of baby steps consisting of small projects.
Last summer's unprecedented drought and attendant wildfires across the state focused attention on those flammability issues. For homeowners it means removing trees and brush from near the home that could fuel a fire.
Cutting trees near your cabin in the woods may be antithetical to mountain living, but it needs to be done, according to fire experts.
But last year's catastrophic wildfires in Colorado, which burned 350,000 and destroyed nearly 1,100 structures, may have changed that mindset.
A consortium of land management agencies and local units of government have identified 336 acres of woods that need to be thinned or removed, from East Vail to Avon astride Interstate 70. This high wildfire danger "wild/urban interface" or "Whoo-ee" contains both public and private land.
It's an intermediate step in a larger Vail Valley Forest Health project that will take many years to implement. In the mean time, something needed to be done this summer.
"We decided to do something more immediate," said Karl Mendonca, of the Forest Service. "This is an opportunity for some immediate treatment. When you start talking about the immediate wild/urban interface there's an ignition zone for homes - the first 100 or 200 feet - is what poses the biggest hazard. We want to modify fire behavior (so it goes) away from homes. People are telling us this year they don't want to wait."
He said the Forest Service will be removing trees from near its compound south of Minturn to demonstrate a defensible space.
Getting homeowner buy-in
In Vail Bill Carlson, the town's environmental health officer, is promoting a similar project on Columbine Road in the Bighorn area. There a handful of homes that are surrounded by potentially flammable forest.
He's been busy working with homeowners in that area, working to get a buy-in on what needs to be done. He outlined some of the steps in a letter to homeowners.
"The really key piece in this plan is homeowner involvement and education and participation," he said. "The government doesn't have the resources to mitigate and do treatment on private property.
Mendonca agrees.
"The challenge is going to be working with neighborhood communities and having them reach consensus on what they would like to do," he said. "Sometimes that can be difficult."
But the baby steps of removing trees in high-risk areas is a start Carlson said.
"You have to take small steps now. If you do small steps over the next 15 years it could have impacts," he said.
Suppression hangover
Compounding the problem is a 100-year-old policy of fire suppression that has allowed potential fuel for wildfires on public and other lands to build up, and a pine beetle epidemic that is killing more and more trees.
"The pine beetle thing is expanding on a logarithmic scale," Carlson said. "For every tree infected this year, there will be three more next. We feel in 10 to 12 years we could have Yellowstone type fuel levels."
In 1988, more than 1.1 million acres of Yellowstone National Park burned, and ignited a public land management debate about reintroducing fire into public lands.
The Vail Valley Forest Health Project envisions a combination of intentional fires, tree thinning and even timber harvest on 2,000 out of a total of 65,000 acres of land astride Interstate 70 from Vail Pass to Edwards that extends from ridgetop to ridgetop. It's going to take a number of years to complete, said Mendonca.
The idea is to diversify both the types of trees in forest and to create areas where new fire-resistant growth will occur.
This summer's project will chip away at the high-risk areas. A total of 26 acres are on federal land and the remaining 310 acres are on private land.
Not all the acreage will see activity this summer.
Farther west in Eagle's Eby Creek, the homeowner's association is working with Eagle County and the Bureau of Land Management to develop a thinning program and firebreak. The subdivision is built in heavy pinion and juniper stands.
Homeowners atop Bellyache Ridge at Wolcott are engaged in a program to thin the heavy tree cover near the homes there.
Ben Garret, Eagle County's recently-hired wildfire mitigation specialist, is helping to coordinate the activities of homeowners and government agencies throughout the county.
At a glance
For defensible space information, call the U.S. Forest Service at 827-5715 or 328-6322; Ben Garrett at Eagle County 328-8742; Bill Carlson Town of Vail, 479-2333.
Websites: Firewise: www.firewise.org - Firesafe Council: www.firesafecouncil.org - U.S. Forest Service: www.fs.fed.us/r2/fire/rmacd.htm - Colorado State Forest Service: http://lamar.colostate.edu/-firewise
High risk areas:
- Deer Boulevard, Eagle-Vail. 39.4 acres that need treatment.
- Elk Lane, Eagle-Vail, 23.6 acres.
- Whiskey Hill, Eagle-Vail, 44.6 acres.
- Minturn near the Forest Service Compound 51.9 acres.
- Intermountain, Vail, 65.8 acres.
- Streamside, Vail, 26.8 acres.
- Davos/Chamonix area, Vail, 38.7 acres.
- Bighorn, Vail, 8.4 acres.
- Eby Creek
- Bellyache Ridge
Creating a defensible wildfire perimeter on your private property*
- Remove dead standing and downed trees that are within 150 feet of a structure.
- Remove juniper and flammable vegetation within 30 feet of structures.
- Prune conifers that are 30 to 50 feet from a structure 10 to 12 feet from the ground or up to one-third of their total height.
- Thin live green conifer trees focusing on the weakest and those infested with pine beetles.
* Fire Wise, Colorado State Forest Service.
Cliff Thompson can be reached at 949-0555 ext 450 or cthompson@vaildaily.com
