Woodland Park Healthy Forest Initiative

Our Forests, Then and Now

Chances are that the forest in your front yard is about as natural as A Rod’s physique.

This is because your forest is supposed to burn about every 20 to 30 years but it hasn’t burned for a century. When ponderosa pine forests like those around Woodland Park burned frequently there wasn’t a lot of fuel build up between fires. Heat from fires on the ground pruned the lower limbs so that there was no fuel ladder to take the fire into the tree tops. Frequent fires also thinned the forest so that the trees were widely spaced. In the open forest with little fuel fires were cooler and tended to stay on the ground. Large trees with their thick bark weren’t harmed and younger trees were thinned, so the forest remained open.

After a century of fire suppression your forest is unnaturally dense, loaded with combustible fuel and unhealthy to boot. In such a forest a fire will quickly move from the ground to the tree tops and become an unstoppable inferno just like the Hayman Fire.

For example compare the two photographs of Woodland Park taken about a hundred years apart. Aside from the obvious differences of how our downtown has changed, look at gold hill in the background. Notice that the trees on Gold Hill are a great deal less dense, and that there are obvious openings in the trees in the old photo. This is the result natural result of frequent fires. In the modern photo the large opening on the left side of the photo has completely disappeared. A fire on the hill today will have a great deal more fuel and will be more intense.

Thus leaving the forest as you found it isn’t leaving it natural. Thinning the suppressed and unhealthy trees returns your forest to the natural open condition. In addition to reducing the threat of severe crown fires, the tress become less susceptible to attacks from bark beetles, wildlife habitat improves, property values increase, and the forest looks better.

Divide Slash Site Opening Soon!!!!

THE Slash Site is set to open Friday April 17th

And new this year, we are debuting a website for the Divide Slash Site 

www.divideslashsite.com

Please forward this link to anyone who might be interested!!

 

Also, click here to check out our slash site brochure: slash-site-trifold

Notes on Forest Management EQIP Contracts

Welcome to the first NRCS blog relating to the Woodland Park Healthy Forest Initiative.

 

The Natural Resources Conservation Service is a federal agency under the U. S. Department of Agriculture. We date back to the “Dirty 30’s” Dust Bowl days, and were created to assist landowners and landusers better manage their land to prevent air and water erosion (and pollution) on primarily privately owned land. We work as technical advisors, not regulators, to help Ag producers improve and maintain their economic sustainability while conserving their natural resources.

 

Our mission has been condensed down to the phrase “Helping People Help the Land”. One way we accomplish this goal is through our cost share programs from the periodic national “Farm Bills”.  One such program, specifically geared toward the WPHFI goals of forest management and wildfire mitigation, is called the Environmental Quality Incentives Program–or EQIP, to use the government acronym.  This program typically splits the cost of installing forestry practices, thinning diseased or insect infested trees, or performing wildfire mitigation, on a 50/50 basis with qualifying landowners. Refer to the “Notes on Forestry Management EQIP Contracts” for more information. Contact our local Woodland Park office for assistance in getting answers to questions about EQIP or how to sign up for an EQIP contract. The office voice phone number is 719.686.9405, the fax number is 719.686.9403, and my email address is: leon.kot@co.usda.gov

 

Teller-Park CD Office Tamarac Business Center 800 Research Dr., Suite 100 Woodland Park, CO 80863

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                    

                                                                                   

                                                                                                            March 9, 2009

 

 

 

 

                        NOTES ON FOREST MANAGEMENT EQIP CONTRACTS

 

 

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) first authorized forest management cost share funding following the 2002 wildfires in the state.  Basically, the normal requirement for a landowner to be an agricultural producer who obtains $1,000.00 per year from Ag products is waived for the forestry resource category.

 

To be eligible for forestry issues EQIPs, a producer/landowner must either have a forest management plan in place or pending for the fiscal year funding cycle, or have performed some type of timber management in the past. This treatment could be the removal of mistletoe or insect infested trees, thinning for defensible space or for timber stand improvement, installing fuel or fire breaks, or the like.  Forest Management Plans may be extensive consultant generated plans, or plans such as the Colorado State Forest Service’s Forest Ag Plans or possibly their Forest Stewardship Plans. EQIP also pays to plant trees for erosion control or wildlife habitat.

 

Typically, contracts are set up for 3-5 years but if it takes producers longer to thin their trees themselves if they don’t hire professional contractors, the contracts can run up to 10 years time.

 

Cost share is normally at the 50 percent level—half from the government and half from the landowner—but certain categories of participation pay more, and if producers do their own work they may yield more then the standard gov’t paybacks. Treatments are installed and if they pass inspection, the contract reimburses the landowner the gov’t share.  Special categories of farm or ranch operators may be provided an advance payment to purchase supplies instead of waiting for the reimbursement after the work is done.

 

Producers may request the Technical Service Providers perform their timber planning, installation and design work under a separate funding mechanism which reimburses the contractors directly without the producer paying them and then awaiting gov’t reimbursement. This request needs to be made early in the EQIP application and contracting process, so inquire of me how this process works if this may be something that might be considered.

 

Thank you for your interest in the EQIP program,

 

 

 

Leon S. Kot

District Conservationist

 

 

 

 

The Natural Resources Conservation Service works hand-in-hand with the American People to conserve natural resources on private lands.

 

USDA/NRCS is an equal opportunity provider and employer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Firewood @ Meadow Wood Sports Complex

With Spring on its way, the City has opened up the area south of Evergreen Heights Drive in Meadow Wood Sports Complex for firewood collection.  City and CUSP crews felled and limbed trees on this north-facing slope for fuels mitigation back in December.  Now that some of the snow and ice have melted, it is safe for citizens to collect the firewood. Please note that the steep bank prevents this area from being accessed by vehicles and that motorists should exercise caution when stopping or parking on Evergreen Heights Drive to collect firewood. For more information, call Amanda Brush, City Planner, at 687-5209.

More on Meadow Wood!

 

The Meadow Wood Project is moving forward as planned.  The approximately 15 acre project is really starting to take shape.  The double edge sword that is our mountain weather has provided ideal conditions to get work done at the heavily used and enjoyed Meadow Wood Park.  The Park, located at 2000 Evergreen Heights Dr., Woodland Park has grown from a dream into a destination. With over 43 acres, 2 regulation size synthetic turf soccer fields, 3 lighted ball fields, playground equipment, concession stand, 1 ice/inline hockey rink, 4 lighted tennis court, and a fitness trail the park provides ample opportunities for everyone. For more information on the park please visit – the parks department.

 

Continuing to expand the functionality of the park Woodland Park has invested not only in high class facilities but has also made a commitment to act as good neighbors.  Over the past five months CUSP, CSFS and City employees have reduced the fuel loads and stand density on a six acre section above and below the playing fields.  The projects goals are to “thin from below” or as Matt Matwijec, CUSP Forester, puts it “removing small and suppressed trees will increase the vigor of the remaining trees” The goals are to reduce the stand density or basal area to achieve approximately 50 trees per acre.  Matwijec goes on to say that “when you have a forest with that number of trees per acre you will have openings within the forest stand”  To date the CUSP crew and Woodland Park City employees have completed over 5 acres.  

Mastication, a critical tool

Mastication Machines are used by the U.S. Forest Service in remote locations where access prohibts the removal of products and where the public would have a difficult time accessing the area for firewood.  These large machines chew up small diameter trees and leave the residual wood on site in small chunks.  As the Woodland Park area is thinned, this tool will continue to provide the opportunity to thin trees behind private lands and in remote locations.

Forest Management at Sky High Ranch and Quaker Ridge Camp

Work is underway at these two camps that border USFS burning locations on Hwy 67 North.

Sky High Ranch has burned 17 large piles leftover from a thinning project in 2004. Thank you North East Teller County FD and the Co. State Forest Service for torching these monsterous piles back in January. We are currenly waiting for some snow to light the remaining piles. CUSP will begin working on approximately 20 acres of d-space and thinning around camp buildings starting this Thrursday and Friday, Feb. 26-27th. This will be an on-going effort for CUSP and other ranch staff at Sky High. The goal is to work at least 1 day a week, cutting and chipping until June 1st when the ranch visitiors begin to arrive. Also, other projects are being prepared for the Colorado Youth Legends and Legacy saw crew this summer.

Quaker Ridge Camp has recently installed a new wood boiler on the property to heat an older assembly building that also houses the main staff offices. Part of our goal in managing the forest there is to create a supply of wood to stock the boiler for the next few years. The first project that has been mapped is a fuelbreak of the ingress and egress road, thinning trees off the road 50′ back on either side. In essence, we will create a shaded fulebreak, leaving only a few of the dominant trees of the overstory. This project will likely be contracted as it will be about 15 acres of thinning; logs will be dragged to a deck and slash will be either chipped or masticated on site. Starting March 4th, CUSP will begin pruning around structures and completing general d-space thinning of ladder fuels too close to important camp buildings. A volunteer day will occur on March 11th, approximately 30 high schoolers from Oklahoma staying at the camp will help drag slash to the CUSP chipper.

Free Technical Assistance from the Colorado State Forest Service.

The Woodland Park District of the Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS) is one of 17 districts located throughout Colorado. Our office is located in Woodland Park and the phone number is 719/687-2921. http://csfs.colostate.edu/pages/woodlandparkdist.html

Our mission is to provide for the stewardship of forest resources and to reduce related risks to life, property and the environment for the benefit of present and future generations. Helping private landowners with their fire mitigation and insect & disease needs are two of our most important goals. We can help provide you with technical assistance to help plan, layout, and secure grant monies to complete your mitigation work and help to protect your propery from wildfire.

If you have property within the boundaries of the Woodland Park Healthy Forest Initiative (WPHFI); we will waive our normal site visit fee and provide you with free technical assistance to help you participate with other landowners in the WPHFI project. Please call Larry or Dave at the above number for more information.

In the News

The Woodland Park Healthy Forest Initiative is in the news! The Pikes Peak Courier View did an article on the thinning at the City of Woodland Park’s Meadow Wood Sports Complex. The City, Colorado State Forest Service, and CUSP are partnering to make this project happen.