Woodland Park Healthy Forest Initiative

Open House to Discuss Catamount Fuels Project

COLORADO SPRINGS UTILITIES AND U.S. FOREST SERVICE SEEK PUBLIC INPUT AT AN APRIL 23RD MEETING.

THE Pikes Peak District of the U. S. Forest Service (USFS) and the City of Colorado Springs Utilities are seeking public comments regarding a proposed 25,000-acre fuel reduction project. They will host an open house on Thursday, April 23 from 5:30 to 7:30pm at the Colorado Springs Utilities’ Leon Young Service Center Pikes Peak Room, 1521 S Hancock Expressway, Colorado Springs, CO 80903-4801 to discuss the proposal.

Overview

In response to concerns about the potential for large-scale wildfire on Pikes Peak, the District Ranger Brent Botts initiated an environmental assessment for the Catamount Fuels Reduction Project. The objective of the assessment is to identify priority areas that suitable for treatment where fuels reduction activities can be implemented to improve forest conditions making the forests less susceptible to catastrophic wildfire. It will be used as a guide for the desired forest conditions and prescribed fuel treatments. A summary and maps can be viewed under Projects and Plans in the Fuels Treatment Projects category, here.

Colorado Springs Utilities counts on the Pikes Peak watershed to supply municipal water for the city, so through its cooperative agreements with the USFS, it’s participating as a partnering agency along with the Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS). Springs Utilities will be assisting with the funding for the 2009 – 2010 National Environmental Policy Act assessment (NEPA), as well as supporting the development of fuel-mitigation alternatives and eventual implementation of fuels reduction projects on the watershed lands of interest.

Springs Utilities is also contracting professional services to conduct watershed assessments within and around the Catamount project area to identify critical watershed areas subject to high wildfire risks, flooding, and sedimentation specific to Utility water supplies and infrastructure. Results from the contracted assessments will be incorporated into the NEPA process as supporting information to assist with the development of fuel mitigation alternatives following USFS and NEPA guidelines and policies.

City-owned watershed lands will also be included in environmental assessment for the purposes of evaluating potential impacts of forest management activities around or near the City-owned lands. At the time the Catamount project moves to implementation, Springs Utilities will coordinate with the U.S. Forest Service and CSFS to accomplish fuels mitigation activities as planned for both Forest Service and City-owned watershed lands.

Again, the public and others interested in fuels treatment, or watershed protection, are invited to attend the open house on Thursday, April 23 from 5:30 to 7:30pm at the Colorado Springs Utilities’ Leon Young Service Center Pikes Peak Room, 1521 S Hancock Expressway, Colorado Springs, CO 80903-4801.

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

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.

Upcomming WPHFI Events

WP Fire Fair planning meeting- Friday, Feb. 27, 10 AM at the Ute Pass Cultural Center

Core Group meeting- Wednesday, March 4th, 8:30 AM at the WP- CSFS office

Flying Cloud landowners meeting- Friday, March 6th, 9 AM at the bottom of Lucky Lady Drive

RoundTable Update

FRRT Meeting, February 5, 2009

Last week’s Front Range Round Table (FRRT) meeting was in the FEMA building at the Denver Federal Center. Security was intense entering the circa-1960s nuclear-attack resistant building, but the meeting room could easily hold the large crowd that attended. We had three commissioners attend, including Teller County’s Jim Ignatius (who is also a member of our Leadership Committee), as well as commissioners from Boulder and Gilpin counties. Other WPHFI members attending included Carol Ekarius and Jonathan Bruno of CUSP, and Mike Smith of the Colorado Renewable Resource Cooperative.

Spirits at the FRRT were running high. Our efforts at collaboratively building approaches to forest health and wildfire mitigation seem to be paying off. The WPHFI was held up as a model of where such efforts are going. In a nutshell, these kind of focused and community-driven programs are where work will be happening in the future.

State Forester Jeff Jahnke updated the group on possible funding that may come from the economic recovery legislation to help with our work. And, Jim Ignatius and Paige Lewis (of The Nature Conservancy) discussed activities and plans coming out of the Governor’s Forest Health Advisory Council. Thanks to efforts of the 24-member council, the State Legislature is considering 11 bills this session that will help Coloradoans address issues such as mountain pine beetle.

And speaking of pine beetle, the ecological committee is going to be sending out drafts of a document on scientists’ understanding of the pine beetle impacts to lodgepole pine, and the potential for it to explode into the ponderosa pine. We will send the document to all our members as soon as its available.