WPHFI Initiates Ecological Monitoring Program on the Long John West USFS Unit

Posted on April 18, 2009 by admin

: Left to Right: Mica Keralis, Amanda Morrison, Amanda Bucknam, Theresa Springer; kneeling: Kendal Hovel

March 16, 2009. A group of professionals from the USFS, Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS) and CSU Extension joined members from the Coalition for the Upper South Platte (CUSP) and the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute (CFRI) to discuss and implement an ecological monitoring plan to be used by the WPHFI. Contributing to the group were Bob Ayotte and Ed Biery (USFS), Dave Root (CSFS), Mark Platten (CSU Extension), Theresa Springer and Matt Matwijec (CUSP), and Jessica Clement and Mica Keralis (CFRI). A planning meeting was held on Monday at the Manitou Experimental Forest Headquarters with the goal of discussing and agreeing to the ecological monitoring protocols and plan. The main objectives of the protocols and plan are to measure the fire risk and to evaluate to overall health of the forest within the WPHFI boundary. The meeting went very well and the group was able to agree to the draft plan.

Beginning on Tuesday, March 17, a group of motivated individuals got together and initiated the ecological monitoring plan. This group was comprised of Theresa Springer & Matt Matwijec (CSUP), Kendal Hovel (Science Dept, Woodland Park High School), Bob Sturtevant, Amanda Bucknam & Amanda Morrison (CSFS), and Mica Keralis (CFRI). The group spent the rest of the week traversing the 236 acres of terrain at the USFS Long John West site, collecting valuable pre-treatment information on the fuel loading, forest stand structure and forest health of the site. The pre-treatment information will be compared with post-treatment information collected at the same points. The information collected will be used to evaluate the effects of fire mitigation through fuels reduction treatments and the overall forest health within the WPHFI boundary.

Overall the week was a huge success for all parties involved but especially for the community of Woodland Park. The WPHFI has kicked off a long term ecological monitoring plan that can be executed by Woodland Park community members to help in the long-term monitoring of their forests.

Open House to Discuss Catamount Fuels Project

Posted on April 15, 2009 by admin

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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.

You’re Invited to a “Defensible Space” Presentation on Wednesday, April 22nd

Posted on April 13, 2009 by admin

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You’re Invited to a “Defensible Space” Presentation on Wednesday, April 22nd at 7:00pm.

Larry Long, District Forester with the Colorado State Forest Service will be speaking on what you can do to keep your property safe before a wildfire happens. The presentation is being hosted by the Woodland Park Community Church. The public is invited to attend.

Topics will include fire behavior, historical forest conditions, defensible space, and forest health.

Our Forests, Then and Now

Posted on April 7, 2009 by admin

Woodland Park around 1900, notice how open the forest on Gold Hill in the background is. (Photo courtesy of the Ute Pass Historical Society)

Most of the people who move to the forest do so for a number of reasons. Most often cited is the desire to live in a natural environment or something similar. To most folks the term natural means whatever the forest looked like the day they moved in.

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.

Woodland Park today. This photo was taken from the same spot as the previous one. Note how the openings on gold hill are gone and the trees have become more dense.

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!!!!

Posted on April 2, 2009 by admin

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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

Woodland Park Healthy Forest Initiative

Monthly Archives: April 2009