Posts tagged wildfire
Nederland Area Community Forestry Sort Yard to reopen in August
Jul 26th
Boulder County, Colo. – The Boulder County Forest Health Initiative is pleased to announce that the Nederland Community Forestry Sort Yard will reopen to area residents on Saturday, Aug. 4.
The sort yard, located at 291 Ridge Road just north of Nederland, will be open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays, through Oct. 20.
Boulder County operates two sort yards each summer in order to provide residents a free of charge location to dispose of logs and slash cut from their land. The Allenspark/Meeker Park area sort yard, located on the Peak-to-Peak Highway just north of the Boulder-Larimer county line closed for the season on July 7.
The widely popular sort yard program has experienced increasingly high usage since it first started accepting material in 2008.
“It was truly amazing seeing so many landowners taking action to prepare their homes for future wildfires,” sort yard manager Wayne Harrington said. “This summer we have seen a nearly constant stream of traffic with trucks, trailers, and even Subarus filled to the brim with slash and logs.”
Why should forest landowners be interested in this county service?
The county’s Forest Health Outreach Program for private landowners has been actively encouraging all forest landowners to be good stewards of their backyard forest. The county recommends all landowners create effective defensible space around their homes, aggressively fight bark beetle infestations, and otherwise create healthy sustainable forest ecosystems on their land.
Community forestry sort yards are one tool available to help landowners effectively manage their forested lands. A major hurdle many landowners face when implementing effective mitigation on their land is what to do with leftover slash and logs.
Learn more about wildfire mitigation and bark beetle management
The county works with local fire protection districts, communities and agency partners to offer local community forestry trainings and workshops on wildfire mitigation, bark beetle management and forest restoration. Residents can connect with the Boulder County Forest Outreach Program for private landowners by visiting www.BoulderCounty.org/ForestHealth.
One of the best ways to stay connected about upcoming programs is to sign up for the forest health listserv at www.BoulderCounty.org/ForestHealth. Once signed up, individuals will receive periodic forestry tips of the day, information about upcoming forestry trainings, and other information directly related to managing a backyard forest.
In addition, county outreach forester Ryan Ludlow is available to help answer individual forestry questions and can help set-up free mini neighborhood forest management workshops at a home or at larger community trainings for HOAs, towns and neighborhoods. Give Ryan a call at 720-564-2641 or emailrludlow@bouldercounty.org.
Forest Landowners are also encouraged to work with the Boulder District of Colorado State Forest Service to implement effective mitigation on their land. CSFS is the lead state agency providing forest stewardship and wildfire mitigation assistance to private landowners. Contact the Boulder District of CSFS at 303-823-5774.
To learn more about how to create and maintain effective wildfire mitigation on personal property visit http://csfs.colostate.edu/pages/wf-protection.html orwww.firewise.org.
To learn more about bark beetle management visit www.BoulderCounty.org/ForestHealth and open the “Bark Beetle Inspector Identification and Treatment Field Guide” or visit http://ammo.com/articles/why-prepare-for-a-disaster.
Watch Out For Boulder Boomerang Effect With City Park Ban On Homeless by Rob Smoke
Apr 2nd
….DOES the possibility of increased wilderness usage by homeless people —
people who may have been affected or influenced by Boulder’s new rules
banning people from parks at night — indicate a higher risk of fire?
In fact, there’s no other conclusion that can be reached.
It should be pointed out that stating an increased risk is not bashing the homeless.
If someone is outdoors and physically exposed, and there are limited options,
a fire is something very useful, even if it is in violation of an ordinance.
Also, the circumstances that can lead to a campfire turning into a wildfire
can be as simple as leaving the fire unattended when it appears to be out —
and it’s a phenomena that need occur only in an extremely small fraction of all
instances of people using an outdoor fire to create a disaster, which is not to call homeless people
as a group “firebugs.”
If I’m not mistaken, the Fourmile and/or Dome fires were considered likely to have
been caused by outdoor campfires, according to sheriff Pelle.
The city of Boulder, and soon to be city of Denver, it appears, are enacting
ordinances which essentially ask homeless people to disappear.
One has to consider the availability of “disappearable” locations —
our wilderness areas comprise, geographically, the largest subset of
disappearable locations. It should also be noted, the new rules and
regulations — and the anti-camping ordinances — are essentially a violation
of civil rights, putting people in harm’s way without recourse.
Whilst officials tell their constituents they are “cleaning up” the homeless problem;
facts are, a wildfire caused by a homeless person who might have otherwise
stayed in a city park, without a fire, but closer to basic services —
would be a horrible boomerang effect — not a small price to pay for
relying on law enforcement to solve a social crisis.
People need to open their eyes — not because the homeless
somehow threaten to burn down Colorado, but because
the risk of fire is substantial enough that the only prudent thing
to do under these circumstances is everything in our power
to lessen risk. It would be one thing if every homeless
person represented a lost tree. The mathematics of the risk, in this case,
indicate that it could be one non-malicious homeless person out of thousands causing
the loss of a forest or homes or lives. That increased risk, in light of the new
laws, is a serious issue. The risk situation is analogous
to nuclear power safety. It’s perfectly safe, except when it isn’t.
Put another way, although many thousands of matches
may be lit that do not lead to a forest fire, it still takes only one lit match.
Another aspect, of equal concern I’m certain,
is that putting people into the wilderness — which is simply an obvious possible
result of the anti-homeless ordinances — exposes them to a spectrum of dangers.
People die out in the wilderness all the time for lack of food, water, warmth
or emergency medical services.
The immediate solution is to suspend enactment of ordinances
banning people from public places. If Boulder or Denver residents find the presence of homeless
people inconvenient or unpleasant, then solutions that don’t involve making them “disappear”
must be sought.
Rob Smoke is a political columnist for Boulder Channel 1 often writing about city politics. Rob is a critic and one man watch dog of the council and has been for over 20 years. He has been a writer and journalist for many local papers. Tuesdays nights he can be found at Boulder city council meetings.
Boulder gets wise to wise to wildfires
Sep 29th
Boulder County, Colo. – October is Wildfire Awareness Month in Boulder County and will feature a full slate of educational programs and events, community mitigation and forestry thinning efforts, and the launch of the Boulder County Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
A free half-day wildfire mitigation workshop in Nederland on Oct. 1 will help guide county residents through a checklist of modifications they can make to better prepare their homes in defense of a wildfire.
“Nearly half of Boulder County is forested and at high risk for wildfires,” Boulder County Community Wildfire Protection Planner Jim Webster said. “Population growth in the forested areas has resulted in an increased risk of wildfire and in more direct impacts to residents, so we want to help people take a role in preventing and preparing for future wildfires.”
Wildfire mitigation measures can help minimize the destructive effects a wildfire has on forested lands and homes in the wildland urban interface and the following Wildfire Awareness Month events were developed to educate residents and promote action to reduce the frequency and severity of future wildfires in Boulder County:
Event
Location
Date/Time
Walker Ranch Fire Ecology Hike
Meyers Homestead Trailhead
Oct. 1, 10 a.m.-noon
Wildfire Preparedness & Planning Workshop
Nederland Community Center
Oct. 1, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
REI Fire Series Presentation: The Effects of Fire on Soils