Forest Health Outreach Program offers tips and tools for landowners

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.