Cutting Down Christmas Trees At Aspen Canyon Ranch Helps Give Back To Colorado Communities

GRAND COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) -- A tree-cutting operation in Grand County is doing a lot of good this Christmas! People gathered at the Aspen Canyon Ranch last week to choose their own tree. They paid with a donation to Denver's Delores Project -- which gives shelter to women experiencing homelessness.

The operation was guided by the forest service. Cutting down trees and spacing them out also part of increased wildfire mitigation.

All this work was possible because of the sale of the ranch to a group called Project Sanctuary. They bring military families together to reconnect after long deployments.

"If you give it to a rich guy, they're gonna put a big fence around it and close it off," said Philip Sevier. "When you sell it to an organization -- there's gonna be hundreds of people affected positively because of this experience. A family fishin' in the river, hangin' out, hikin'. We have beautiful lakes."

"And will help heal these people," said Barry Petersen.

"It will. It will," Sevier added.

On top of all that, the log cabins left to decay on the ranch will instead be refurbished and are now headed for nearby mountain towns in desperate need of additional housing.