Here's how one Colorado community is dealing with the wildfire season that's now 78 days longer
Closed signs went up Monday in JeffCo Open Space's Elk Meadow Park as many of the trails and one park entrance shut down for fire mitigation work and trail and facility improvements at one of the foothillls area's most frequented parks.
Some are understanding of the work being done at places like Elk Meadow and last year at Alderfer/Three Sisters.
"It's safer for us. I mean we all live here and we don't want to have really bad forest fires," said Brent O'Malley as he helped get his son and other kids ready for a bike club excursion at Three Sisters.
But there remain questions and claims about the work that has led to discussion and angst over tree cutting.
"We understand this a very complicated topic with a lot of variables that go into it. And so we expect there to be questions," said Steve Murdock, natural resources team lead with JeffCo Open Space.
"What I've heard from neighbors is that these trees are falling down in windstorms because they're unprotected and that the wildlife that's lived here has been pushed out a little bit," said Evergreen resident Tim Rynders. "They've hauled off so much brush that there's not habitat for what we know as a healthy forest," said Evergreen resident Tim Rynders. Murdock points out that wildlife experts are tracking any potential harm to wildlife as lower vegetation is cleared and said they are yet to come to conclusions about the work. He did note that some animals prefer denser brush, while others prefer more open area. Some trees have fallen as removal has cleared out obstacles to high winds. A certain amount of that is expected in mitigation work said Murdock. The fallen trees are often not removed so they can become animal habitat.
One thing the mitigation work is not, is a logging operation. There are no loggers in the middle part of the Front Range. JeffCo Open Space pays for tree removal by the contractors hired to do the work. Smaller trees that are removed are really only good as firewood notes Murdock. Larger logs are difficult to remove.
Some large trees and branches remain along Buffalo Park Road in the Alderfer/Three Sisters area. That work was part of Xcel Energy's mitigation of vegetation under power lines that run by the road. JeffCo Open Space and Evergreen Fire Rescue signed off on the work, says Murdock.
"So we asked them to actually go in and just take old trees out rather than come in and slowly prune the trees over time which stresses the trees that are left out and ultimately they die anyway," he explained. "It also creates a situation where there's more weight on the road side with branches that are left and so when you get those high wind events or a fire, the tree's more likely to fall toward that road." But much of the work done along the road has yet to be removed.
"We do recognize that and again we are aggressively trying to get that material out of there as soon as possible," he explained.
Mitigation work essentially takes the place of the work which until the arrival of European settlers about 150 years ago, was done by fire. Fire culled trees and left pockets of dense forest, along with other parts of cleared forest. Smaller trees often burned away. Currently, trees in denser forest compete for water and consequently may grow less. Grasses competing with trees and growing in shade are shorter. When trees are spread apart more, grasses grow taller. Inevitable fire burns through the grass quickly, but older trees have more fire resistant bark and if fire cannot climb lower vegetation into the crowns of the trees, there is less crown fire, which is the most dangerous of major fire behavior.
"So we are really looking at those trees that have never seen fire and in some cases there are trees that are 150 maybe slightly older that have never seen a fire and are there unnaturally. So in those cases we will take some of those out. But we're really trying to preserve those large diameter trees," said Murdock.
Parts of Elk Meadow Open Space, including the Stagecoach Trailhead are closed as of July 8 for mitigation and improvements. That will include parts or all of Meadow View, Sleepy S, Elk Ridge, Elk Summit, Ever So Green and Bergen Peak Trails. There will not only be mitigation work, but trail improvements and facilities upgrades to the Stagecoach Trailhead area. JeffCo Open Space hopes to re-open some of the trails like Elk Ridge by late September. But parts closer to the Stagecoach Trailhead will remain closed until well into 2025.
