Forest Stewardship Tip of the Day: Bark Beetle Surveys Should Happen Now!

A majority of mountain pine beetles have now finished their annual flight and it is a great time of year to get out in your woods to survey your land for newly infested trees. By aggressively surveying for and removing currently infested trees each year, you have the ability to slow the spread of beetles in your local forest.

We are excited to announce a brand new “Bark Beetle Inspector Identification and Treatment Field Guide”. We hope this guide helps you be more effective at surveying your land for newly infested trees. You can download a copy of the new guide by visiting our Forest Health website:http://www.bouldercounty.org/find/library/environment/barkbeetlefieldguide.pdf (3MB).  Printed copies will be available in the County Land Use Office in a couple of weeks.

Community Meeting: To Review the Draft Boulder County Community Wildfire Protection Plan

The County has drafted the “Boulder County Community Wildfire Protection Plan” which is the blueprint for future wildfire mitigation programs at a countywide scale. The draft plan contains numerous recommendations for policies, programs, and projects to help protect communities from future wildfires. These recommendations will help support the efforts being undertaken through local fire district community wildfire protection plans.

The draft plan is available for review at www.bouldercountycwpp.org. Please submit written comments on the draft plan to Jim Webster at jbwebster@nullbouldercounty.org by Friday, Sept. 23.

Jim Webster, Community Wildfire Protection Planner for Boulder County, would also like to invite you to attend a community meeting to review the draft plan. He will be answering questions and explaining the plan. Your participation is important. By commenting on the draft plan, residents can help insure future wildfire mitigation initiatives are successful.

Two Community Meetings are Scheduled: 1) Monday, September 19^th from 7:00-8:00 p.m. at Sunshine Fire Station #1, 311 County Road 83 and 2) Wednesday, September 21^st from 7:00-8:00 p.m. at Lyons Town Hall, 432 5^th Avenue

If you have questions please contact: Jim Webster at jbwebster@nullbouldercounty.org or 720-564-2600 P.O. Box 471, Boulder, CO 80306.

Mark your Calendars: Wildfire Preparedness and Planning Workshop – Saturday, Oct. 1 in Nederland

When: Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011 – 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Where: Nederland Community Center, 750 Highway 72 North
What: Free half-day Wildfire Mitigation Workshop
RSVP: Call 303-678-6238 or email sbokan@nullbouldercounty.org

Whether you live in the mountains, foothills or plains areas, we are all vulnerable to wildfires. As we pass the one year anniversary of the Fourmile Fire, it is good to remind ourselves about the need for proactive fire mitigation, evacuation planning, and sound forest management to reduce the impacts from future fires to your home and family.

The Colorado State Forest Service, Boulder and Gilpin Counties and CSU Extension in Boulder, Larimer and Gilpin Counties and Nederland Fire Protection District have put together this workshop to help you be prepared.  Titled “15 months, 15 days, 15 hours and 15 minutes”, the workshop will guide you through these time periods and what you can be doing in each to be ready and to help you and your house survive.

Specifically the workshop will cover:

• Creating three zones of defensible space – tree thinning
• Ignition resistant construction and building material modification
• Ongoing annual wildfire mitigation measures – grass cutting, seasonal clean up
• Family and personal information preparedness, evacuation/emergency planning, and home owners insurance.

The same workshop was offered in the spring of 2011 at the Boulder County Courthouse and the Gilpin County Community Center. Due to positive feedback, we are offering this wildfire workshop again this fall.  Mark your calendars and plan to attend this timely training!

RSVP by calling 303-678-6238 or email sbokan@nullbouldercounty.org with your name, email, phone number and number of people attending.  RSVP is not required but is helpful as we prepare materials for the workshop.

Boulder County’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan Video Series: Walker Ranch Fire

Today we encourage you to view the Boulder County CWPP video which features the 2000 Walker Ranch Fire.Resident Ginger Graham tells the story of the 2000 Walker Ranch Fire. Everyone in the community was talking about the possibility of a wildfire because of the extreme conditions. Ginger recalls, “It was the years of the droughts so we’re over 90 degrees for a month and a half, there’s no rain at all, the winds are high, the trees are screaming for moisture; it’s just terrible.  There were signs up on the road about how dry and how dangerous it was, you know, people were doing all kinds of things.  Even neighbors were walking the trails trying to make sure that nobody was out here smoking and all of us were talking about it.”

Link to the Walker Ranch CWPP video:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BoulderCounty#p/c/466B051AC3E3C8BE/1/_HK2zqASlUI

Cheers,
Ryan

Ryan Ludlow | Forestry Education & Outreach Coordinator
Boulder County | Land Use Department
P.O. Box 471, Boulder CO 80306
O: 720.564.2641 | F: 303.441.4856
rludlow@nullbouldercounty.org | www.bouldercounty.org/ForestHealth

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