Forest Stewardship Tip of the Day: Bust out your Rakes – Spring is Here!

Numerous wind storms battered the foothills this winter and if your backyard looks anything like mine then you have branches strewn throughout and pine needles are piled in your gutters, roof and at the base of your flammable siding. There have already been a few small wildfires this spring and until grasses start to green up we will be at an elevated risk for wildfires.

Forestry Tip of the Day: Right now, before grasses and shrubs green up is a good time to rake away all of the pine needles and grasses that have collected in “jackpots” along your homes flammable building material (walls, decks, fences, gutters etc.). 

Why is this simple task important??? One of the three primary reasons why homes burn during wildfires is because of a phenomenon known as “ember blizzards”. During wildfires thousands of flaming hot embers blow great distances ahead of the main fire front and hit the vertical walls of houses and roof lines. Upon contact with walls and roofs the embers flow like water and collect in hot piles of burning embers by your homes foundation and in the gutters. If you take action and rake all pine needles and grasses away from your home, keeping a nice cleared area of 3-5 feet around your home, you can dramatically reduce the likelihood of your home igniting from ember blizzards. Don’t let embers burn you!

As part of the County’s Forest Health Initiative, we are offering a series of free forestry trainings this spring focused on wildfire mitigation. We are currently setting up training dates in Allenspark, Coal Creek Canyon, and Nederland (dates will be announced soon). If your HOA, Town, Fire Protection District and/or community group would like to schedule your own local wildfire mitigation training please contact us.

Next week we are offering the first in the series of trainings in the Sugarloaf Community. Join us on Tuesday, March 20 from 6-7 pm to learn about the “Keys to Creating and Maintaining Effective Defensible Space”. Ryan Ludlow, Boulder County’s Outreach Forester will provide you with lessons learned from the Fourmile Fire and a list of concrete steps that you can take to dramatically improve the chances of your home surviving the next wildfire. For more info visit:http://www.bouldercounty.org/live/environment/land/pages/foresthealthevents.aspx 

Volunteer Community Forestry Sort Yard Hosts are needed at the Allenspark and Nederland Community Forestry Sort Yards to make sure that the yards continue to be a local hub of community-based forestry information. Volunteer Sort Yard Hosts will greet people as they enter the yard, collect data on the material they are delivering, provide outreach to sort yard users about forest ecology, bark beetles, and wildfire mitigation. Volunteers will not be responsible for helping unload logs and slash. 

This summer the Allenspark Sort Yard will operate May 1 to July 7 from 9am to 5pm, Tuesday-Saturday. We are looking for individuals who can commit to 4 hour shifts, a minimum of 15 hours per month. Our greatest needs are Tuesdays and Saturdays.

The Nederland Sort Yard will operate Fridays and Saturdays from May 18 to June 9, 9am to 5pm. We are looking for individuals who can commit to 2-3 hour shifts, a minimum of 10 hours total volunteer commitment. 

Application deadline is April 27th and training is scheduled for May 5th. For more information and/or to receive a volunteer application, contact Shane Milne at 303-678-6089 orsmilne@nullbouldercounty.org.

Visit http://www.bouldercounty.org/live/environment/land/pages/fhsortyards.aspx for further info about our Community Forestry Sort Yard Program including the 2012 operational schedule.

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