Chipping contract to help reduce slash piles on Boulder Ranger District

BOULDER, Colo. (Sept. 12, 2016) – The U.S. Forest Service will begin chipping slash piles this week in various locations around the Boulder Ranger District.

Slash piles are created during fuels reduction projects and are made up of tree limbs, branches and small trunks. This material is piled to burn during the winter months.

Chipping is occasionally used as an alternative to burning slash piles. Areas identified for chipping include places where the terrain is gentle enough to allow the machinery access.

Approximately 350 acres are included in this year’s chipping project, which is being implemented by a contractor. Areas where chipping will occur include:

• West of Peak to Peak about 1 mile south of Bunce Road (FSR 217.1);
• North of Grizzly Drive by the Matoons Highland Subdivision;
• North of Ward along County Road 100;
• Along County Road 52 at Switzerland trail junction, and about 1 mile west of that junction.
• West of Peak to Peak Highway along Lump Gulch Rd and Forest Service Rd 383.1; and
• Near the Front Range Trailhead.

The contractor is generally expected to start on the north end of the district and work south. They have 45 days to complete their work.

Operations will occur between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. six days a week (Sundays excluded) until complete. Machinery noise may be noticeable in these areas. For your safety, please avoid recreating in places where chipping is active.

Early in the past decade, the implementation of fuels reduction projects outpaced disposition of slash created by these projects. In the past four years, however, the district has burned or chipped an estimated 75,000 piles (3,000 acres). In that same time, since 2012, the district’s rate of slash disposal has outpaced treatment acres.

Approximately 65,000 piles (2,600 acres) remain to be burned on the district. Firefighters aim to burn nearly half of those remaining piles this winter if conditions allow.

This fall’s chipping contract will remove an additional 8,000 piles from the landscape.

K. “Reid” Armstrong
Public Affairs Specialist/Community Liaison

Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests

Pawnee National Grassland 

p: 303-541-2532
c: 970-222-7607
krarmstrong@nullfs.fed.us