*Forestry Tip of the Day: Bark Beetle Surveys Should Start Now
*Free Outreach Program: Nationally-renowned building scientist to discuss home wildfire mitigation – Mon., Oct. 21
*We need your help! Do you want to be one of our new Wildfire Consultants?
*Bring us your Logs and Slash Now! We Close for Winter Soon.

*Forestry Tip of the Day: Bark Beetle Surveys Should Start Now
Forestry Tip of the Day: Fall is by far the best time of year to survey for and remove currently infested mountain pine beetle trees. To identify infested trees use our Bark Beetle Field Guide –http://www.bouldercounty.org/doc/forest/barkbeetlefieldguide.pdf

If you want to keep logs as firewood, take these steps:
*Step #1 – “Cut down infested tree” remove the limbs and haul them to a community forestry sort yard, community chipping event or chip on-site.
*Step #2 – “Score the logs” by cutting furrows lengthwise down the entire log every 3-4 inches. Cuts don’t need to be too deep, just cut through the outer bark to the “white fleshy” cambium layer. This step speeds up the drying of the logs.
*Step #3 – “Buck (cut) the logs” into firewood sized pieces
*Step #4 – “Split the logs” and stack firewood in single rows, facing southwest, in the sunniest spot possible, with bark facing the sun. Do not stack the firewood in large piles.
*Alternative: After step # 3, don’t split the bucked up logs. Instead, place them in single rows facing southwest in a very sunny location. Logs must be rotated every couple of months to optimize sun exposure.

The goal of this treatment is to rapidly dry the logs and kill the developing larva before they fly next summer. If you use this method, you should start treatments soon to take advantage of remaining warmer fall days.

*Free Outreach Program: Nationally-renowned building scientist to discuss home wildfire mitigation – Mon., Oct. 21
The Science of Home Ignition: Reducing your Home’s Vulnerability to Wildfire
When: Monday, Oct. 21 from 6:30 – 8 p.m.
Where: Boulder County Regional Fire Training Center, Boulder Reservoir, 5565 N. 51st St., Boulder

How do homes burn during wildfires? Dr. Stephen Quarles, one of the nation’s leading scientists studying this issue, has answers for homeowners looking to protect their property.

At the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety’s Research Center, Dr. Quarles injects burning embers into the wind stream in a large testing chamber, effectively reproducing ember storms typically observed during wildfires. Full-scale homes and commercial structures are built and transported into the test chamber so Dr. Quarles can study how ember attack and torching vegetation ignite structures. The primary objective of this research is to reduce the likelihood of wildfire-caused building ignitions in communities located in wildfire-prone areas such as the foothills of Boulder County.
To watch a video of the ember generator, visit http://www.disastersafety.org/video/page/5/.

Dr. Quarles will be presenting groundbreaking research in his presentation “The Science of Home Ignition: Reducing your Home’s Vulnerability to Wildfire,” on Monday, Oct. 21 from 6:30 – 8 p.m. at the Boulder County Regional Fire Training Center, Boulder Reservoir, 5565 N. 51st St., Boulder.

To reach the Boulder County Regional Fire Training Center, drive through the Boulder Reservoir’s main entrance, continue past the recreational facilities, and drive to the end of the road where the center is located.

This presentation is part of Wildfire Awareness Month. Boulder County declared October as Wildfire Awareness Month in 2011 based on a recommendation from residents to help educate the community and promote individual responsibility in preparing for future wildfires. Other events planned for the month, including the Wildfire Mitigation Challenge, have been cancelled due to the impacts of the September flood.

For more information, visit www.BoulderCountyWildfireAware.org, or contact Wildfire Mitigation Specialist Andrew Notbohm at 720-564-2625 or anotbohm@nullbouldercounty.org

*We need your help! Do you want to be one of our new Wildfire Consultants? 
Boulder County has issued RFP 5884-13 for Wildfire Consultants. Wildfire Partners is a new program to reduce wildfire risk for homeowners. To help implement Wildfire Partners, Boulder County is hiring 6-10 independent Wildfire Consultants to educate residents on how to prepare for wildfires, perform individual wildfire assessments of homes, and inspect wildfire mitigation measures. Consultants will work part-time starting in January 2014. Initial funding for Wildfire Partners comes from a Colorado Department of Natural Resources Wildfire Risk Reduction Grant. Information on the Wildfire Partners program for the general public along with the application forms required for residents to participate will be available starting in January 2014.

Email inquires for the RFP can be made to the Boulder County Purchasing Office at purchasing@nullbouldercounty.orgby 4 p.m. October 21. Submittals are due November 8, 2013 before 2 p.m. For Details Visit: (https://www.bouldercounty.org/gov/business/pages/biddetails.aspx?bidID=45)

*Bring us your Logs and Slash Now! We Close for Winter Soon.
This is the last Friday and Saturday of the year to drop slash and logs off at the Nederland Sort yard site. Our south county site will close for the season at 5pm on Saturday Oct. 12. It is open 9 am to 5pm.

Our Allenspark sort yard site is only open for one more week. This site is open Tues.- Sat. closing for the season at 5pm on Oct. 19.

Important: Flood Debris Drop-Off Information
Our sort yard program is only able to accept clean and natural wood debris from the flood. We are not able to accept mud covered wood or any secondary processed wood products like dimensional lumber, landscape timbers, posts, poles or other construction debris. We will turn away loads of material that has construction material mixed in or if it is covered in mud.

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
*Please visit our website to join our Forest Health Outreach eNewsletter. Learn about upcoming forestry workshops, wildfire mitigation, bark beetle management tips and more!