Boulder County Forest Health Outreach Updates – Aug. 23, 2012
Today’s forest health outreach update covers the following topics:
* Forest Stewardship Tip of the Day: Fall is a Great Time to Fight Bark Beetles
* Attend a Training: Wildfire Mitigation Trainings in Lyons and Jamestown 
* Announcement: Allenspark Sort Yard will Reopen in September!

* Forestry Article of Interest: Fuels Mitigation Help Firefighting Effort on High Park Fire 

*Forest Stewardship Tip of the Day: Fall is a Great Time to Fight Bark Beetles
Forestry Tip of the Day: Fall is a great time of year to survey for the presence of new Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) infestations. MPBs fly once per year from mid-July to Mid-September. Property owners are encouraged to survey their lands for the presence of newly infested trees beginning mid-September of each year. A step by step Bark Beetle Field Guide (www.bit.ly/BoCoMPB) is available to help identify currently infested trees.

Why is this important??  For the past three years we have seen declining beetle impacts across the State. We aren’t out of the woods yet, but the declining beetle numbers provides hope for the future. Research has shown that landowners who aggressively fight bark beetles can reduce the total number of trees lost during the epidemic. Remember – If you have one beetle infested tree this year and you do nothing that one tree will produce enough beetles to kill 3 to 7 trees the following year.  If you have questions about bark beetle management please feel free to give us a call. We will send out a future Forestry Tip of the Day on the best options available to kill beetles under the bark of an infested tree soon.

*Attend a Training: Upcoming Wildfire Mitigation Trainings in Lyons and Jamestown
We have two more free forestry trainings coming up in the next two weeks focused on proactive Wildfire Mitigation. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to learn about how and why homes are lost during wildfires! If you go you will leave with a much deeper understanding about how to dramatically increase the likelihood of your home surviving the next fire.

Both trainings are free of charge and you are welcome to attend the training that works best with your schedule. If you were one of the 300 folks who attended a training earlier this summer please help spread the word with your friends and neighbors.

Presentations will be given by Boulder County and Colorado State Forest Service staff and local firefighters will be available to answer questions. A more detailed training description is available online: http://www.bouldercounty.org/property/forest/pages/foresthealthevents.aspx

Lyons Area Training
When: Tues., Aug. 28 – 6:30-8:30 p.m. 
Where: Lyons Fire Station # 1 – 251 Broadway
Sponsors: Lyons Fire Protection District

Jamestown/Left Hand Canyon Area Training
When: Thurs., Sept. 6 – 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Where: Jamestown Town Hall, 118 Main St.
Sponsors: Jamestown and Left Hand fire protection districts, Town of Jamestown

*Announcement: Allenspark Sort Yard will Reopen in September! 
We are pleased to announce a limited reopening of the Allenspark Community Forestry Sort Yard. Due to popular demand, the site will operate for four consecutive Fridays and Saturdays in September.

The Allenspark/Meeker Park area sort yard, located on the Peak-to-Peak Highway just north of the Boulder-Larimer county line, will be open on 9/7-9/8, 9/14-9/15, 9/21-9/22, & 9/28-29 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. The south county sort yard, located at 291 Ridge Road, just north of Nederland will continue its 9 -5 p.m., Tues. – Sat., schedule through Oct. 20.

Visit: www.BoulderCounty.org/ForestHealth for more information on the limited reopening. 

We need your Help – Volunteer as a Community Forestry Sort Yard Host!
Volunteer Community Forestry Sort Yard Hosts are needed at the Allenspark Community Forestry Sort Yard to make sure that the yards continue to be a local hub of community-based forestry information. 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. 

The sort yard is looking for individuals who can commit to 2-4 hour shifts, a minimum of 8 hours for the month, with the greatest need for volunteers on Saturdays. The application deadline is Sept. 6. For more information and/or to receive a volunteer application, contact Wayne Harrington at 303-678-6368 or wharrington@nullbouldercounty.org.

*Forestry Article of Interest: Fuels Mitigation Help Firefighting Effort on High Park Fire
When wildfires occur it is easy to dwell on the negative impacts to homes, communities and the forested ecosystem. However, we have a fantastic example of how proactive fuels mitigation helped change the way the massive High Park Fire burned across the landscape. The Colorado State Forest Service put together a feature story which clearly demonstrates what can be done to prepare our disturbance driven forest ecosystems and communities for inevitable wildfires. As you read the story we challenge you to think about your own backyard forest and how the effective mitigation you implement can help increase the likelihood of your home and trees surviving the next wildfire.

Read the story here: http://csfs.colostate.edu/pages/main-features.html#high-park-lsp

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 sign-up to receive emails about forestry workshops, community meetings, bark beetle management tips and more!