An expansive fuels reduction project near the Forest Lake subdivision north of Bayfield will move forward next month as loggers begin treatment on 638 acres. The Grassy Mountain Shared Stewardship Project will create a fire break protecting about 1,200 homes.
Cascade Timber Salvage, a Bayfield company, won the contract on the three-year project. Heavy equipment and logging trucks will be working above the subdivision as soon as next month, and will be visible traveling through the neighborhood along predetermined routes.
The cross-boundary project will take place on public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Colorado State Land Board. Led by the National Forest Foundation, the USFS, BLM, Colorado State Forest Service and the State Land Board are working collaboratively in Southwest Colorado in a novel way.
Contractors will use a variety of techniques to create a shaded fuel break, which consists of larger, openly spaced trees with little in the way of ground or ladder fuels.
“The project will be removing a variety of tree sizes and species with the overall goal to reduce the number of trees per acre to lessen wildfire risk and promote a healthier forest,” said San Juan National Forest spokeswoman Lorena Williams in an email. “White fir will be the highest priority for removal, as well as unhealthy overcrowded trees.”
The finished project will look like a healthy forest, Williams said, which is better situated to handle wildfire without producing catastrophic results by keeping fire low in intensity and on the ground. It will look similar to a shaded fuel break constructed north of Edgemont Highlands.
Wood from the project will be made available to Forest Lakes residents for fire wood.
Log hauling will not occur on weekdays from 6:30 a.m. to 8 a.m., and from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. to avoid periods of high residential traffic. Specific work restrictions are also in place at various times to avoid conflicts with recreational uses and bird migration on certain lands within the project.
A NFF information page on the project, accessible at bit.ly/3FCa4g2, will be continuously updated with specific information regarding where and when work will occur.
Got questions?
A virtual question and answer session on the project will be held on March 25 at 6 p.m.
Meeting ID: 288 240 474 181
Passcode: vq2aV3nu
Although the Grassy Mountain project is underway without issue, other Forest Service projects may still be caught in the chaos caused by the sudden federal spending freeze, firings and upcoming reductions in force (which could jeopardize any projects that do proceed). It’s unclear when or if the Durango Hills project, an 1,100-acre fuels reduction effort to protect the neighborhood northeast of Durango, and the Junction-Falls Integrated Resource Management Project, which encompasses wildfire mitigation and other work on 7,000 acres north of Durango, will proceed. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is reviewing projects, their multiple funding sources and their alignment with administrative priorities to determine what will proceed.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
This story has been updated to include a new quote from San Juan National Forest spokeswoman Lorena Williams about the scope of fuels reduction to be done in the Forest Lakes area. Williams mischaracterized the scope of work to be done in an earlier interview.
