Vail Valley Forest Health Project,

Adrianna Raudzens – The fire danger caused by the Pine Beetle infestation is a serious problem especially  in the urban interface area. Money to fund mitigation projects is not readily available.

Communities with a  WFPP in place should be able to gain categorical exclusions from the Forest Service to protect their property.

Cary Green – Agrees that this is  a big issue and  there is a lot of work to be done. He sited the $30 million recently made available via an appropriations bill  has some funds for Summit and Eagle.

Brad Piehl -  Looking at the big picture, what can we do not only top protect the health and safety of our community, close in,  but also going into the forest land and looking to take out some of the lodgepole and replace it with Aspens for long term forest health. 

Howard Hallman -  We all agree that common enemy in this group is the bark beetle. From the timber industry to Sierra club, homeowners and the Forest Service, we have been working together for over eight months now.

Adrianna Raudzens -  The Sierra Club is a national grassroots environmental organization which takes its lead from local groups closest to an issue.

Cary Green - Landscape scale and access are both important issues.  The Forest Service plans to fight battles in targeted wildland-urban interface areas and then tackle challenges at the landscape level. Roadless and Wilderness areas generally fall into the no action category.

Phil Bowden – Our options are limited to creating defensible space.

Karn Steigelmeier -   Whenever another environmental group takes an unpopular stand,  the Sierra Club gets blamed for it.  Locally, the Blue River Group has been a leader in conducting fire mitigation projects. Homeowners should have the ability to create buffer zones  on adjacent public land.  She advocates that the FS have greater categorical exclusion (CE) authority to allow these projects to take placein a timely manner.

Alan Wickert  - While his Swan River Ranch HOA  plans to spend $30 K around their water towers, the real danger exists on adjacent public land.

Cary Green -  Rick Newton is working on obtaining CEs for Summit County projects beginning with the Keystone and Lower Blue areas. Since the Forest Service is large agency,  the approval process takes time working through the requisite channels. In addition, the Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) can take up to 180 days to comment on projects before they can be implemented.

Adrianna Raudzens -  CE’s remain an issue within the environmental community but she sees little objection for homeowners defending areas within 200 feet from their structures as outlined in a CWPP. In general, CE’s do pose a policy issue with regard to public land management.

A discussion ensued regarding the Vail Valley Forest Health Project, where opponents have filed an appeal of an agreement between the Town of Vail and Forest Service to begin fire mitigation work there this summer.  The Forest Service is frustrated that these opponents were not fully engaged during the scoping process. This conflict is typical of situations where a national organization or a group, well on the margin, objects to mitigation action after the local stakeholders have come to agreement.

Brad Piehl wondered if there were here ways to expedite the process by doing a comprehensive environmental assessments covering the entire county followed by expedited  CEs for the most impacted areas. Cary Green responded that under current Forest Service procedures, his suggestion is not viable.

Rob Young, who manages Grand River Ranch in Grand County, has  found it impossible to access funds for PB treatments.  He recently visited a heavily- infested area in British Columbia to study how the pine beetle problem there is being addressed. 

His ranch is bordered by both BLM and Forest Service lands. He has experienced little cooperation from the BLM on beetle management initiatives. BLM recently requested he pay a fee  of $25,000 before he could remove diseased trees near his ranch.

He maintains his own firefighting equipment and communication systems.

Carl Spaulding – to attract the timber industry the tree supply must be sustainable over the long term (15-20 years at a minimum). He considers wildfire the biggest threat to the integrity of our watersheds.  

Rob Young -  It is questionable that local  timber operations could  compete with Canadian companies in terms of investment, labor, start up costs and the ability to harvest lodgepole profitably.  

Carl Spaulding -  While it may be  difficult to attract a large scale wood processing plant to our area,  several entrepreneurs are investing in small operations.

Rob Young - Though he would like to see more profitable uses, the best use for the removed trees may be as biofuel.

Courtney Staatz – clarified that Senator Allard voted against the emergency appropriations bill that included the Senator Salazar’s fire mitigation earmark  because there was $14 billion in unrelated pork barrel projects. The Senator’s Watershed Bill has gained the support from other Western governors despite its Colorado focus.

Cary Green previewed his presentation for the June 1st meeting which will detail treatment plans for the Dillon Reservoir and Keystone areas.