抖阴ap

Bailey – Late-winter snow and spring rain haven’t cooled wildfire concerns in the Upper South Platte River watershed.

“It’s just as dry this year as it has been the last two years,” John Pawlik, wildland mitigation specialist for the upper Platte Canyon Fire Protection District, said after speaking on the subject to a full house Tuesday morning at the fire station near Bailey.

Snow and rain in late winter and spring drain off quickly and do little to fatten up plants and trees to resist fires in late summer, he said.

Since devastating wildfires roared across this five-county region southwest of Denver in 2002, residents have been mindful of the tragedy, but they’re starting to backslide on keeping their homes free of the trees and brush that fuel flames, Pawlik said.

With the start of fire season a few weeks away, the month of June also will mark the commencement of a government-funded program to reduce fuels for wildfires.

The fire district received a $75,000 federal grant for fire prevention, the first department in Colorado to participate in the pilot program to help protect 38,975 fire-prone acres from Conifer to Bailey.

The work could help protect 800 to 1,000 homes from wildfire, said Fire Chief Jeff Davis. “We’ve got forests and we’ve got people, so we’ve got issues.”

Real estate broker Larry Ray was busy clearing and stacking limbs Tuesday morning at his 10-acre mountain homestead near Pine Junction. He has cleared only a fraction of what he needs to take out, he said.

Most city folks he sells mountain homes to are “naive” about the risk of wildfires, he said. “You have to pay attention to what’s around your house, and you have to do what you have to do.”

Though “thinning” forests worries those who envision commercial logging and clear-cutting, this is not that drastic, Davis said.

Bailey resident Ann Smeal, a magazine writer who has investigated foresting practices, said she endorses the work proposed by the U.S. Forest Service.

Mel Schulman, program chairman for the Evergreen Naturalists Audubon Society, is split on the issue, but he intends to make a case for the plan.

Reasonable thinning maintains forest health and protects nesting areas from devastating fires, he said. “There just needs to be a meeting of the minds on the information and the benefits.”

Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-820-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.

---

Public comment on “thinning”

The public comment period for the “thinning program” is open until Monday. Comments can be submitted to Greystone Inc., Attention: Harris Park Fuels Management Project, 5231 S. Quebec St., Greenwood Village, CO 80111. They can be faxed to 303- 721-9298 or e-mailed to harrispark@greystone.us.