Massive thinning project slated for forest near Estes
Estes Park – One of the biggest forest-thinning projects in Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest history could begin this fall.
Forest managers have approved the Estes Valley Fuels Reduction Project, a plan to thin the forest by removing trees on 7,129 acres southeast of Estes Park between U.S. 36 and Colorado 7.
The project had faced a mix of opposition and support from environmental groups and homeowners who wanted forest health restored and fire risk reduced, though not if it meant building roads in the largely roadless area.
Forest areas near homes probably will be the first to be thinned.
The U.S. Forest Service, under the plan as it was approved, won’t build any permanent roads, though Forest Service vehicle and foot traffic could leave paths on the land, said Dyce Gayton, natural resource coordinator at the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest.
Access to as much as one-third of the project area will depend on whether private-property owners allow the Forest Service to cross their land if no new roads are built. So far some landowners have been reluctant, partly because the project could take four to five years, Gayton said.
The agency probably will approach property owners in phases, he said.
Thinning the forest is necessary to reduce fire danger in the populated area because more than a century of putting out fires has led to dense, overgrown forests throughout the West.
FORT MORGAN
Sheriff identifies pilot in fatal plane crash
The Morgan County sheriff has identified Lenord Brown, 66, of Fort Morgan as the man who died in an ultra-light plane crash Saturday.
Brown was flying alone near the Fort Morgan airport when his plane “dropped straight out of the air,” Sheriff Jim Crone said.
Crone said Sunday that investigators are still searching for clues, but he said mechanical failure may be the cause.
Brown was one of three people who died in two small- aircraft crashes over the weekend. Two people died Friday in a crash in Weld County after taking off from Erie Municipal Airport.
DENVER
Police ID man fatally shot at home Friday
A man fatally shot at a home near Sloan’s Lake on Friday afternoon has been identified as Gilbert Vibana, 20, said Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson.
Police were dispatched to a house at West 23rd Avenue and Julian Street and found Vibana wounded. He died at a local hospital.
Witnesses said several suspects fled the house on foot, police said.
DENVER
Name changes sought for two rail stations
RTD directors on Tuesday night will vote on a proposal to change the name of the existing Oxford Station on the southwest corridor light-rail line to the Oxford-City of Sheridan Station.
The station sits within Sheridan’s boundaries, said Mary Carter, the city’s mayor, and adding her community’s name to the station will give the city of 5,700 people added “name recognition.”
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the Regional Transportation District board of directors will consider a companion request to change the name of the University Station on the southeast corridor rail line to University of Denver Station.
The southeast line is being built as part of the T-REX project and is scheduled to open late next year. The university requested the station name change.
RTD officials said it will cost at least $40,000 to make the name changes on station signs and audio and text messages.
EL RITO, N.M.
Residents told to flee expanding canyon fire
New Mexico State Police were called to help evacuate an estimated 100 residents north of El Rito, where a fire burning in La Madera Canyon had grown as large as 2,000 acres by Sunday evening.
Fire information officer Dorotea Martinez said U.S. Forest Service officials estimated 100 people reside in the evacuation area.
The fire, burning ponderosa pine, piñon and juniper in the Carson National Forest, was fueled by high afternoon winds and expanded from about 300 acres at 10 a.m. It was estimated at between 1,500 and 2,000 acres.
CHEYENNE
Nuclear missiles to be officially deactivated
The Peacekeeper nuclear missile, credited by some with helping with the demise of the Soviet Union and winning the Cold War, was to be officially deactivated today.
F.E. Warren Air Force Base oversaw the only squadron of 50 Peacekeepers deployed in the United States. Each 71-foot-tall, 8-foot-diameter missile, deployed in the 1980s, carried 10 warheads.
