Meyer Ranch Park in Jefferson County will close this month for a tree-thinning project more than a century in the making, and the canopy inside the popular area is set to look wildly different once it reopens in March 2027.
The , with trailheads off of U.S Highway 285 in Morrison, is dangerously overgrown and presents an “extreme fire risk,” according to Jefferson County Open Space. The new closure that also worked to restore about 37 acres of forest and cut down on dry, overgrown fuel for potential wildfires.
“The whole thing is centered around an 185-acre forest management project, mostly on the south side of 285, but also on the north side that’s already closed,” said Tony Auciello, natural resources vegetation stewardship supervisor for Jefferson County. “Due to 150 years of fire suppression, which was one of the major forces that was used to keep our forest healthy, we now have way more trees on the landscape than we naturally and healthily did.”
That amounts to unchecked growth resulting in relatively dense stands, which are unnatural for this part of the country — despite becoming a familiar sight to Coloradans over the last few decades. The fierce competition among lodgepole pines, ponderosa pines and aspens for sunlight, water, and soil nutrients has made our forests look more like those of along the East Coast or in the Pacific Northwest, Auciello said.
Between 50% and 70% of the existing trees will be removed to allow the more resilient, soil- and animal-friendly trees to thrive, including aspens and Ponderosa pines — with aspens in particular being more fire resistant than most, given their higher moisture content and lack of flammable resins. The mixed conifers that are set to be removed are far more vulnerable.
Visitors who hike or ride bikes or horses through the area will notice the change immediately.
“Aspens are way better on the landscape and have incredible wildlife benefits,” Auciello said. “We had moose down in one of our treatments from earlier in the year and, actually, a lot of bats like aspen, which was kind of surprising to me as a forester. Tons of bird species, elk and deer like eating the bark in the winter. Our biologists on the team are pretty excited.”
Park officials know that visitors will miss the space, which is typically open year-round, once it closes on Oct. 19, with a tentative reopening date of March 31, 2027. It contains a popular sledding hill that empties into a meadow, and 4 miles of trails that wind through gorgeous foothills scenery. Alternative park locations nearby include Conifer/Evergreen/Pine areas are Alderfer/Three Sisters, Beaver Ranch, Elk Meadow, Flying J Ranch, Pine Valley and Reynolds, .
“We know the public is very concerned about the sledding hill in particular, and we have looked at every option possible to keep it open,” Auciello said. “But we have to balance keeping the closure as short as possible and safety to the public.”
The timing is key since park officials want to avoid April nesting season, which is a sensitive time in the life cycle of bird species. The October-March period also allows for the least impact to plant communities and soils that maintain the forest floor health. Auciello noted that certain areas will be protected overall, such as the nesting grounds of a rare northern goshawk, which can have a wingspan of up to 4 feet.
The project is a huge disturbance, Auciello acknowledged, but because of the poor health of the area, the short-term costs will yield long-term benefits, including watching native grasses and shrubs fill in the otherwise bare areas where vulnerable trees once crowded together.
“Even when they’re choked out and suppressed, we see aspen seedlings and saplings in some areas trying to come up, but then they die because there’s too much shade,” Auciello said. “Because aspens are less flammable than the other trees, they usually do really well after a fire comes through and removes all of the competition, so we’re expecting them to absolutely thrive.”
The project is part of a larger, 10-year U.S. Forest Service drive to prevent wildfire catastrophes by “treating” — defined as prescribed burns or thinning — up to 50 million acres of mostly public forests in the West. Fully 65% of the forests in Colorado are federally managed, and planners have prioritized forests around urban areas, including Colorado’s Front Range from Fort Collins southward to Pueblo, designating this 3.5 million-acre area as one of the Westap most imperiled “high-risk fire-sheds.”
