Chaffee Chips recently wrapped up its fifth year hosting wildfire mitigation events by removing the final slash piles from Granite Parkway northwest of Poncha Springs. Nearly 500 slash piles were removed during four events that took place across the county this year, from Game Trail to Chalk Creek to areas near Poncha Springs.
Since the program’s inception, 860 landowners have spent 9,850 hours creating 2,770 slash piles. Thank you to each resident who did the hard work of felling trees, trimming branches and piling slash neatly near their curbs.
This work is important because removing vegetation like trees, limbs and brush from around structures prevents wildfires from spreading and helps firefighters more safely engage in a wildfire incident to protect homes, neighborhoods and the entire community.
Chaffee County Fire Protection District staff and volunteers hauled slash to the landfill, where it will be chipped by a large grinder and used in landfill operations to help bury trash.
Chaffee Chips is part of a community-wide effort led by the Forest Health Council to implement the Community Wildfire Protection Plan. The goal is to treat 30,000 acres by 2030 to half the risk wildfire poses to our most important community resources, which include homes as well as human lives and infrastructure like power lines and drinking water supplies. A third of the Treatment Priority Acres mapped in the plan are located on private property. The hard work completed by everyone through Chaffee Chips this year made a dent in our audacious goal.
Chaffee Chips has been supported by funding from Chaffee Common Ground and Colorado State Forest Service grants. A special thanks to these funders. We have a lot more fire mitigation work to do so we’ll see you next year!
