Chaffee Chips recently wrapped up its fourth year by removing 290 piles of slash from the Mesa Antero neighborhood near Nathrop — our largest event yet. Everyone working to decrease the threat of wildfire and become more fire-ready deserves a huge pat on the back!
More than 300 homeowners participated in Chaffee Chips wildfire mitigation events this year. Since the program’s inception, 750 landowners have spent 8,600 hours creating 2,300 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 these Treatment Priority Acres 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!
Sincerely,
Jeff Zechman
Wildfire Mitigation Coordinator
Chaffee County Fire Protection District
J.T. Shaver
Lead Forester
Colorado State Forest Service
Kim Marquis
Envision Chaffee County
Chaffee Chips outreach coordinator
