Crystal Lakes fire hazard to be reduced

By JoAn Bjarko
North Forty News

In the next few years about 3,320 acres of forestland around the privately owned Crystal Lakes subdivision and Beaver Meadows resort will be managed to reduce the hazard of wildfire.

The Canyon Lakes District of the U.S. Forest Service has been working out the details since December, and the public will soon have an opportunity to comment on the proposal. An Environmental Assessment, a document disclosing the expected effects of this management plan on the environment, will be available in late April. Those wanting to review the assessment or ask questions about the project should write Dyce Gayton, environmental coordinator at the Canyon Lakes Ranger District, 1311 S. College, Fort Collins, CO 80524; call 498-2731; or e-mail dgayton@fs.fed.us.

The Crystal Lakes fuels reduction project is a small piece of the nationwide effort to reduce fire hazards and the risk to communities built in and around national forests. The Canyon Lakes District of the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests comprises most of the national forest land in Larimer County.

Gayton noted that Crystal Lakes subdivision became a priority area because private landowners there are also working to reduce fire hazards around their homes.

The plan proposes to reduce fuels by thinning in dense stands of live trees, patch clear cutting of 1- to 39-acre parcels and prescribed fires. The clear cuts will be farther away from developed areas than the spots treated by thinning. Contracts for the project will be put out for bid early this summer.

Gayton said the intent of the project is strictly fuels reduction, so the district is not putting a priority on contracts that will produce marketable timber. There have been two large fires in the area in the past 25 years, Gayton recalled. The Killpecker Fire in 1978 burned about 1,200 acres and the Beartrap Fire in 1980 burned about 2,700 acres. More recently, the North Fork Fire in 2000 burned about 200 acres.

Richard Edwards, the Canyon Lakes planning team leader, said the district wants to reduce fuels on about 75,000 acres over a 10-year period. Progress with that goal will depend on federal funding. About 4,000 acres are in the budget this fiscal year.

The district is one of the highest recreation use forests in the country, Edwards said, so there is increased risk for fires caused by humans. Lightning starts are also a problem, he said.