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Title: |
Winiger Ridge, CO -- Ecosystem Management Pilot Project
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Type: |
Regulatory
Fuelbreaks
Education
Demonstration projects
Community Planning
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Jurisdiction: |
Multi-level
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State: |
Colorado
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Program Description: |
Winiger Ridge Ecosystem Management Pilot Project is a multi-agency partnership to provide land management and "forest stewardship across boundaries" to the 39,000 acre project area located in Boulder County, Colorado. It is a Reinvention Pilot Project for the National Forest System, addressing the needs of National Forest land within the project area. It is also funded by the USDA, Forest Service to demonstrate a "boundariless" approach to natural resource management, emphasizing cooperation between land management agencies, interested landowners and stakeholders.
Website
Winiger Ridge Ecosystem Management Pilot Project maintains a website which contains a wealth of information on the project, the ecosystem, the partners in the project, and large wildfire prevention information. Landowners can use the page called Technical Info to gain valuable information on managing their property for Wildfire Mitigation, Wildlife, and Weeds. The section on Wildfire Mitigation contains information on creating and maintaining defensible space, firesafe landscaping, recommended grass seed mixes, and forest fire safety.
History
The Boulder County Wildfire Mitigation Group was formed in 1989, after the Black Tiger Fire, which destroyed 44 homes and burned 2,100 acres in the nearby Sugarloaf area. In 1996, a subgroup, the Boulder County Ecosystem Cooperative, identified several other issues of concern to forest ecosystem health, including noxious weed control, insects and disease, wildlife habitat, water quality, and land use. They proposed creating a pilot project to address reducing fuel loads and managing for these other concerns. They selected the Winiger Ridge area because it offered a diverse forest and mountainous landscape with foothill, lower and upper montane ecosystems.
Winiger Ridge also represents a diverse landscape in terms of land use and land ownership. The project area includes several subdivisions representing wildland-urban interface, the Denver Water Company's Gross Reservoir, 10,000 acres of National Forest land, and Eldorado State Park. The area faces competing development pressure for both homes and recreation. In all, 29 percent of the land is owned by private landowners, 22 percent is owned by the City of Boulder, 14 percent by Boulder County, 25 percent by the federal government, 2 percent by the State of Colorado, and 8 percent by other entities.
The challenge for the Winiger Ridge Project is to coordinate the needs and wants of the various landowners and stakeholders, and manage the area to reduce wildfire danger and to maintain forest health. This is being accomplished through the coordinated efforts of the various agencies.
Accomplishments
The cooperating partners provide public education on mountain ecosystem management through the website, kiosks erected in the project area, public meetings, and a newsletter. They also are cooperating to provide fuels reduction, fuelbreaks, and thinning with small diameter utilization. Some of the Winiger Ridge accomplishments to date include:
- Prescribed burning of 910 acres;
- Thinning on 392 acres;
- Fire Rehabilitation on 470 acres burned in the Walker Ranch wildfire;
- Fuelbreaks on 43 acres;
- Stewardship plans for 1855 acres;
- Three Stewardship contracts for 465 acres;
- Defensible space around 56 properties;
- Cooperative Agreements with the Colorado State Forest Service on National Forest System lands for 110 acres.
One of the achievements of the Winiger Ridge Project was the containment of the Walker Ranch wildfire when it encountered an area that had been treated by prescribed burning. The prescribed burn area served to protect several homes in the area.
Contact information
For more information on Winiger Ridge, contact Craig Jones, Interagency Project Coordinator for Colorado State Forest Service at (303) 823-5774, or send an e-mail to Craig at
[email protected].
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