John Scarffe, Nederland. The Wild Bear Nature Center and the Boulder County Parks and Open Space Department (BCPOS) are participating in a fire mitigation project near Wild Bear’s property. Jill Dreves, director of the Wild Bear Center, contacted BCPOS on October 21, 2020, regarding the strip of Mud Lake Open Space between Wild Bear’s new property site and Highway 72, with concerns focused towards fire and hazard tree risk reduction of the area.

Dreves said the property across from the Caribou Room adjacent to Highway 72 and Colorado Road 128 is an entry point to town. The project will include a snow break on the corner. 

The project started the week of May 17, and will be done by mid-June. BCPOS will be leaving wood along Wild Bear’s eastern property boundary to be integrated into Wild Bear’s landscape plan as well as a possible firewood sale to be held this fall. 

Forestry staff met with Wild Bear staff on November 20, 2020, on-site to evaluate and discuss a fire mitigation plan. BCPOS Forestry staff revisited the site on December 16, 2020, where it was decided they should move forward with a limited-scope risk reduction project.

The proposed project area is an approximately 3.2-acre narrow polygon that was excluded from previous treatments in 2007 and 2014 as part of a buffer that was to remain between the treated area and Highway 72. Since the previous treatments, the decadent stand has suffered severe mortality and morbidity due to bark beetles and dwarf mistletoe, creating an excessive fuel load and numerous hazard trees.

Quality snags and coarse woody debris will remain that do not pose a hazard and still achieve fuel reduction objectives. Increased resources available should increase abundance and diversity of the shrub and understory community as well.

Project layout and tree marking will be accomplished by BCPOS Forestry staff, who have performed a nesting bird survey. All “take” trees, snags and down coarse woody material slated for removal have been marked with blue paint.

BCPOS Fire Crew will fell, buck and limb all designated material. BCYC and BCPOS volunteers will pile the resulting slash and move the wood, by hand, to the west side of the project area along the property line. Slash piles will be burned by the BCPOS Fire Crew, and burn pile scars will be rehabbed by BCPOS Volunteers. The project objectives are to reduce hazard tree situations directly adjacent to Wild Bear, reduce fuel load adjacent to Wild Bear’s current and future development, retain high-vigor ponderosa pine, limber pine, aspen, snags and coarse woody debris of high ecological value, increase stand vigor and allow for an increase in abundance and diversity of understory vegetation and enhance aesthetics. 

Dreves said that BCPOS have been longtime partners. 

“We appreciate how they  responded to our concerns about the fire danger on that corner. Given the fires we had last fall, they agreed to clean up that corner for Wild Bear and the community.”

“This mitigation will not only beautify the northern entry of town, but it relieves a bit of fire hazard to our town.  Last fall, they also built a connector trail to the future Wild Bear facility from the Kinnick Kinnick Trail. We appreciate them very much.”

Wild Bear recently reached an agreement with the County and relocated their 5-acre property to the southeast corner of Mud Lake Open Space due to subsidence issues with their former site. Dreves said they did their own mitigation and cleaned up trash on the property. 

They now are completing the building design for the future Wild Bear Nature Center facility on their property. Within the year, they plan to break ground on the facility after a 20-year partnership with Boulder County Parks. 

Wild Bear has a conservation easement with Boulder County which keeps the facility restricted to 8,500 square feet. The building will be an educational exhibit as a model of sustainability with a net zero energy footprint.

The center will have enough dedicated space to include permanent and rotating exhibits for visitors, classroom spaces for all ages, workshops and large indoor and outdoor public program spaces, as well as dedicated office and gift shop spaces. The building will also serve as a community gathering space for locals and visitors. 

The outdoor landscape will include a self-guided nature trail, outdoor amphitheater and a nature playscape for children and families to connect to nature and each other through nature play.

“This is going to be an important asset and resource  for the community,” Dreves said. She is on the Nederland Envision 2030 Committee, and the nature center will meet some of its goals.

Wild Bear Nature Center is currently located  at 20 Lakeview Drive, Unit 107, Nederland. Wild Bear specializes in mountain ecology and welcomes visitors to the Nature Center almost every day, 360 days of the year.. 

According to the website, “Once a Wild Bear, Always a Wild Bear.” For 25 years, Wild Bear has helped children and adults forge lifelong connections to nature through the creative exploration of the outdoors. Specializing in mountain ecology, Wild Bear welcomes visitors to its hand-on nature center and provides year-round educational programs for people of all ages. 

Dreves said if people want more information, they can email her. “I want people to talk directly to Wild Bear and get involved in this longtime vision.” People can come into the nature center at the shopping center to check out  the 3-D model of the new Center as well as a film telling their story.

Dreves said anyone who wants to contact her with questions can contact her at 303-588-0299, or jill@wildbear.org. For more information go to https://www.wildbear.org/.

(Originally published in the May 27, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)