Dear Editor,
It is an easy 1.5-mile winter hike through forest threatened by impending logging—including old-growth!—adjacent to Nederland’s Big Springs neighborhood in Boulder County Open Space and Roosevelt National Forest. See for yourself the...
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Dear Editor,
It is an easy 1.5-mile winter hike through forest threatened by impending logging—including old-growth!—adjacent to Nederland’s Big Springs neighborhood in Boulder County Open Space and Roosevelt National Forest. See for yourself the damage already done to our public forests from controversial “fuel reduction” logging and how more of the same can increase the wildfire threat to our neighborhood, while learning about the latest studies from award-winning science writer (and Big Springs resident) Josh Schlossberg.
RSVP to eia@eco-integrityalliance.org for location.
CONTEXT: The Nederland “Community Wildfire Protection Plan” is targeting the 581-acre “West Boulder Canyon Phase 1” as a “First Priority Project.” This includes proposals to cut units in the Roosevelt N.F. previously dropped by the U.S. Forest Service due to community concerns.
In fact, the forest surrounding Big Springs has already been repeatedly “thinned”—including several large clearcuts—by Forest Service and Boulder County, resulting in much higher levels of flammable grasses and woody material on the forest floor and large amounts of blowdown from opening stands to wind.
On top of ecological impacts, the entire premise of forest “fuel reduction” in the name of “community protection” is challenged by a vast and growing body of science (including U.S. Forest Service findings) showing landscape-wide tree removal won’t stop the large weather-driven fires that can threaten our neighborhoods.
To the contrary, peer-reviewed studies show this “thinning” actually heats up and dries out the forest microclimate, which can make fires start easier and burn more intensely (including crown fires), while opening stands that let winds spread flames quicker to nearby residences, potentially overwhelming evacuation and firefighters.
Instead, the scientific consensus is that home hardening and defensible space pruning less than 100 feet around homes are the only actions proven to protect structures from wildfire. Yet such efforts—including from Wildfire Partners—are drastically underfunded as the vast majority of taxpayer dollars are routed towards even more logging.
Josh Schlossberg
Nederland