John Scarffe, Nederland.  Forest Service District Ranger Angela Gee, from Arapaho Roosevelt National Forest and the Boulder Ranger District, discussed removal of an area fire truck and work on the West Magnolia campgrounds during a regular meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 17, 2018, in the Nederland Community Center.

Boulder District Ranger Gee said she was invited to talk about West Magnolia and fire staffing. She started with Forest Service fire resources. Mayor Pro-Tem Julie Gustafson had asked in a previous meeting about moving a fire truck from Nederland to Idaho Springs.

Gee explained that the engine shifted locations with the hand crew from Nederland to Idaho Springs and an eight-person hand crew was newly stationed in Nederland. Nationally and regionally, the Forest Service is allocated a target number of resources, Gee said. Fire staff is zoned so across the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest, which is headquartered in Fort Collins., the South Zone Fire Management area covers three ranger districts, comprising 950,000 acres.

Across the South Zone the Forest Service has two engines, an eight- person hand crew, a Type 3 helicopter and a Type 1 helicopter. The zone is managed by a Division Chief and Battalion Chief.

The hand crew also has a Type 7 engine attached to it, with a little less water than the Type 6, Gee said. They moved their one agent to Idaho Springs, and it has a Type 7 attached, with a little less water than Type 6, Gee said. “The Forest Service considered a lot of different options when we made that decision. With all our partner agencies, engine power is not what we are lacking.”

“What was lacking was hand crews and the ability to get into areas where the fires are,” Gee said. Fire managers have to think about the whole 950,000 acres, and just because a resource is “assigned” to a duty location, resources are pre-positioned to be able to respond quickly to fires across the forests.

Fire resources move around all the time, Gee said. The model has been successful. “When we do have increasing fire danger, we have the ability to bring additional resources into the area, and right now we have three times the resources as usual.”

During elevated fire danger conditions this summer, the Forest brought in five additional Type 4 engines, a prevention officer and a Type 3 Incident Commander. Additionally, fire resources from the North Zone of the forest are available to assist in fire response across the forest.

Gustafson said that when she became a trustee, the Forest Service was looking for support for Forstythe II, and they found it with the Board of Trustees. It felt bad that the Forest Service took its only engineer resource out of the community after the community gave support for Forsythe.

The Forsythe II project aims to reduce the severity and intensity of a wildfire within the wildland urban interface, to increase resistance and resiliency to future natural disturbances and to provide private property landowners the opportunity to complete defensible space mitigation around their homes on adjacent National Forest System lands in the vicinity of Gross Reservoir and Nederland, according to the website.

“In return, we were losing resources,” Gustafson said. “We understand there is an allocation of resources, and no one really asked about the impacts. Having the Type 4 come in is good. A Type 7 -- isn’t that like a pickup truck?”

Gee said the advantage of the Type 7 is its ability to get into to rougher, less accessible areas. Gustafson said that in an effort to sustain a partnership we were building together, communication before it happened would be nice.

Regarding the West Magnolia dispersed camping area one mile south of town, Gee said the board is very familiar with the issues there and so she didn’t spend time rehashing the issues and challenges. In January, she received a letter from Mayor Larsen with a request for action that the Nederland Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Advisory Board (PROSAB) put together.

Gee said she responded in April with what probably wasn’t a very satisfying letter, but the Forest Service has developed a process to evaluate and recommend implementable management options for areas impacted by dispersed uses on National Forest lands.

The process incorporates the input and participation of partners and local community stakeholders. A site visit with the review team in early August will kick off the process.

“I am keeping track of different suggestions from PROSAB and community members,” Gee said. Ideas have run the gamut from shutting it down to developing the area,

The Boulder Ranger District makes up only 10 percent of Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and less than one percent of all National Forest land in Colorado, Gee said. Any changes at West Magnolia have the potential to push the campers somewhere less manageable, and we have to think on a wider, broader scale and about how it’s going to impact the surrounding area.”

The August 1 review will be by invitation only. The ranger district has reached out to law enforcement, Nederland Fire, PROSAB, the Trustees, Boulder County Commissioners, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and some of the various community leaders and user groups, including the Nederland Areas Trail Organization.

“We are not asking for consensus,” Gee said. We will take a look at the issues on the ground and discuss potential management solutions. The Forest’s recreation managers will follow up the site visit with a report, which Gee will use will to recommend implementing any new policies or management practices.

Gee said the Forest Service is embarking on a much larger recreation planning effort, and these conversations are still in their infancy.

Trustee Jonathon Baumhover, PROSAB liaison, said he appreciates the invite on West Mag and the understanding from the town that it is a complicated issue. Going forward, if we looked at a concessionary campground, how would that work?

Gee said that managing a site requires contracting a concessionaire to manage the site, so they have to do a feasibility study, which would look at in terms of programmatic, site-specific and economic feasibility, and then an environmental analysis. That could take a long period of time, and then from there, if documents support using a concessionaire, then the Forest Service would develop a proposal prospectus, award a contract and develop a relationship.

Trustee Alan Apt asked if the Forest Service could implement trash and toilettes. Is that precluded from where we are right now? Gee said it is not necessarily precluded. What kind of facilities we would be looking at? Vault toilets? It is a suggestion we can talk about, Gee said. They all come with their own sets of management challenges.

Gee said that as part of that collaborative effort, Boulder County has provided opportunities to allow people camping in the area to dispose of their trash at the transfer station, she added, which has also helped the situation.

Peak to Peak Forest Watch has 25 trained patrollers who are able to get the message out about putting out campfires, picking up trash and being good stewards of the land, Gee said. They are also able to report back to law enforcement about problem areas and campers who have overstayed the 14-day limit, Gee said.

In the NICHE group, which works with transients and homeless issues, things seem to be a little better this year than last year, Gee said. The County has worked to allow people to dispose of their trash.

The Forest Service has 25 trained patrollers who are with Peak to Peak Forest Watch. They are able to get the message out, Gee said. Campers have a 14-day stay limit that is very hard to bend, Gee said.

“We will meet and are not asking for consensus,” Gee said. The report will go to her and she has the ability to recommend implementing policy. This is the infancy of a much larger planning effort.

Trustee Kristen Conrad said she was involved in the Peak to Peak Forest Watch. Different solutions are needed for areas close to town -- just require permits. People move around. Require a camping permit and you sign it and display it at the camp ground.

Gee said that people are generally aware of the issues. “It doesn’t work if we don’t have public support. We have to have that before we can make policy changes.

“Requiring permits is something we can do,” Gee said. “We have permits for some wilderness areas. We can talk about it.”

Mayor Larsen said this is an opportunity to keep communications open, and he invited her to reach out if the Board can help.

The next meeting of the Nederland Board of Trustees will be on Tuesday, August 7, 2018, in the multi-purpose room at the Nederland Community Center.