Blog: a web log
02/15/2004: "Free firewood offered on Pike N.F. near Trumbull"
Need some firewood to help get you through the cold winter months? As part of it’s ongoing program to reduce hazardous fuels and create a healthier environment on the Pike National Forest, the South Platte Ranger District is now making available “free-use” fuelwood permits for a treatment area near Trumbull, CO. Citizens will be allowed to cut and cart off for personal use up to four (4) cords of firewood per household from a 200-acre area where the U.S. Forest Service felled and limbed timber in late 2002. This past year, the timber cured and will now burn readily in fireplaces. Permits may be obtained, free of charge at the South Platte Ranger District in Morrison and will be issued for up to four cords of fuelwood. Permittees must agree to specific conditions upon issuance of the permits. The most noteworthy include:
· Fuelwood may be used for “personal use” only and not for other individuals or for profit or gain;
· Permittees must be able to cut and transport the fuelwood out of the treatment area. Wood larger than seven inches in diameter must be cut in six foot lengths or less.
· Live, standing trees may not be taken. The available fuelwood is scattered over 200 acres and consists of felled tree boles (trunks) of 8 – 10 inch diameter and branches of somewhat smaller diameter. Wood that has been piled in other portions of the treatment area is not available as fuelwood;
· Chain saws used for cutting must be equipped with a properly installed spark arrester.
The fuelwood area will be open seven days per week through May 30. The area will open at 10 a.m. and close at 2:30 p.m. each day. The area will not be open in times of severe weather.
This is a unique opportunity as generally, on the national forest, fuelwood permits are issued at a cost of $20 per cord. However, according to Fred Patten, Upper South Platte Watershed project leader, “it’s important that we clear this area of heavier downed fuels quickly to enable us to conduct a prescribed area burn as soon as conditions permit this year. The timber is not of such size and makeup to make it commercially viable; thus it makes sense to make it available to citizens while it’s still usable and where we don’t have to pay an extra cost to have the materials either chipped or hauled away.”
The fuelwood area is part of the 745-acre Trumbull hazardous fuels project area where the Forest Service completed mechanical thinning in late 2002 to reduce hazardous fuels and to return the forest to its more historical structure … wider spacing between more mature trees, larger openings and reduced ladder fuels. The Trumbull project is just one of several ongoing fuels reduction projects being completed this year as part of the overall 17,400-acre Upper South Platte Watershed Protection and Restoration Project (USPWPR) and other fuels reduction projects throughout the Pike National Forest. Through 2004, the Forest Service will be completing more than 16,000 acres of on-ground mechanical thinning and prescribed burning treatments on the Pike National Forest.
