Hello Chaffee County residents & landowners! You are asked to take the Chaffee Wildfire Survey to provide your perspectives and concerns about Chaffee County's wildfire preparedness. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and is open until Feb. 28, 2019. It will ask about your perceptions of local forest health and treatment activities such as controlled burns and tree thinning. Your responses will help inform the Chaffee County Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
Community wildfire plans establish recommendations that protect citizens, homes and essential infrastructure from the destruction of catastrophic wildfire. They give consideration to local priorities as land management agencies develop forest management projects. Chaffee County’s wildfire plan is being updated this year through the Envision Chaffee County Fire and Healthy Landscapes Partnership to include transparency so the community is involved in wildfire planning.
This partnership includes the USFS Salida Ranger District, Bureau of Land Management, Colorado State Forest Service, Chaffee County Office of Emergency Management and local fire protection districts. Developing this new wildfire plan will help the county clarify and refine community priorities to protect life, property and critical infrastructure, help define forest management options and help prepare for the implications of post-wildfire flooding on our water resources.
Discussion on the survey responses will take place during public meetings to be held in the coming months. Please take the survey now and give your email at the end to be notified of future meetings, where you will be able to view and comment on computer-generated maps showing areas of high wildfire risk and critical assets such as drinking water supplies. Meetings will include educational info such as what families and homeowners can do to prepare. Your input is an important part of helping us all prepare for a wildfire as a community. Please take the survey today!
November 24, 2009 —
As a result of Senate Bill 09-001, CSFS revised the minimum standards and guidelines that counties need to follow when developing Community Wildfire Protection Plans. Chaffee County and Lake County umbrella plans are grandfathered in so we will not have to go back and make changes. However, when a new community wants to have a CWPP they will need to follow the new guidelines. To have the Chaffee County and Lake County CWPP umbrella plans meet the new standards an implementation plan would need to be included (this would only need to happen if we updated the county wide plan). The Alpine - St. Elmo CWPP meets the new guidelines. In the future for any new CWPP it would be good if they followed the same outline as the Alpine - St. Elmo CWPP.
One of the new standards is a map of the CWPP area. CSFS is now tracking CWPP’s geospatially, as a result,the Salida district forester will create a map showing where CWPP’s are located on the district. To help meet the new mapping standard if a community wants they could use this same map for their CWPP.
June 29, 2009 — The final signature was added today to the Chaffee County Community Wildfire Protection Plan. The plan as adopted is posted as a 2.43 mb pdf file and also as a Google Docs version which will allow for on-line collaboration in keeping the plan updated.
June 5, 2009 — Clint Cordova of C Bar C Land Restoration demonstrated the Fecon grinder/tree shredder for CCFPD wildfire mitigation officer Mark Thomas and Capt. Kent Maxwell at the Smyth Ranch near Browns Canyon.
Chaffee County CWPP update
June 25, 2009
by Damon Lange, district forester
Signature Page: Chief Jim Wingert is stopping by the CSFS office with the signature page to get my signature. I will scan the signature page and send it to Kent Maxwell so it can be in the CWPP and the draft version on the wildfireplan.org website can be changed to final. I will also send the CWPP to the CSFS state office so it will be posted on the CSFS web site.
Trail West Subdivision: Meeting planned for Saturday July 11th at the Sangre De Cristo Electric meeting room on hwy 24 in Buena Vista. There business meeting starts at 9:00 a.m. and the CWPP discussion will be at 10:00 a.m. and run for around 20 -30 minutes. After the meeting a field trip to the subdivision to walk around and look at their issues. All are welcome to attend.
Pinyon Hills Subdivision: A meeting was held in Salida on June 10th to give an overview of what the CWPP process was about and how it could benefit the community. A request was made at the meeting for the homeowners to schedule a future meeting for CWPP discussions. I am waiting to hear from the subdivision so I can schedule a meeting.
Alpine and Saint Elmo: I talked with Melanie Roth on the phone yesterday and we have tentatively scheduled a meeting for July 1st to meet with a small group of interested homeowners in the communities. When I hear back from Melanie on a firm time and location I will let you know.
Maysville: This morning I received an e-mail from Mary Brown. She requested a visit from me to visit the homeowners in the community and work on a grant for funding. I am currently working with her on finding a time and date to meet. My plan is to meet with interested landowners to come up with a scope of work and a cost estimate to use the remaining BLM money that Chaffee County Fire has.
Mount Harvard Estates: Bob Box has sent me the completed CWPP plan for Mount Harvard with signatures from Bob Box MHE Wildfire Mitigation Working Group and William Knox President of the Property Association. I will work with Kent Maxwell to make sure he has a copy of this document for the County CWPP and web page.
Game Trail Subdivision: John Bower is the landowner on the southern boundary of Game Trail. Kathryn Hardgrave our Assistant District Forester is working with Mr. Bower to put in an 18 acre fuel break to that would help protect Game Trail.
Town of Poncha Spring: July 6th at 6:30 p.m. at the town hall there is a CWPP meeting for the community members of the Town of Poncha. All are welcome to attend. The Town of Poncha did receive grant funding to do fuel mitigation work on their park area north of town and put in a fuel break in the same area. They will be using a contractor, Town of Poncha employees and the Buena Vista Corrections inmate labor to complete the project.
The Chaffee County Commissioners signed the Chaffee County Community Wildfire Protection Plan on May 5, 2009. Read the article from the Mountain Mail newspaper.
May 30, 2009 — Instructor Charlie Blake (center) gives feedback to students during an S-212 Wildland Fire Chain Saws class field exercise on private land west of County Road 327 near Buena Vista. Charlie volunteers as assistant chief for the Chaffee County Fire Protection District and also teaches for Colorado Firecamp. Mistletoe infestation continues as a forest health issue affecting the wildland-urban interface.
April 2, 2009 — The second public meeting for the Chaffee County Community Wildfire Protection Plan was held at the Steam Plant annex in Salida. More than 25 citizens attended the first meeting in Buena Vista on March 5th, where the draft plan was discussed. The Chaffee County CWPP as adopted by the Chaffee County Commissioners on May 5th is adopted plan (3.14 mb PDF file). The highlight of the presentation was the county wildfire hazard maps prepared by Elise Bowne of the U.S. Forest Service with help from John Markalunas and Paul Janzen.
“When you take a position toward a field of fact or fantasy, you do something strangely like the choosing of a vantage point from which you view a valley….Point of view and perspective determine the special arrangement and design of the entire panorama. Any valley may be seen from a thousand outlooks. Always the same valley, it presents itself in a thousand manners according to the outlook.”
– Walter B. Pitkin, as quoted by H.T. Gisborne in “Review of problems and accomplishments in fire control and fire research.” Fire Control Notes, vol. 6, no. 2, April, 1942
