Forest Service officials have approved a modified Breckenridge Forest Health project that incorporates citizen concerns voiced during the public involvement period.
The project is a hazard tree-removal project within 5,600 acres extending from Farmers Korner, to the north, to Golden Horseshoe on the east, to Hoosier Pass on the south and the base of the Tenmile Range on the west.
It's designed to reduce expected hazards and threats to public health and safety posed by dead and dying trees resulting from the widespread mountain pine beetle epidemic. Dead trees means increased fuels in recreation and administrative sites, and along roads where the risk of human caused fire ignition is greater.
There is no appeal period, but the decision was made after an objection period in which three objections were received and resolved.
Much of the proposed project is within the areas identified in the Summit County Community Wildfire Protection Plan. Summit Estates, Peak 7, Peak 8, Golden Horseshoe, French Gulch, Boreas Pass/Baldy Road, Warrior's Mark, Blue River, Fredonia Gulch and Quandary Village/Alpine Breck/Valley of the Blue are all included.
Forest Service officials initially modified its proposed action to accommodate recommendations from other agencies and organization during the collaboration period. They further altered the project to address public concerns about the size of the treatment areas, the visual effects on the Peaks Trail, what method would be used to harvest the trees and the effects of road construction and road use during implementation.
Resource specialists with the Forest Service also added their two cents, upon request, after reviewing each treatment unit for suitable Canada lynx habitat that aren't considered high priority for fuels reduction. It resulted in 622 acres of treatment from areas that contain suitable habitat.
“I requested this additional exercise to emphasize the importance of balancing our responsibility to protect human life, property and resources from wildfire, while at the same time maintaining important wildlife habitat characteristics,” wrote Dillon Ranger District ranger Jan Cutts in her decision.
According to the Decision Notice and Finding of No Significant Impact report, “the selected alternative for the Breckenridge Forest Health and Fuels Project strikes a balance between meeting the purpose and need for fuels reduction within the (wildland-urban interface), while also being considerate of local community concerns, issues raised by members of Colorado Wild and protecting habitat utilized by the Canada lynx.”
The report also states that the project meets the definition of “authorized project” under the Healthy Forest Restoration Act because it would be conducted on federal land in a wildland-urban interface and the project contains an active insect epidemic that poses a “significant threat to an ecosystem, component or forest or rangeland resource on federal land or adjacent non-federal land.”
