The Conservation Corps season may be over, but that doesn’t mean the Conservancy has wrapped up its field season!
Today, Conservancy staff and local volunteers joined the Rocky Mountain National Park Wildland Fire Crews to complete some fire fuels reduction. The project was organized on the National Day of Service and Remembrance to honor the 9/11 victims, survivors, and those who rose up in service in response to the attacks.
The project focused on reducing the fuel load available for future wildfires. The work included collecting downed limbs and trees, previously cut by NPS staff, into slash piles (see photos). These piles are constructed during the summer and fall and then burned during the winter, when the conditions are correct. These projects remove potentially hazardous fuels from areas close to roads, trail heads, and campgrounds. By removing the fuel, volunteers are helping protect wildland firefighters from erratic fire behavior caused by excessive fuel loads and ladder fuels, which allow low-intensity ground fires to move up into trees.
Today, September 11, 2018, eight volunteers joined National Park Service fire crews and completed 10 slash piles. Each of which held more than 2000 cubic feet of fuel. Check out photos from the project below:
-Geoff Elliot (Director of Conservation)