{"id":39249,"date":"2022-07-27T22:09:16","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T04:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/crews-cut-back-brush-to-protect-durango-from-wildfire\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:48:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:48:51","slug":"crews-cut-back-brush-to-protect-durango-from-wildfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/crews-cut-back-brush-to-protect-durango-from-wildfire\/","title":{"rendered":"Crews cut back brush to protect Durango from wildfire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Marguerite
Marguerite Hoaglin, a sawyer with Southwest Conservation Corps, thins out Gambel oak on Thursday as Tyrone John, also with SWCC, prepares to carry it off to a slash pile while conducting fire mitigation work in northwest Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sawyer chain saws are buzzing at select spots around Durango as fire crews trim trees and clear shrubs to protect the city from wildfire.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, three different crews were busy with fire mitigation work. Through the summer, they have treated areas on Eastern Heights Park, Tanque Verde, Folsom Park and several other locations. Some residents have asked the city about the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat our goal is is to reduce the risk of fire and the severity of a fire if a fire were to come into city limits,\u201d said Amy Schwarzbach, natural resources manager for the city of Durango.<\/p>\n

\"James
James Brooks, a veteran crew leader with Southwest Conservation Corps, walks through an area in northwest Durango on Thursday where SWCC crews performed fire mitigation work. The city is conducting ongoing seasonal fire mitigation work, which resumed in June. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The city\u2019s fire mitigation program was organized by Fire Adapted Durango, a partnership between Durango Parks and Recreation, Durango Fire Protection District, La Plata County, the Bureau of Land Management, Colorado State Forest Service and other entities.<\/p>\n

Crews are cutting shrubs and lower tree limbs and hauling and piling those materials to allow them to dry. The piles will likely remain where they are for more than a year. Then, when there is sufficient snowfall and plenty of moisture, crews will return to burn the piles in a safe manner.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that means people can expect to see cutting and piling, and then the piles remaining in place until conditions are appropriate,\u201d Schwarzbach said. \u201cThat\u2019s where the city partners with Durango Fire Protection District, Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control and the BLM to burn those piles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tyrone
Tyrone John, with Southwest Conservation Corps, stacks Gambel oak on a brush pile that Marguerite Hoaglin, also with SWCC, cut down on Thursday while performing fire mitigation work in northwest Durango. Gambel oak is a primary target for fire crews \u2013 the goal is to thin oak in places where a fire would easily spread or where it serves as a barrier to fire crews trying to respond to a fire. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The piles are only burned under the right moisture conditions and a state permit is required to conduct the burns, she said.<\/p>\n

The main target for the city\u2019s summer fire mitigation efforts is Gambel oak, a dense, shrubby plant that has a habit of shooting upward to form walls of vegetation that are \u201creally darn flammable\u201d when still young, Schwarzbach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re doing is following Colorado State Forest Service standards to create a mosaic of vegetation out there. Which means you break up your continuity of fuels,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Cutting breaks into areas of Gambel oak reduces a fire\u2019s chance of spreading, she said. Crews will also trim the lower limbs off trees that could be susceptible to open flames.<\/p>\n

The strategy is to reduce ladder fuels, and thus, reduce the destructive capabilities of a possible fire. Clearing ladder fuels also allows firefighters to safely get into areas to fight fires, Schwarzbach said.<\/p>\n

\"Fire
Fire mitigation efforts started in June and will continue through the summer in the areas of Eastern Heights Park, Tanque Verde, Folsom Park and several other areas in and near Durango. (Courtesy of city of Durango)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThinking just like rungs on a ladder you climb up as a human being, a fire starts on the ground, works its way up a shrub and then up into a tree,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got a much more intense fire. That\u2019s why we\u2019re getting rid of the ladder fuels by trimming up the lower branches on trees, leaving the trees there, and then breaking the continuity of fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cutting back brush and low-hanging branches can mitigate fire hazards, but the process also serves to promote forest health, Pete Stockwell, wildfire mitigation specialist with Durango Fire Protection District, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen coupled with mitigation, it involves leaving a diverse set of fuels. We can\u2019t just cut everything that we decide is prone to fire,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Wildfire mitigation can support water quality improvements by protecting the Animas and Florida rivers from debris and runoff that could pollute it in the event of a wildfire, he said.<\/p>\n

And when it comes to cutting trees, fire mitigation crews are conscious about leaving a diversity of trees and plant life. Pi\u00f1on juniper, for example, burns easily, but rather than removing all of it, crews work to reduce the amount of ladder fuels around them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it were just fire mitigation we\u2019d go out and we\u2019d (leave) all the ponderosas because they tend to do well in fire,\u201d Stockwell said. \u201cBut we have to incorporate leaving some of the serviceberry brush and the mahogany and a lot of the native fuels that we see around here so that the forest is still healthy in terms of water runoff, in terms of ecology.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city is taking advantage of two grants, one two-year grant from the Colorado State Forest Service and a four-year grant from the BLM, to treat about 45 acres of open space in and near Durango. Schwarzbach said the cost of treatment per acre varies based on terrain and vegetation.<\/p>\n

\"Marguerite
Marguerite Hoaglin, a sawyer with Southwest Conservation Corps, thins out Gambel oak on Thursday as Tyrone John, also with SWCC, prepares to carry it off to a slash pile while performing fire mitigation work in northwest Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Costs range from $3,000 to $6,000 per acre. Full-sized vehicles aren\u2019t capable of reaching most treatment zones, which makes treatments all the more labor intensive for sawyer and chain-saw crews grouped into 10 separate treatment units.<\/p>\n

Despite the summer monsoon\u2019s arrival and its recent rains, things aren\u2019t simply \u201chunky-dory\u201d when it comes to fire danger, Schwarzbach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRain is wonderful, we always need rain, but we need to be doing fire mitigation also,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Last summer, fire crews performed wildfire mitigation work in Edgemont. Last fall, wildfire mitigation was performed above the Purple Cliffs unmanaged camp, Stockwell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they were creating, basically, a fire break behind the homeless camp there should a fire start there, which it seems they do occasionally,\u201d he said. \u201cWhich would allow us a chance to kind of suppress that fire or hold that fire at that fuel break behind the Purple Cliffs camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said more entities are collaborating for wildfire mitigation work in La Plata County and in Durango this year. He said the county is serving as the project manager and that he appreciates the La Plata County Office of Emergency Management\u2019s support in area wildfire mitigation efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a nice change of pace to have the collaboration between all these entities and the support of the office of emergency management,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

oak, low tree branches prime targets for fuel reduction efforts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[350],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-fire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84272,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39249\/revisions\/84272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39249"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}