{"id":43441,"date":"2021-11-29T23:56:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T06:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/feel-good-about-your-christmas-tree-with-help-from-southwest-colorado-conservation-group\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:13:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:13:47","slug":"feel-good-about-your-christmas-tree-with-help-from-southwest-colorado-conservation-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/feel-good-about-your-christmas-tree-with-help-from-southwest-colorado-conservation-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Feel good about your Christmas tree with help from Southwest Colorado conservation group"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The San Juan Mountains Association harvested about 350 white fir trees this year for its annual Christmas Trees for Conservation fundraiser. The trees were harvested to reduce wildfire fuel near Junction Creek in San Juan National Forest, finding a second use for trees that would normally be burned or turned into wood chips. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As winter nears, wildfires often slip to the back of the mind.<\/p>\n

But this holiday season Durango residents can decorate their homes with their own slice of wildfire prevention.<\/p>\n

San Juan Mountains Association opened its Christmas tree lot on Friday, repurposing white firs harvested from wildfire mitigation efforts in the San Juan National Forest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis product would otherwise be going to waste, whether it\u2019s chipped, burned or chopped and left in the woods. It\u2019s just so on mission for us,\u201d said David Taft, conservation director for San Juan Mountains Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only are we making the forest healthier, but we\u2019re also able to keep our programs running as a byproduct,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

San Juan Mountains Association\u2019s Christmas Trees for Conservation program is in its eighth year.<\/p>\n

More than 60 volunteers ventured into San Juan National Forest near Junction Creek to cut down young white firs that could exacerbate wildfires.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy taking the smaller trees, we are able to remove what\u2019s known as a ladder fuel,\u201d Taft said. \u201cIf there were a fire to come through, the worst thing you can have is ladder fuel because that allows a fire to get from the ground to those smaller trees up into the crown of the bigger trees.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can take what would otherwise be a really healthy, low-intensity ground fire to a full-blown crown fire that\u2019s killing all the bigger, mature trees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Forest Service identifies where volunteers should thin, and then volunteers work within a few hundred feet of roads, where fires often begin, cutting down trees, pulling them to the road and trailing them into Durango and the Christmas tree lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the scale of things that we need to do, we can\u2019t really address them just as an agency,\u201d said Tim Leishman, a silviculturist with San Juan National Forest\u2019s Columbine Ranger District. \u201cWe have to have groups like Mountain Studies Institute, San Juan Mountains Association, Southwest Conservation Corps and other groups really help us meet those goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"San
San Juan Mountains Association\u2019s Christmas tree program has grown in recent years from 100 white firs in 2017 to about 350 this year. Almost half of the trees the San Juan Mountains Association will sell this year are from fire mitigation efforts. (MK Thompson\/San Juan Mountains Association file)<\/span>MK Thompson\/San Juan Mountains Association<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Christmas Trees for Conservation program also creates a second use for trees logged for fire mitigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s super important for us to utilize local trees like this for Christmas trees and be able to keep a great organization like San Juan Mountains Association well-funded,\u201d Leishman said. \u201cMany times what we run into with a fuels project is that nobody really wants that material.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program has grown in recent years from 100 white firs in 2017 to about 350 this year. Almost half of the trees the San Juan Mountains Association will sell this year will be from fire mitigation thinning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been gradually shifting the blend (of Christmas trees) to more of the local trees than the tree farm ones,\u201d Taft said. \u201cAs people get more and more aware of the program and why we\u2019re doing it, people seem to be really supportive of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Christmas tree sale not only creates healthier forests, but it also supports ongoing conservation and education. The proceeds pay for San Juan Mountains Association\u2019s other programs, such as its successful Forest Ambassador and Wilderness Crew programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see just explosive growth of recreational use on public lands, (and) we recognize the need to step up our stewardship efforts,\u201d said Stephanie Weber, executive director of the San Juan Mountains Association. \u201cThe tree lot really helps with conservation education \u2026 but it\u2019s also helping to provide a foundation for our stewardship efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Christmas tree lot is in the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad parking lot near Camino del Rio and College Drive.<\/p>\n

In addition to white firs, the San Juan Mountains Association also sells balsam firs farmed in Wisconsin. White firs sell for $10 per foot ,while balsam firs cost a little bit more.<\/p>\n

People travel from as far away as California and Texas to buy the trees, Taft said.<\/p>\n

Last year, the lot sold out in three weeks, and Taft expects this year will be similar.<\/p>\n

The organization started with 850 trees when it opened on Friday and had already sold 350 as of Monday morning. Hours for the lot are noon to 6 p.m. Sundays to Fridays, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays.<\/p>\n

No matter the tree, any purchase will support healthy forests and ongoing conservation efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think either way you\u2019re going to have a pretty good option,\u201d Taft said. \u201cIf you want fewer tree miles, then the local option would be your best bet. And that conservation story, we think, is really compelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Mountains Association doubles impact of wildfire mitigation efforts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[755,529,28,1269,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-christmas","tag-conservation","tag-headlines","tag-nonprofits","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43441","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=43441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85704,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43441\/revisions\/85704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43441"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}