Our Impact
Wildfire maintains a healthy ecosystem by removing dead and diseased vegetation, encouraging new growth. However, it is also the biggest natural hazard in our region. Fire threatens our homes, businesses, and the places we love to recreate throughout South Park.
Decades of poor forest management have left behind an excessive buildup of fuels and an overgrown understory, which causes larger, hotter, and faster-burning fires if ignited. Without mitigation, overgrown forests choke new growth while becoming a progressively larger fire risk.
Removing these fuels allows more sunlight to reach the forest floor, stimulating growth of native wildflowers and berries, which allow pollinators to flourish. Thinning the forest also helps manage harmful insects like pine bark beetle and western spruce budworm.
Proliferation of plants and small critters support larger wildlife including bears, bobcats, bighorn sheep, deer, elk, moose, birds, bats, and fish. These species regulate pests while enriching our hobbies and home security camera footage.
Heating homes with locally-sourced wood is a sustainable way to use these fuels, heating homes while enhancing the ecosystem and making South Park a safer place to live. Local wood also lowers transportation costs and the risk of spreading pathogens and invasive species that can damage our forests.
