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Colorado State Forest Service News

Rio Grande County project improves wildlife habitat, forest health

The Rock Creek mechanical fuels reduction project boosts forest conditions on 767 acres in southwest Colorado.

Overgrown, dense vegetation in forests can create a lot of problems, and Rio Grande County landowners have experienced firsthand the issues that pop up. In the Rock Creek area, residents in the wildland-urban interface have a higher risk of catastrophic wildfire where there’s dense vegetation and ladder fuels that can propel a fire from the ground into the canopy. Hunting and wildlife viewing opportunities decrease as dense tree canopies choke out the sun necessary for enough forage to grow, causing elk and mule deer to seek out other sites. Aspen seedlings regenerate less when conifers fill in among them. The overgrown forest conditions change the residents’ relationships with their local forests, and not in a good way. 

Addressing all the needs – to reduce wildfire risk, improve wildlife habitat and encourage seedling growth – requires a multi-pronged approach for creating a healthier forest, and it involves many partners and contractors. This is where CSFS foresters excel at managing forest projects. Staff in the CSFS Alamosa Field Office have relationships with both public and private landowners and understand local needs and concerns. That expertise has helped four partners and landowners come together to make the Rock Creek Mastication and Handwork Service Project a success story of forest management. 

A hillside of trees thinned by mastication on a sunny winter day.
Foresters from the Colorado State Forest Service oversee the 767-acre Rock Creek service project southwest of Monte Vista near Bishop Rock, which brings four natural resource agencies together under the Good Neighbor Authority to accomplish wildfire mitigation, create a fuel break and conserve wildlife habitat on 587 acres of Bureau of Land Management lands and 180 acres of private lands. Photo: Mark Wagner, CSFS

Good Neighbor Authority works across boundaries

The Rock Creek project is part of a Good Neighbor Authority agreement with the Bureau of Land Management. This type of agreement allows the CSFS to manage and administer projects across large landscapes with multiple landowners, from private residents to federal and state agencies. Instead of important forest health projects stopping at property boundaries, GNA projects managed by the CSFS can span multiple property types and ultimately provide a more effective result.  

For the Rock Creek project, the planned work ties into an existing USFS fuel break and helps reduce wildfire risk across nine different private properties and on neighboring BLM land. In addition to the GNA agreement, the BLM and the CSFS created a Community Assistance Agreement, providing funding for the work on private lands at no cost to the landowners. For this project, contractors will complete mastication work on 587 acres of BLM land and 180 acres of private lands.  

The Rock Creek project addressed four primary vegetation types: Ponderosa pine, mixed conifer, piñon-juniper woodlands and piñon-juniper meadows. All require removal of overly dense vegetation and ladder fuels. Contractors work on-site with large masticators, grinding down the trees identified for removal and leaving the mulch on the ground to enrich soil on the forest floor.  

A large, heavy equipment masticator works to grind trees to thin a mixed species forest.
The forest thinning project makes this a healthier forest for residents and wildlife by using large masticators to grind and remove selected trees across a variety of piñon juniper, mixed conifer and ponderosa pine forests. Some work is also completed by hand with chainsaws. This will help restore ponderosa pine stands, encourage aspen regeneration and allow for more ground cover for wildlife to browse. Photo: Mark Wagner, CSFS Equipment: VM West

Video producer: Amy Bulger, CSFS; Drone pilot: Dylan Eimer, CSFS; Equipment: VM West

Shared funding

Projects of this size and scope are only possible with partnerships. In addition to private landowners and the BLM, the CSFS worked with the Mule Deer Foundation and Colorado Parks and Wildlife to provide funding to help complete work. Funding for this project totaled about $525,000, with the majority coming from the BLM to reduce hazardous fuels in the wildland-urban interface. CPW contributed funds from its Habitat Partnership Program and the Mule Deer Foundation also gave funds, both seeing how the project helps improve biggame habitat 

By the numbers

  • 767 total acres 
  • 587 BLM acres  
  • 180 private acres 
  • 16 acres of handwork 
  • 9 landowners 
  • $24,000 – Mule Deer Foundation 
  • $87,000 – Colorado Parks & Wildlife 
  • $414,000 – Bureau of Land Management  

Key terms

Good Neighbor Authority – Federal program that allows the BLM and the USFS to authorize states to complete certain projects on federal lands. 

Mastication – Forest management technique that uses a machine to grind, shred or chunk trees and other vegetation.  

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