Rocky Mountain National Park announces winter burning operations
Courtesy Rocky Mountain National Park
Officials at Rocky Mountain National Park are planning to burn slash piles following several fuels reduction projects and hazard tree removals over the last two years.
Cut to reduce fire dangers, the slash piles are now dry enough to burn and recent wet weather has given officials at the park an opportunity.
The piles are spread out across the park, including on the west side along the East Inlet Trail.
On the eastern side of Rocky, Burns are also planned west of East Portal, west of Deer Mountain, along Bear Lake Road between Sprague Lake and the Bierstadt Trailhead and near the Big Thompson Bridge, and near Moraine Park Campground.
The fuels reduction projects are designed to reduce significant accumulations of forest fuels that can generate extreme or problematic fire behavior near areas of urban interface, according to the park.
Explaining why Rocky burns slash, park officials credited previous work for creating a buffer between the East Troublesome Fire and Estes Park when the second largest wildfire in state history threatened the town this fall.
Similar efforts aided firefighters battling the Fern Lake Fire in 2012.
For more information about the project or Rocky Mountain National Park, call 970-586-1206. To learn more about wildfire mitigation around your home, go to http://www.firewise.org.
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