Fire danger brings call for action on Pikes Peak

The U.S. Forest Service wants to thin or burn 25,000 acres of overgrown forest on Pikes Peak and surrounding foothills, areas where fire suppression has created "unnatural forest conditions prime for catastrophic wildlfire," the agency said in a news release Friday.

It would be the largest tree removal project on the peak since 1890s loggers left wide swaths of the mountain bare to meet the demands of Cripple Creek's gold rush.

Officials say thinning and burning is needed because a major fire on the peak would pose a threat to the lives and property of the many people who live adjacent to the peak's forests, Colorado Springs' water system, a tourism industry that depends on 500,000 visitors to the mountain each year and the nearby outdoor recreation that is the reason many people live here.

The Forest Service will hold an open house April 23, as part of an environmental assessment on the thinning project. Colorado Springs Utilities, which operates a network of reservoirs and pipelines and owns 15,000 acres on the peak, is also taking part.

It is unclear when the work would occur. The environmental review would last into 2010. A Pike National Forest official could not be reached Friday.

The project grew from a study last year, the 2008 Catamount Landscape Assessment Report, that found large parts of the peak have become overgrown because humans have suppressed fires that would otherwise clear foliage and keep stands of trees from becoming too dense.

"The result has been a transformation of forest stands moving from open park-like areas into more dense stands," the report said. Among the ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and Gambel oak, which make up most of the peak's forests between 6,000 and 10,000 feet of elevation, large fires historically occurred every 50 to 60 years, and smaller ones more frequently.

But after the area was logged in the late 19th century, fires have been suppressed.

The study says 160 fires occurred from 1974 to 2006 in the project area. Most, 120, were less than one-quarter acre, 37 were between one-quarter and 10 acres, and only three burned more than 10 acres. The total area burned by the fires was 145 acres.

The study said 46 percent of this area, known as the montane zone, has a moderate fire risk, and 50 percent has a high risk. Most of the high-risk areas are along Ute Pass, on both sides of U.S. Highway 24, the lower slopes of Pikes Peak west of Colorado Springs and along Colorado Highway 67 south of Divide.

The report said 16,600 acres of the most overgrown areas could be thinned by hand and machine, but on 9,000 acres, the slope is too steep, and controlled burns could be used.

While the Forest Service has increased tree-thinning and controlled burns in Pike National Forest since the 2002 Hayman fire, little has been done on Pikes Peak, just a 150-acre project last year to remove trees killed by beetles along Ute Pass, and sporadic clearing around campgrounds.

The Colorado State Forest Service has thinned 600 acres of Utilities land around reservoirs.

PUBLIC OPEN HOUSE

The U.S. Forest Service will hold an open house 5:30 to 7:30 p.m . April 23 on a proposal to thin or burn 25,000 acres of forest on Pikes Peak. The meeting will be at the Leon Young Service Center, 1521 Hancock Expressway, in the Pikes Peak Room.