The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Red Lady Open Space needs a haircut
By Mark Reaman
A significant tree and brush removal project will take place this summer in the area near the south entrance to Crested Butte adjacent to the Red Lady Estates mobile home park. The approximate 10-acre bench area between Journey’s End Road and Red Lady Avenue contains thousands of trees, many of which are impacted by disease like dwarf mistletoe, mountain pine beetle and western spruce budworm.
Aspen, Lodgepole Pine and Englemann spruce are all growing in the Red Lady Open Space, which has three different landowners including the town of Crested Butte and two private property owners. As explained in a memo to the Crested Butte town council from Crested Butte Recreation, Open Space and Trails supervisor Joey Carpenter, suggested mitigations are intended to prevent a “stand replacing” fire that would likely kill all the trees in that area and, in the case of a major fire, could impact town or block evacuation routes along Highway 135. The project was described as needing an “intricate management plan.”
Crested Butte town staff received a report in March from the Colorado State Forest Service explaining that the area has approximately 4,300 trees per acre and extensive thinning is needed. While this project won’t be as visible as the thinning that took most of the trees out of Avalanche Park south of town, the project impacts will be noticeable when looking west from the highway as you enter town. About 25% of the stand density will be removed. The ground and “ladder fuels,” such as lower branches on trees, and any fuel source like shrubs on the ground that could connect a ground fire into the canopy, will be strategically thinned. There are eight areas identified as needing various mitigation measures in the project.
“Logging-type trucks would need to be utilized along Red Lady Avenue, Journey’s End Road, and Highway 135 in order to remove material from the site,” the memo to council said. “An accurate estimate of numbers will not be available until spring when trees can be marked for removal. Much of the work on site would be performed by hand crews with machinery being utilized to drag material off steep hillsides to staging areas as needed.”
Carpenter said the expected number of needed trucks has decreased significantly because non-diseased trees will be chipped and sent to the town’s wastewater treatment plant for compost processing. “Substantial amounts of the slash will also be utilized for the water attenuation project at Town Ranch with the remainder being chipped and spread on the site as natural fertilizer,” he explained.
The project is likely to start mid-summer and cost about $50,000. The mitigation project is expected to take several weeks with the hand crews and will be funded by the town, the two private landowners, the West Region Wildfire Council and Red Lady Estates, given the subdivision’s proximity to the tree stands.
Councilmember Anna Fenerty said at the July 17 council meeting that she would like staff to take possible owl habitat into consideration when choosing which specific trees to cut down as part of the project. “Some may be home to owl habitat,” she said.
Town Parks, Recreation, Open Space and Trails department director Janna Hansen said she would investigate that concern with the Colorado Forest Service that is consulting on the project.
