Briefs: Gunnison County

By Katherine Nettles

Firm chosen for corridor plan

During the commissioner meeting on March 17, county manager Matthew Birnie said that 12 firms submitted responses to the county’s request for proposals (RFP) for the Gunnison to Mt. Crested Butte Comprehensive Corridor Plan, and county staff along with other regional stakeholders interviewed the four finalists before determining that the consultant firm HDR stood out as the best choice. HDR is based in Denver, with a team leader based in Salida.

“They really understood the problems and had solutions to offer,” said Birnie of his general impression. He said the county and HDR were working on the contract, and the work plan would come after that.

Birnie estimated that finalizing a North Valley corridor plan will be an 18-month process at the maximum.

SBEADMR update

Commissioner Jonathan Houck gave an update on the US Forest Service’s Spruce Beetle Epidemic and Aspen Decline Management Response (SBEADMR), which is now in its ninth year of a 10-year, ongoing analysis and adaptive management plan across the Grand Mesa Uncompahgre and Gunnison (GMUG) National Forests. He said there have been significant opportunities across Gunnison County for projects that support forest health, create fire breaks, protect watersheds and provide material for wood mills where appropriate.

Houck said he attended the Taylor Park area adaptive management group’s annual meeting recently at Western Colorado University and learned about some ongoing research on Trail Creek, upcoming SBEADMR projects in Taylor Park and one project up Kebler Pass to thin out heavy timber around Splains Gulch. “Kebler is a long haul to take logging trucks,” he noted, so the USFS and other community partners are working to find solutions to removing timber once it is cut.

“It’s been amazing to see the amount of work that has happened with this adaptive management model,” he said. “Many of these projects will help us in the long term.”