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At
the heart of the Colorado Forest Products program is the realization that
the ecological sustainabilty of much of our public forest land is intimately
tied to the economic sustainability of forest rehabilitation work. Simply
stated, sale of these forest products helps pay for advanced forestry
methods sustaining sound ecological conditions. Purchasing products from
your forests works for your forests.| FOREST PRODUCTS & UTILIZATION | ||||
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ECONOMIC & ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY |
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| FOREST MANAGEMENT | FOREST CONDITIONS | |||
| •Ecosystem Management | •Forest Ecology | |||
| •Wildland-Urban Interface | •Watershed Health | |||
FOREST PRODUCTS & UTILIZATION
Much of the management on Colorado's forest lands simply does not produce
large amounts of dimension lumber suitable for general consuctruction.
Thus marketing and utilization of forest products involves a variety
of components from small-diameter wood product research and development
to business development and consumer education.
A number of national agencies are researching
methods to utilize the vast amount of small-diameter material coming
from forest restoration and fuels reduction efforts. In Colorado, the
Colorado Wood Utilization
and Marketing Center has helped initiate many projects.
Also please visited the USDA's
Forest Management Service Center, Small Diameter Utilization website
and Forest Products Lab.
FOREST MANAGEMENT consists of the tools, methods and practices
natural resource managers use to change forest conditions, such as
selective thinnings and prescribed fire. By utilizing the principles
of adaptive management and best management practices, the ecology
of specific forest types can be mimicked. Thus, the hazard of catastrophic
wildfires can be reduced, protecting watersheds and rural communities.
There is a wealth of online information regarding forest management
at for the USDA Forest Service
and Colorado State
Forest Service web sites: For a project specific to Colorado's
Front Range visit the Winiger
Ridge Ecosystem Management Project. Some other links include:
http://www.metla.fi/info/vlib/forestry/
http://www.fs.fed.us/projects/
http://www.fs.fed.us/research/
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm
This is where human habitation and forests prone to
wildfire are intermingled. Development in Colorado's forested areas
has exploded over the last 10 years creating millions of acres of homes
and communities at risk to catastrophic wildfire. Approximately five
million acres of wildland-urban interface exist in Colorado, much of
this area in the Front Range Red Zone. Homes in the wildland interface
should have proper defense areas — thinnings for which also produce
small-diameter wood products. For more information, please see:
The Colorado
State Wildfire Page
The Boulder
County Wildfire Mitigation Group
FOREST CONDITIONS
Impacts on Colorado's forest ecosystems from the time of European
settlement, coupled with the exclusion of low intensity, periodic
wildfire have significantly changed the overall forest conditions
during the last 100 years. This is particularly true in the ponderosa
and mixed-conifer forest types prevalent in Colorado's Front Range
and has helped lead to the high wildfire danger in our Red Zone areas.
By using adaptive management and implementing best management practices
overall forest conditions can be improved and yield a variety of forest
products.
Please also visit the USDA Forest Service, the Rocky Mountain Experimental
Station and the Colorado State Forest Service
In Colorado, water is a vital resource that largely either originates or flows through our forested ecosystems. Protecting these watersheds from catastrophic wildfire is critical. Both the recent Buffalo Creek and Hayman fires had extensive repercussions for municipal water sources and fisheries.
FOREST ECOLOGY
It is imperative that forest ecology drive the forest management practices
used to implement forest restoration and fuels reduction efforts.
Different forest types and conditions will dictate the types of practices
used by fire and natural resource managers.
Research in this critical area is ongoing and key to protecting and
improving forest and watershed condition and health.
Extensive work has been completed and is currently
underway on Forest Ecology research, below find a few links to begin
exploring this topic.
USDA Forest Service
Colorado
State Forest Service
Front
Range Fuels Treatment Partnership
Rocky Mountain Experimental
Station
ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT
This is management of all components of forest across boundaries and
on a larger or landscape-scale. It takes into account all the values
(wildlife, aesthetics, noxious weeds, soil, hydrology and cultural resources)
in the decision making and management process. Just as insects, diseases,
noxious weeds and wildfires do not recognize jurisdictional boundaries,
stewardship and conservation forestry work must be conducted across
boundaries over large areas. Typically, these efforts require extensive
cooperation between public land agencies and private landowners. There
are several ongoing projects in Colorado's Front Range using such management
practices, including the South Platte Ecosystem Management Project,
the Sugarloaf Management Project and the Winiger
Ridge Ecosystem Management Project.