FALL Chipper Weekend 2010
September 25
22 households participated, with a great deal of slash chipped to minimize fire danger. With both the Ips and the Mountain pine beetle attacking our trees, there is a lot of dead wood in our area, making danger of fire high. The recent fires at 4 Mile Canyon in Boulder (169 homes burned) and Reservoir Road fire in Loveland (4-5 homes burned) illustrate the danger standing trees and downed wood present in making a fire hard to contain/stop.
Of the 493 homes
in the Floyd Hill area (including Hyland Hills, Saddleback,
and Beaver Brook), 22 households is only a start of the work
that needs to be done to make our area safe from fire by
lightening, a careless cigarette thrown from a car on I-70
or U. S. 40, or an unexpected household fire. WE NEED
EVERYONE'S HELP TO MINIMIZE FIRE DANGER IN OUR AREA!
Thanks to our outstanding CHIPPER TEAM! Josh Lewis again
organized and lead the fall chipper weekend. Josh rents an
industrial sized chipper from Denver and brings it to our
mountain community to handle the piles and piles of
accumulated slash collected by the roadside by local
homeowners. Keith Briggs is his right-hand man.
Josh and Keith
gave up their titles for the biggest slash piles to Stacey
Michaels this year, who had 5 jumbo piles, although Keith
gets the award for the most fragrant (fresh) pine scent!
Robert Anderson had the largest mulch pile - a mountain of
mulch, from 2 giant and tidy piles of slash. Nick Ragain
gets honorable mention for patience, for an aged slash pile
left over from last spring (due to a mechanical problem with
the chipper 2 households had to be skipped).
Our volunteer chippers this fall included Josh Lewis, Keith
Briggs, Chip Rich, Robert Anderson, Stacy Michaels, Dave
Spooner, Linda Berteau, Holly Gangell, Patty & Dan Hughes,
Richard Neeley, with help from Craig Halfaman, Glenn
Upincany and Reg Fleming.
click on thumbnail to enlarge
The hard work and camaraderie of this group is amazing! Anyone can be a chipper hero (and earn a "Green Team" shirt). Accomplishing so much tangible and useful work is exhausting and gratifying. With participation of more neighbors, we hope to continue the semiannual spring and fall chipper weekends in the years to come to keep the Floyd Hill area safe and beautiful.