Free chipping program expands to Basalt area during ‘a critical moment for our valley’

The Wildfire Collaborative Roaring Fork Valley has partnered with Eagle County to launch a new, free curbside chipping program for yard debris with the aim of supporting Basalt area residents in reducing wildfire risk.

The program comes at what Angie Davlyn, executive director of the Wildfire Collaborative Roaring Fork Valley, called a “critical moment in our valley” in a press release, meaning a fire season that is earlier and drier than almost any other year on record. She told The Aspen Times that wildfire risk in Basalt is high, similar to other parts of the Roaring Fork Valley, and that the Basalt area is notable for its dense vegetation, steep terrain and a mix of homes that include older structures that are often spaced closely together.

According to Davlyn, resiliency is the ultimate goal, both at the property level and for entire communities.

“Resilience in the Roaring Fork Valley means reducing the likelihood that a wildfire becomes a community level disaster, and ensuring our communities are better prepared to respond and recover when it does occur,” Davlyn said. “For the Wildfire Collaborative, resilience is ultimately about changing outcomes. We cannot prevent wildfire, but we can significantly reduce its impacts. That requires a coordinated approach that brings together landscape scale fuels reduction, home and neighborhood mitigation and stronger evacuation planning, alongside efforts to help residents understand their risk and take action.”

Basalt’s program follows on the heels of Aspen, which offers a community chipping program by the Aspen Fire Department.

The Wildfire Collaborative also offers chipper support through a Chipper Day Reimbursement Program to help residents across the Roaring Fork Valley reduce wildfire risk — including HOAs, neighborhoods, road associations and even individual homeowners with more than five acres in organizing chipper days to dispose of slash from mitigation work. Participants are able to receive 50% reimbursement (up to $500) for renting a chipper or hiring a qualified mitigation company.

According to Davlyn and Director of Community Resilience for the Wildfire Collaborative Roaring Fork Valley Kelsy Been, clearing out excess vegetation and slash is one of the most critical and successful ways to change how fire behaves when it reaches communities.

“Reducing excess vegetation by chipping and removing slash lowers the amount of fuel available, which helps fires burn less intensely, spread more slowly and makes them less likely to reach tree canopies or structures,” Been shared. “In some cases, treated areas burn only a fraction of what untreated areas do.”

The Wildfire Collaborative and Eagle County have each budgeted $50,000 for this project, Been confirmed, an estimation based on the costs for other similar chipping programs that Eagle County runs in the Eagle River Valley. Eagle County is funding the program through its new lodging tax account.

The eight-week program will collect and chip slash piles that can include trees, branches and woody vegetation up to approximately 12 inches in diameter. Construction materials, treated lumber, rotten wood, roots, stumps, yard clippings or any non-woody debris will not be accepted and must be disposed of by the landowner.

Services will be offered in two phases: June 1 to 27 and Aug. 31 to Sept. 25. Crews will operate Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The service schedule is as follows:

• June Session
  • Week 1 (June 1–5): Blue Lake, Dakota, El Jebel, Missouri Heights
  • Week 2 (June 8–12): Sopris Village, Valley Road, River Ranch, Hooks Spur, Laura J Estates, River Oaks, Original Road, Sopris Meadow, Willits
  • Week 3 (June 15–19): Town of Basalt (Pitkin and Eagle County neighborhoods)
  • Week 4 (June 22–26): Cedar Drive, Seven Castles, Big Hat, Peachblow Subdivision, Ruedi Shores
• September Session
  • Week 5 (Aug. 31–Sept. 4): Blue Lake, Dakota, El Jebel, Missouri Heights
  • Week 6 (Sept. 7–11): Sopris Village, Valley Road, River Ranch, Hooks Spur, Laura J Estates, River Oaks, Original Road, Sopris Meadow, Willits
  • Week 7 (Sept. 14–18): Town of Basalt (Pitkin and Eagle County neighborhoods)
  • Week 8 (Sept. 21–25): Cedar Drive, Seven Castles, Big Hat, Peachblow Subdivision, Ruedi Shores

“It is … fundamentally shared work,” Davlyn said. “Wildfire does not follow jurisdictional boundaries, so building resilience requires alignment across agencies, local governments, fire districts and homeowners.”

For more information, visit http://www.rfvwildfire.org