Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Some clearing pics

Got a little clearing done this summer


Before



After


After after

Funny looking fish... ;-)

Looks awesome wbuffetjr!

I was in SW Colorado about a week ago.

Miss wearing a jacket and those temps!

That's awesome Zep! What part of CO? Lake City?

Yes I was in Lake City...but what's awesome is your property! Look how thick those trees are...and elk too. Are you clearing the land for a cabin?

The Lake City/Creede area is having a real problem with some kind of beetle that is killing huge swaths of forest. I would say it borders on a catastrophic loss. I guess besides the tragedy of losing hundreds of thousands of trees it could present a fire hazard to have all that standing dead timber that could ignite and burn faster. They are trying to clear it back from roads, but it looked to me that it could take years to clear.

Very nice looking place. Maybe look in to cutting some fire breaks along your property. Perhaps the CO Forestry has programs to help fight the beetles like GA does.

Zep our entire mountain looks like that! Not clearing for a cabin, just trying to open some ground up for various reasons.

One, beetle kill isn't just happening in the creede area. It is an epidemic from New Mexico to Canada. There are scientists out there saying this is the biggest beetle kill of all time when compared to core samples. A landowner up there near us is a lobbyist for the logging industry and she told me it is not if but when we get hit. There are already a good bit of beetle killed trees showing up. I would like to be ahead of this thing in case it does get real bad.

Two, we have a TON of dead fall already. I mean a TON! Almost to the point of making some areas unusable. I have brought a couple CO residents up to hunt and both were just amazed at how much dead fall we have. Some areas, like the one we cleared, had almost no animal sign at all. You couldn't find any scat in that area to save your life. I figured opening it up would only make it more usable to us and the critters.

Three, trying to get as much distance as possible between my windmill and any obstructions.

Four, fire prevention. Running a chainsaw wasn't the easiest thing for my one armed father in law so you can imagine. We had trees growing almost over the cabin. It was bad. Had to be cleaned up and we set a goal for a minimum distance of 250' from the cabin to any "spruce" trees. Plus putting in some nice, wide firebreaks.

Five, the firebreaks have to be planted with something so we planted Sainfoin and clover!

PS - I have hunted over by the Rio Grande Reservoir twice. That is my favorite hunting area of all time over there. We have been up where you can jump over the Rio Grande! lol
And I KNOW you had a blast with that RZR up there!!

Thank you roadwarrior! You are the 2nd person that has told me they might kick in some funds! I definitely need to look into that!