The Woodmoor Improvement Association is currently applying for a new Fire Fuel Reduction grant for 2025, and we need your help! We need to gather as many interested homeowners as possible before October 7, 2024, so that we give our community the best possible chance at being awarded a 50/50 grant. This grant will help us continue the important work in bringing our forest back to a much healthier state and better protect life and property when a devastating wildfire occurs. It is not a matter of if, unfortunately, but of when.
If you are interested in participating in a grant, please send an email with your name, address, and best contact information to forestrygrant@woodmoor.org.
“The Woodmoor neighborhood has a dense closed canopy Ponderosa Pine dominant forest. Peer reviewed studies have shown that Ponderosa Pine forests have been historically open canopy forests with a clear understory due to being shaped by frequent fires. Historically, prior to western settlement, the Ponderosa forests of the Colorado front range were much more open than they are now. Ponderosa Pine forests have evolved to benefit from disturbance that creates an open canopy and healthy residual trees post disturbance. Currently Woodmoor’s Ponderosa forest is due for a major disturbance that will change it from a closed canopy unhealthy forest to an open canopy healthy forest. Conditions are ripe for a major catastrophic wild fire or bark beetle infestation. There is currently a heavy understory that will provide ladder fuels for a crown fire. Also the Ponderosa Pines are densely cluttered which will invite bark beetles and help carry a crown fire. It is recommended that homeowners thin the vegetation aggressively to mimic a natural wildfire disturbance. This will help keep fire out of the crowns of the trees and keep trees growing vigorously so that they are able to fend off insects and disease.
The goal of this prescription is to restore Woodmoor’s forest back to a natural historic open canopy forest.” –David Poletti, Forester, Colorado State Forest Service