West Fork Fire Complex - 7/10/2013 - unofficial update

There's been an interesting Op-ed printed in the July 12, 2013 High Country News by John Maclean titled "Stand down from Western wildfires" that's worth a read if you live in a rural-urban interface.

https://www.hcn.org/articles/stand-down-from-western-wildfires?src=feat?utm_source=wcn1&utm_medium=email

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Archuleta County Fire Ban

As of July 10th, 2013

Fire restrictions* are in place for ALL AREAS in Archuleta, Mineral, and Hinsdale Counties South of the Continental Divide

For details link here

Photo taken from aboard the International Space Station on June 19, 2013

West Fork Fire Complex - Tuesday,7/2/13 - 8 AM - unofficial update

CDOT Special Message:  The Colorado Department of Transportation reopened US 160 over Wolf Creek Pass this morning at 6:00 am.  If fire activity warrants, the highway could be re-closed, so travelers are urged to check road conditions at www.cotrip.org for updated road information. 

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For those curious about the global warming, bark beetle, forest fire connection please see:  

"The Changing Face Of Our Forests - bark beetle and global warming"
and 
"A citizen's review of the 'San Juan Bark Beetles and Watersheds Workshop'"

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http://www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=81485

Thick smoke billows across the landscape in these digital photographs of the western United States. Both photographs were taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on June 19, 2013.

West Fork Fire, Windy Peak Fire - 6/23/13 - 4pm - unofficial update

Sunday morning and the fires continue to burn although it seems like the Windy Peak Fire on the other side of the mountain from Wolf Creek Ski Area has slowed, in fact some sources don't even report the fire.

The town of South Fork remains OK, in part because the fire came to an Aspen Forest that wouldn't light up, so the fire took a detour.  The town remains evacuated, with a large contingent of fire fighters and equipment ready to confront any renewed threat to the town.  Further into the mountains the West Fork Complex has burned close to 70,000 acres as of Saturday afternoon.

Further east the East Peak Fire near Walsenburg continues growing to over 10,000 acres, though it's reported to be 10% contained.

West Fork Fire complex and Windy Pass Fire (6/22/2013-7:30am)

Here's an informal update on current fires around the Wolf Creek Pass and the Alberta Park watershed area.
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Friday June 21, 2013  3:00 MDT

An essay concerning Red McCombs' long and winding road

“You believe what you believe, I believe what I believe and we will never convince each other” period!

Those were the sage words of Clint Jones, the developer for Red McCombs’ speculative luxury Village at Wolf Creek when we spoke at last month’s Del Norte open house for the Land Exchange Proposal’s Environmental Impact Statement.

What a chilling attitude. It implies the impossibly of learning anything new. It also explains how the 1980s dream of a billionaire could get hardened into an obsession no matter how the winds of time have changed the physical and financial landscape.

A dream that started in those halcyon 80s when Red partnered with Charles Leavell owner of property the Rio Grande National Forest coveted. With that temptation and announced plans for a low key development of perhaps 200 homes a land trade for nearly 300 acres of Alberta Park was arranged.

Then Charles Leavell passed away and McCombs hired developer Bob Honts who announced a plan ten times that size. This at over 10,300 feet elevation where the air we breath contains 70% the oxygen it does at sea level. Incidentally, it is one thing to spend your days playing up there; but to play up there all day and then spend all your nights at those elevations sets up people for a variety of altitude related health issues.

In his zeal Bob Honts crossed various ethical and legal boundaries. Worse, he got caught, scuttling Red’s first drive to develop Alberta Park some twenty years after his speculative adventure began. It also ended his association with Honts. There’s too much to tell here, but Mike Soraghan of the Denver Post wrote a most informative article “Wolf Creek development tangled with political ties” (2/5/06).

Given a development of a couple hundred homes the Forest Service was under the impression that road access issues could be resolved. But, a village for ten thousand people blindsided officials and created a whole new set of complications, since the US Forest Service has every desire of keeping the only access road, FSR391, a seasonal light traffic dirt road.

In time, McCombs’ lawyers found the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980. The property owner’s road access provisions in this Act were codified because huge expanses of Alaskan land was being acquired and placed into the National Trust. This left many private land owners surrounded by Federal lands. This law ensured them road access rights to their newly landlocked property. What is striking is that McCombs traded into his “landlocked” situation.

But, because he is a billionaire, Red can force his will. Now the US Forest Service is in a position of thinking they owe McCombs a high volume all-year road or they owe him damages. This doesn’t make any sense considering that Red knew exactly what he was buying. Still, his demand is: either a high traffic all year road or we owe him big. 

In this case big being a swap of 178 acres of land for 204 acres of prime grade A US Highway accessible real estate. 

Incomprehensible though it seems, this is exactly the rationale driving this current pro-development Environmental Impact Statement and potential land swap. An Environmental Impact Statement that remains blind to the many cascading damages that bulldozing of this watershed will inflict. 

During my discussion with Mr. Jones at the Del Norte open house, I asked Clint: what about the changing world, both business and environmental, that are making this 1980s dream look increasingly financially hopeless? “None of us can predict the future” was his easy salesman’s reply.

I asked, what about Climate Change and scientist’s projections that current drought conditions are a sign of more to come; or the bark beetle epidemic that’s ravaging those mountains and is spreading right into Alberta Park as we spoke? Is it really that hard to predict prospective million dollar home buyers will be turned off by a standing dead forest? 

“None of us can predict the future” seems a feeble response when it comes to the importance of an unmolested watershed for downstream stakeholders. After all, we are discussing the health of source waters for the Rio Grande River Basin during increasingly difficult times.

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Village at Wolf Creek Land Exchange Proposal #35945

https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public/CommentInput?Project=35945

Commenting on This Project
The Forest Service values public input. Comments received, including respondents’ names and addresses, will become part of the public record for this proposed action. Comments submitted anonymously will be accepted and considered; however, anonymous comments will not provide the agency with the ability to provide you with project updates. The Forest Service wishes to provide you with as many opportunities as possible to learn about our activities.

Official Deadline for comments: 9/30/2012. (or is that Friday the 28th, or Monday the 1st?)

Massive Forest Die Off in and around Alberta Park, Wolf Creek Colorado

{updated 9/7/12}

Why would anyone still consider building a multi-million dollar "Luxury Village" in the dying forest at and around Alberta Park?  

The prognosis is that an extreme fire event will occur up there in the foreseeable future. { I've been sent a message from a Rio Grande National Forest official who points out that the Spruce forest in Alberta Park itself, though dying in front of our eyes is in a location where it could exist, dead and standing, for quite some time before succumbing to forest fire.  Interesting, though it is, I don't see how this materially alters the sales viability of a luxury village in a dead, but standing forest.   
See the note near the bottom of this post}

Given this situation wouldn't it be a better idea for USDA-RGNF officials to think past that imminent event and consider how important a hydrologically unmolested Alberta Park Fens-land and wetland matrix will be for the future recovery process from the damages this inevitable forest fire will inflict on this Rio Grande River Basin Watershed?

Why don’t USDA-Forest Service officials begin to proactively pursue a strategy of encouraging Mr. Red McCombs to return his Alberta Park parcel to the Rio Grande National Forest, or perhaps to a land conservancy group?

To support the logic behind this suggestion link to this report:

 Report Highlights Need to Address Bark Beetle 

Aftermath on Private Land

2011 forest health report

According to the Colorado State Forester, the aftermath of the mountain pine beetle epidemic will require as much attention as the outbreak itself – including attention from private landowners.

The forest health report provides a comprehensive overview of forest insect and disease concerns in the state.