Jefferson County Open Space claims it may be “feasible” to log up to 25,270 acres of forests—39.5 square miles—across 32 public parks and hiking trails, approved by County Commissioners Lesley Dahlkemper, Tracy Kraft-Tharp, and Andy Kerr.

The Jefferson County Open Space Forest Health Plan 2022 [1] wants to “maximize wildfire risk reduction and enhance ecological resilience through implementing forest thinning and prescribed fire treatments over the next 10 years,” at a cost to taxpayers of $1,800 to $10,000 acre. 

A recent example of this logging was a partnership with Denver Mountain Parks to clearcut one hundred-fifty acres of forests along three miles of hiking trail at the popular Flying J Ranch Park in Conifer.

Jefferson County is currently logging hundreds of fire-resistant mature and old-growth trees up to 129-years-old at Elk Meadow Park, even though their own "Forest Health" plan says to "promote larger diameter and fire-resistant trees such as ponderosa pine."

Logging is paid for with a combination of Jefferson County Open Space funds (from a 0.05% sales tax) and a grant from the Colorado State Forest Service. [2] Logs are removed by private timber corporations, with the rest of the trees sold as firewood or chipped and spread onsite.

Jefferson County also recently logged 40 acres in Meyer Ranch Park in Morrison [3] with every other park on the chopping block, no public involvement or notice provided. 

While the stated purpose of the logging is “fire risk reduction,” studies, including from CU Boulder, conclude that the large wildfires threatening homes and communities in Colorado and across the West are not the result of “fuels” but of high temperatures and drought exacerbated by climate change, coinciding with high winds. [4]

Not only doesn’t logging carbon-storing forests prevent the fires that threaten our communities—the Marshall Fire outside Boulder burned almost entirely through grasslands and residential neighborhoods—it can actually dry out forests by opening stands to sunlight and wind, spreading flames faster, while exacerbating climate change. [5]

Instead, the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station Fire Sciences Laboratory found that making homes “Firewise”—tending an area up to 100 feet around structures, installing metal roofs, etc.—protect up to 95 percent of homes from even the biggest fires. [6]

Alarmingly, this “log to save the forest” scheme is also planned for 3.5 million acres of federal lands in Colorado’s Front Range, and tens of millions of acres across the West, according to the U.S. Forest Service’s “Confronting the Wildfire Crisis.” [7] Meanwhile, the lion’s share of the work and costs to actually protect homes from wildfire continues to fall on homeowners.

Please sign this petition demanding that Jefferson County Commissioners put a moratorium on logging Open Space parks until a public hearing is held with independent wildfire scientists and forest ecologists, and instead route any taxpayer dollars towards Firewise grants so communities can protect homes and lives.