Today I volunteered with the Boulder County Parks and Open Space's forest restoration project at Heil Valley Ranch. We mostly lopped branches off felled trees and put them in burn piles, but we also used hand saws to take down some smaller trees.
Chopping down trees is considered "forest restoration" because before we started preventing and putting out forest fires, Ponderosa Pine forests consisted of around 25 trees per acre, with grass and wildflowers filling in the spaces. Without the 3- to 10-year fires sweeping through the forests, there can be up to 2,000 Ponderosa Pines per acre, with little growing on the forest floor. So we helped thin out the forest to bring it to a more natural state.
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