Sampson Road Association

   Sampson Road Fire Mitigation Project 

A progress update from Jennifer

Spring 2011 Sampson Community Mitigation Update

General progress:  Scott and crew have finished upper Sampson and have moved to Mill Hollow.  The Baker and Neil properties are complete and work has begun on the Temmer property.  They were gone for about a week fighting the fires outside of Golden and Franktown.  The crew now consists of 4 full time employees, as well as one part timer.  The masticator developed five cracks in the drum at weld points, a manufacture's defect, and had to be taken to Bobcat for repair.  As a result, the majority of the Baker property was cut by hand for about 4 weeks.  If you have seen the amount of vegetation that has come out of there that was an amazing amount of work!  The masticator came back to work April 11th.  Work will continue down Mill Hollow on the Temmer, Nowak, Donahoe, Mc Heffy, Williams (unimproved), Allen, and Williams (improved) properties.

Community Work Days and Projects:  Community work days are needed to reach the goals of in-kind hour requirements of our current project and any future grant awards.  We are asking all community members that have signed up to have mitigation work done on their properties to participate in work days when possible.  If you are physically unable to the work, please see item number 7 below.  If you are a community member that has chosen not to have mitigation work done on your property but would like to help and support the community as a whole on any of the projects listed below, please feel free to join in.

Work days are scheduled for May 14th, June 4th & 12th, July 9th & 17th, August 13 & 21st, September 10th & 18th.  Several projects have been planned, now we need people to step forward to get the projects organized.  Please take a look at the projects outlined below, check your calendars and let me know as soon as possible when and how you plan to help.  You can either e-mail me, or there will be a folder with a signup sheet in the UPS box.

1.  There are several very large chip piles around.  Scott had planned to come back to these piles with the Bobcat, knock down them down and spread them across the forest floor.  If the community can do this job, he can get more trees cut.  Please let me know if you have the equipment and are willing to help with this project.  We would also need additional people with pitchforks, shovels, and rakes, and wheelbarrows.

2.  Community Slash Piles and Chipper Day.  Open to all residents and landowners.  If you plan to bring slash please try to help out on chipper day.  This project benefits all.  We need to have 3 or 4 property owners across the community to "donate" space for a few weeks.  The community would be able to haul their slash to these piles.  Scott would come in on Saturday July 9th and chip it up.  Again, these piles would be available to everyone in the Sampson Community.  We need volunteers to help Scott on the Chipper Day as well.  Please let me know ASAP if you are willing to have a temporary slash pile on your property. Ideally we would have one on Upper Sampson, Mill Hollow, Sunburst, and Lower Sampson.  Needless to say, if Scott is working a wildfire, we will have to reschedule chipping.

3.  The really tough job will be attacking the main hill from the gate to the meadow. We will plot out an acre at a time; Scott will come in and mark trees to come down.  We will cut those, drag out the dead and down trees, and bring slash up to the road for him to chip at a later time.  This will be a long term project that will be difficult, slow work.  We will need plenty of saws, winches, chains, loppers, etc.

4.  Ditch Rehab.  There are several areas that have ditches that have quite a bit of debris in them from the mitigation work.  Those ditches need to be shoveled out and the debris thrown back on the forest floor.  There are also a couple of areas where the ditches need to be re-established.

5.  Remove barbed wire. There is wire at the Young's, Quigley's, and Kelly's, along the road (there are probably others as well, let me know).  When it gets wrapped around the masticator drum, it is a mess and time consuming to deal with.

6.  Provide manpower to those that are in need of help doing their Defensible Space to the 1st zone or cleaning up their property after mitigation has occurred.

7.  Provide support on workdays.  If you are physically unable to the work, providing support in the way of food and refreshments, gas to run chainsaws and atvs, bar oil, chainsaw blades, diesel fuel for large pieces of equipment, the list goes on.  All of these items would go toward fulfilling in in-kind hours and support the community as a whole.

Grants:  I worked with Robin Keith at the Jefferson Conservation District, and in January we submitted an application for another grant .  It is a Colorado Forest Restoration Grant funded through the Colorado State Forest Service.  We asked for a little over $100K with the community committing to a 40% in-kind match.  We will know if we have been awarded this grant by the end of May.  I will let you know as soon as I do!

I have been told that the Sampson Community is being included in a second grant application that is being submitted on our behalf through the Jefferson Conservation District.  This is a FEMA Pre-Disaster Mitigationan grant and information may be obtained at http://www.fema.gov/government/grant/pdm/.   If awarded, the grant would be used to work in a large area surrounding and including the Sampson community.  The deadline for submitting this grant application is December 1st.  We will not know about that award until early next year.

Thanks to everyone for their support.  If you have any questions or comments, please contact me or anyone else on the committee.

Jennifer Volkman, jvlkmn@yahoo.com 303-697-1527

Cindy Johnson , cmjandco@q.com 303-697-2081

Bonnie Kelly, bonniekelly8@q.com 303-697-5694

Dore Strey , ep.rn@hotmail.com 303-697-1119

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     A $50,000 grant was awarded to our community.  This is a tremendous opportunity that needs to be acted upon by June 10, 2010.

     The $50,000 dollar award will be used to create shaded fuel breaks along our roads to allow safer ingress and egress of our residents and emergency equipment in the event of fire.  Significant areas along the road of Sampson, Sunburst, and Mill Hollow have been identified as possible treatment areas.  The mitigation proposed is a shaded fuel break 70 feet wide on both sides of the road.  This means that 70 feet on either side of the road there will be significant thinning, not clear cutting, of the fuels.  The canopy will be opened up:  large, healthy trees and small areas of scrub oak will be preserved.  There will be creative thinking applied in areas that residents are concerned about preserving.  The project will begin in July, 2010 and finished by September 30, 2011.  Please click here to see a map of proposed treatment areas.

     What does this mean for me?
             ·  Healthier forests.
             ·  Winter ice melting - thinning increases sunlight on driveways and roads.
             ·  Fewer power outages.
             ·  Better wildlife viewing- they are there, but you can't see them!
             ·  Safer ingress and egress for residents and emergency equipment.
             ·  Potential for improved property values.

     How can I make this happen?
             ·  Property owners must sign a License Agreement Form and return to Jennifer Volkman by June 10th.  To access this form please click here.
             ·  It is imperative that signed agreements be submitted as soon possible so that we can determine the commitment level of the community.  Once all license agreements have been collected, a final plan will be created by Jeffco fire mitigation administrators.

             ·  There will be a requirement for the community to match    400-500 hours of "in-kind hours" over the next year and a half.  In-kind hours include:  chipper rental, selling wood products (firewood) from the project area, bar oil, gas, volunteering to work in the project area or neighbors homes, providing food and drink for volunteer work parties, working on defensible space around your own home, are all considered ways to help meet the match.  If everyone participates and tracks their hours, even if they are not having grant work done on their properties, the commitment would be for each property owner about 15 hours over the next year.  Click here for the in-kind hour log.           

     How can I make an informed decision?

             · Please take the time to look at the links provided that help explain Shaded Fuel Breaks (click here) Defensible Space (click here) and Pile Burn Guidelines (click here).
             ·  We also strongly encourage you to visit Yegge Road, just off of South Turkey Creek Road (photos below).  It is a great example of what we can expect to see in our community.  

             ·  Another area to take a good look at is Pat and Maureen McCracken's property. Robin Keith, forester with the Jefferson Conservation District, indicated that the mitigation work that they have done is nearly complete.
             ·  In order to see what a 70 foot perimeter looks like, over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, the Volkman's will be marking a perimeter on both sides of the road on their property. Look for trees with 2 bands of surveyor tape around the trunk.
             ·  Other areas will be marked.  Keep an eye out for these areas in the coming days.

     The grant is not free, but darn close!!  The grant is intended to pay for the project work, but this critical work cannot be completed without a strong effort on the part of the Sampson Road Community.

     If you have questions please call one of the committee members.
        Jennifer Volkman, Bonnie Kelly, Dore Strey or Cindy Johnson