Why Sand Creek
Sand Creek drains the west side of Buffalo Pass into Steamboat Springs. The drainage carries beetle-killed lodgepole above a growing wildland-urban interface, and the prevailing south-westerly wind pushes any fire on its lower slopes straight at Strawberry Park.
This guide walks the fuels treatments the plan recommends, from the trailhead to the ridge, on the organization's own maps.
The drainage, on the base map
The treatments, in order
Four places along the creek, each with a sentence on what is proposed there. Press Next, or choose a place.
Sand Creek trailhead
Roadside thinning and a shaded fuel break along the access road, so the road stays usable as an escape route.
Lower drainage, south-facing slope
Mastication of ladder fuels on the south-facing slope above the creek, where fire would move fastest uphill.
Buffalo Pass road
A fuel break either side of the road to the pass, tying into the forest's existing treatment units.
Strawberry Park interface
Home hardening and defensible space on the private parcels that meet the forest boundary.
The valley floor
Steamboat Springs sits at the mouth of the drainage. Everything above it drains, and burns, downhill toward town.
Defensible space and home hardening (Colorado State Forest Service)
youtube.comWhat to do
If you live in Strawberry Park, start with the five feet around your house: clear the leaves and needles, move the woodpile, and keep the trees limbed up and thinned out to a hundred feet. Then sign up for advisories, so a closure on Buffalo Pass road or a fire in the drainage reaches you as a message rather than as smoke.
