Winter 2023 Slash Pile Burning in Northern Larimer County
Piles will only be ignited under certain conditions, including favorable smoke dispersal and adequate snow cover as well as approval from the local Fire Protection District.
The Ember Alliance will be burning slash piles on private lands in the Manhattan Creek and South Lone Pine Creek area of Larimer County during the winter of 2023. Burning of these piles will likely take place during March or April. Ignitions could start as early as March 5, 2023. Piles ready to be burned are located on private property along County Road 68C within Poudre Canyon FPD; and private property along County Road 74E within Glacier View FPD. Typically, crews are permitted to burn as many hand piles a day as smoke dispersal permits allow. Further conditions need to be met, which include a minimum of three inches of snow cover and eye level wind speeds of 10 MPH or less.
These piles will only be ignited under certain conditions, including favorable smoke dispersal and adequate snow cover as well as approval from the local Fire Protection District. All piles will be “mopped-up” (out cold) before sunset of the day they are ignited. There may be limited residual smoke in the area overnight. The areas are monitored and patrolled during ignitions as well as for several days after burning is completed. When and where burning occurs depends on the conditions listed above. Public and firefighter safety is always the number one priority in burning operations.
Private lands slash pile burning operations are conducted in coordination with Larimer County Emergency Services and local Fire Protection Districts, and smoke emissions are permitted through either Larimer County or the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The Fort Collins Interagency Dispatch Center and the US Forest Service are also made aware of the burning.
To receive regular updates about private lands burning in your area, please contact Megan Maiolo-Heath at the Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed (megan@poudrewatershed.org) or Kristin Leger at the Ember Alliance (kristin@emberalliance.org).
If you would like to receive regular updates about burning on U.S. Forest Service lands in your area, please sign up for updates at https://www.fs.usda.gov/arp to be added to the forest’s email contact list. USFS slash pile burning information for the 2023 season is posted online at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident-information/coarf-arapaho-roosevelt-national-forests-pile-burning.
Regular slash pile burning notices for all lands are also posted on the Northern Colorado Fireshed Collaborative website at https://nocofireshed.org/fire-type/piles/.
Prescribed fire smoke may affect your health. For more information see https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/wood-smoke-and-health.
Photo credit: Evan Barrientos