Over the past 100 years the makeup of ponderosa pine forests in Genesee and
along the Front Range of Colorado has dramatically changed from an open
"savannah" like forest to dense stands of trees that contain second, third and
fourth generations. This change can be attributed to the effective
fire suppression activities of the 20th century.Historically,
ponderosa pine ecosystems have a fire interval that will range between 2 - 20 years.
These fires were considered low
intensity ground fires and would effectively reduce the number sapling trees
while old growth ponderosa pine trees with their characteristic thick bark
would survive.
Sapling ponderosa pine and shade tolerant Douglas fir trees are found
growing in large numbers in Genesee, areas that once supported a diverse understory vegetation of
grasses and forbs now only have a thick layer of pine needles.
Sanitation Thinning is defined as removing disease, insect infested,
unhealthy and suppressed trees. The recommended treatment for this
area includes removing dense stands of sapling trees and thinning to
increase canopy spacing by removing
re-generation trees that are 11 inches in diameter or less.
Fire mitigation is another reason this area was selected, because
adjacent land is unmanaged and according to past fire management
evaluations, this area is classified as having an extreme fire behavior
index with and considered an extreme area of concern.
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