Project designed to enhance wildlife habitat, reduce fire risk
Staff report
A prescribed burn is planned Saturday in this landscape in Upper Cattle Creek. The burn will improve wildlife habitat and reduce wildfire risk.
USFS/courtesy photo
The U.S. Forest Service is alerting Roaring Fork Valley residents that a prescribed burn planned for Saturday could produce smoke visible from the valley floor.
The Cattle Creek Prescribed Burn is planned 9 miles northeast of El Jebel and 9 miles southwest of Gypsum. Firefighters are planning to burn about 2,000 acres on the White River National Forest using a helicopter for aerial ignition. Smoke may be visible from the Roaring Fork Valley and Interstate 70 corridor, the agency said.
The Art Base in Basalt opened the 2021 edition of its Claudette Carter Art Mentors exhibition last week, showcasing the work of four local high schoolers mentored by professional artists over the past five months.
Sometimes there’s a quote that catches my attention, and it gets put it in the folder. One always wonders what will become of such a collection. Upon reflection, some of them seem to have relevance to life in this valley, so herewith are a few.
“In nothing does man, with his grand notions of heaven and charity, show forth his innate, low-bred, wild animalism more clearly than in his treatment of his brother beasts. From the shepherd with his lambs to the red-handed hunter, it is the same; no recognition of rights only murder in one form or another.” John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer, 1838-1914. (In today’s world, the Sierra Club is forced to deal with John Muir’s racism, but that’s another story.)
A for sale sign posted in front of a home in Basalt on Thursday, April 29, 2021. All property owners will receive their new notice of valuation next week. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
Property owners in the Roaring Fork Valley can expect to learn from their county governments next week that their values went up significantly, but maybe not as much as they thought.
Colorado requires county assessors to reappraise property every two years in the odd-numbered years. For this year’s reappraisal, the new amounts will reflect the property value as of June 30, 2020.
That’s significant because the residential real estate market in mountain resort areas such as Aspen and Vail went nuts starting right about that time. Urban residents fled to the mountains to escape the COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest, and they snatched up mountain property. That resulted in record sales dollar volume in Pitkin County.
White River National Forest/Special to the Daily
Fire managers from the Upper Colorado River Interagency Fire Management Unit expect Saturday conditions to be ideal to ignite two prescribed fires in Eagle County to improve wildlife habitat and reduce fuels for wildfires.
The Cattle Creek prescribed burn is planned nine miles northeast of El Jebel and nine miles southwest of Gypsum. Firefighters are planning to burn up to 2,000 acres on the White River National Forest using a helicopter for aerial ignition. Smoke may be visible from the Roaring Fork Valley and the Interstate 70 corridor.
The Muddy Pass prescribed fire is planned for Saturday on a parcel 14 miles north of Edwards. Firefighters are planning to burn up to 200 acres on the White River National Forest by hand ignition. They will be burning the perimeter of a potential larger burn planned for this spring. Smoke may be visible along I-70 from Eagle to Vail, Colorado Highway 131, and the Trough Road.