Helicopters removing at-risk trees

VAIL - The sound of a helicopter chopping through the air bounced around West Vail on Monday.

Grabbing three to five logs at a time, the helicopter descended about 500 feet on the upper bench of Donovan Park to set the logs down in a meadow along Matterhorn Circle. There, trucks waited to cart them away to a lumber mill in Silt.

For the last month, crews have cut down more than 2,000 lodgepole trees dead or dying of pine beetle infestation on nearly 30 acres of town of Vail and Forest Service land in West Vail.

Vail fire department's Tom Talbot, who is managing the project, and his trusty can of pink spray paint marked trees close to homes and other buildings for cutting so the structures should be safer if a wildfire were ever to come through the area.

"We are serious about doing wildfire fuel mitigation," said Bill Carlson, Vail's environmental health officer and planner. "The town is at risk - we're an island in a sea of trees. The way we're doing it, it's real low impact with minimal damage to the vegetation and the hillside."

Because the trees are being flown out, they aren't being dragged through the forest, damaging the ground.

Aspen trees are also being cut down to encourage new growth as younger trees are more resistant to disease and fire. The aspen trees will be left behind and burned once there's enough snow on the ground to make the burn safe.

"It's like when people get old, there needs to be a new crop of kids," said the Forest Service's Phil Bowden.

The project will cost about $760,000 and is funded by the town and the Forest Service.

Officials hand-delivered flyers to about 75 residents living near the cut area, ensuring people that no trees would be flying over their homes.

"We had no complaints or phone calls," Carlson said. "Everyone is very pleased that it's happening."

Some environmental critics say the dead and dying trees should be left alone to allow nature to take its course. They say cutting will cause erosion, landslides and worsen the quality of the soil. Most environmentalists agree the natural course would include a massive forest fire, but having a world-class ski resort burned to the ground isn't an attractive option for many in the area.

"We're working adjacent to town," Bowden said. "We're concentrating a short distance from homes, not cutting dead trees up the mountain. We have a town that's under all these landslide areas that we have to protect."

Carlson said even if they did want to take out all the dead trees, the cost of the project would be astronomical. So for now, they'll stick to doing what's necessary to protect the community.

"We can do what's natural for nature, but it violates human values so we've got to get those trees out," Carlson said. "It's quite a show. People have been coming out with their cameras."