Individual appeals plan to reduce forest fire risk in West Vail.

What do you get when you combine a mountain side full of dead trees and a dry summer?  A reciept for a raging forest fire.  That combination of ingredients has the undivided attention of the residents in the Intermoutain and Matterhorn areas of the Vail Valley.     

Area residents were eagerly anticipating the removal of dead trees this summer to lessen the very real risk of a pending forest fire. Now they will need to wait another year.  Why?  because an inidividual living in another town, filed an appeal with the Forest Service. 

In my opinion the unorganized majority needs to get off its fat ass and start overriding the select few who have no life other than just wanting to screw with "the system".  Point in case, when the Vail Valley Forest Health Project finally got under way in 1995 the experts were predicting a 50%to 70% loss of trees from the pine-beetle epidemic.  Since the inception of the project some 11 years ago while conducting all the studies and dealing with all the road blocks thrown up along the way by individuals, the kill rate is now at 90%.  At the speed things are progressing to address this epidemic, the kill rate will be 100% before anything is done. 

All the geniuses who don’t want the forest managed are going to get mother-natures solution to the problem.  The forest becomes too dense so mother-nature brings in the pine beetles to kill off all the pine trees.  At some point along the way while the pine beetles are killing the trees, mother-nature will throw in a forest fire to sort of "clean things up".  Then to ‘finish things up", she will redecorate the Valley by following up with major land slides which will dam Gore Creek and flood out the Eastern end of Eagle County.  All this because of a few people abusing "the system" — just because they can. 

It’s time for the lazy majority to say " I am gd mad and I am not going to take it any more". When the next person with no life wants to muck up the works "just because" band together and do something about it like telling your government employees the majority rules so stop screwing around and move things forward.

jnichols@gatewayland.com

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