The Black Forest Slash and Mulch program started 14 years ago when Black Forest was cited in an article as an area of Colorado most prone to wild fires.Ruth Ann Steele, program coordinator, was among those who initiated the program. “I was president of the Colorado Forestry Association, which is a group of lay people who are interested in forest environment,” Steele said. “That got us stirred up, so I contacted the El Paso County Solid Waste department, and that’s how the program got started.”The El Paso County Solid Waste Management Department funds the program, which is operated by volunteers. “We have a lot of good volunteers from Monument, Falcon, Peyton, as well as the Black Forest,” Steele said.Wild fire mitigation and recycling are the goals of the program.Residents of Teller and El Paso County can drop off slash, which is defined as dead trees, tree limbs, needles and leaves, at no cost, and they also can pick up free mulch.Under a contract with the county, Rocky Top Resources grinds the slash with a hammer mill. John Bolt of Rocky Top Resources said the hammer mill is 95 to 99 percent accurate in ridding the slash of insects.”Then, when the new mulch is added to the enormous mulch piles we have, the heat of the mulch finishes off any bug that may have survived the grinding,” Steele said.There’s not much of a chance that pine or mountain beetles are in the mulch, she added. “Sometimes, they are attracted to the scent of the mulch, but when they land, they don’t recognize it as food, and they fly away,” Steele said.”The only thing the mulch might spread is cytospora canker (a spore), which affects Aspen, fruit trees and occasionally Colorado Spruce. But I haven’t had any complaints from mulch users about cytospora canker.”Although some have been reluctant to place the mulch back on the forest floor, Steele said the mulch decomposes and could be a fire abatement if it gets wet. “It doesn’t compact, it doesn’t blow much, and it adds nutrients to the soil,” she said.Dr. Steve Hart from Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff was quoted in the 2007 Forestry Information Field Guide: “One year’s worth of needles is not too much needle removal. But removing needles and small woody material over the long term will reduce minerals and ultimately affect tree growth.””People can load mulch any time we’re open and they can always load the mulch for free,” Steele said. “We have quite a few people from urban areas who take the mulch.” If someone needs a huge amount of mulch, a front loader is available (along with an operator) for a $5 per-load charge.Trees should be cut into lengths no longer than 6 feet and no wider than 8 inches in diameter. Stumps or roots are not accepted.The yard is on Herring Road between Burgess Road and Shoup Road in Black Forest and is open Saturday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 to 7 p.m.Slash will not be accepted after Sept. 15. The site closes for mulch pick up Sept. 22. The program will reopen the first Saturday of May next year.People who drop off slash should cut trees into lengths no longer than six feet. Each tree lengths can be no wider than eight inches in diameter. The program does not accept stumps or roots.For more information on the Black Forest Slash and Mulch program, visit www.bfslash.org.
