Edward and Nancy Bracken were among the founding members of Black Forest Together, organized in August 2013 in response to the Black Forest fire. The group began as a triaging effort to get resources to the people who lost their homes in the fire. According to the 2017 annual report, ìBlack Forest Together is the only organization in El Paso County still providing forest recovery and restoration assistance on private land to the Black Forest community.î Once the smoke cleared (from the fire of 2013), the group worked with Red Cross to get a chipper, truck, trailer and tools to start recovery efforts. Nancy Trosper, the planning coordinator for Black Forest Together, referred to the effort as the ìblack stick cleanup.îThey also applied for nonprofit status in 2013, and received a 501(c)(3) charitable organization designation.Ken Clark, a forester, said the group now has 47,000 volunteer hours since 2013, which comes to about $1,086,000 in donated time by volunteers. We charge approximately $25 per volunteer hour as a way to show how much labor is offered in services to the community.îClark said Black Forest Together has focused on three major areas.
- Recovery and cleanup/chipping and erosion control
- Mitigating trees as a preventative means; they have applied and received grants from the Department of Natural Resources and work with the local fire department to show homeowners where to cut down trees.
- Trees 4 tomorrow, which is about reforesting and reclaiming what was lost. Clark said, ìItís a way of bringing the forest back to the homeowners.î
ìPart of the reason the fire spread was because of overpopulation of trees, Clark said. ìMitigating the forest helps promote healthier trees and reduces fire risk. Overpopulation of trees was the problem; accelerating the process of transplanting trees that are partially grown is the solution.îThe idea came from the vice president of Black Forest Together, Bill Mantia, who worked with a local contractor. They called it the Tree Door Program; and, in the last four years, 647 trees were donated by homeowners doing mitigation on their properties, Clark said. Instead of cutting the trees down, the homeowner would donate the trees and then the trees would be transplanted to the burn area. The trees on the Black Forest Community Club property were all transplanted from this program. Black Forest Together decided in 2018 to build up the program and call it Trees 4 Tomorrow ó in the past three weeks, they have moved 200 trees. According to Black Forest Together, the Trees 4 Tomorrow program ìIs an innovative, green approach, transplanting healthy trees from unmitigated properties to burn scar properties needing reforestation. It is a cost-effective way to expedite reforestation due to the slow growth of Ponderosa Pines. The net result is a transplanted tree already acclimated to the Black Forest climate at only 40 to 50 percent of what a conventionally purchased tree would cost.îLa Foret Conference & Retreat works with Black Forest Together to donate trees. ìWe look at heavily populated areas that need mitigating, go in and take those trees out and replant in burn areas,î Clark said. This is the first private reforestation project. They dig up, move and transplant 10 trees at a time, he said. ìWe look for forest grade trees; these are smaller trees generally found in overpopulated areas, about 4 to 11 feet tall,î Clark said. Although they are thinner, he said they ìflourishî once transplanted. They also look for premium trees, like Ponderosa Pines or Spruce, often found in meadows.ìThe goal is to transplant 1,000 trees each year,î Clark said.ìTrees improve air quality and help with erosion, they protect the watersheds and improve the morale of the community, they restore wildlife and bird habitats that were destroyed during the fire,î Trosper said. ìWe solicit money from corporations, local businesses and single donors to subsidize for people who need the trees but canít afford them,î Trosper said. ìBut we always need more financing to help reforest the land. We do a lot of projects for the elderly and those on a fixed income. The goal is to move at least 100 trees (10 trees per lot) pro bono for lower-income households within the burn scar.î Fire victims are eligible for a one-time truckload of 10 assorted sized Ponderosa Pine trees for $850. Trosper said the community has been supportive. Black Forest Together has done a lot of community outreach projects, reaching out to the youth in particular. ìWe work with schools and have done a lot with Districts 11 and 20; we do projects with them and field trips, where we teach about mitigation and fire recovery. We are growing this program because children are the stewards of the forest.î Students often get involved with seedling planting, which is part of the recovery program, too. Challenger Middle School has volunteered every year, and has helped plant 60 seedlings. Another volunteer group helped plant 50 seedlings in the last few weeks. They did 50 seedlings recently with a different volunteer group.AC Golden Brewing Co., which makes Colorado Native Beer, provides a promotional package offering free seedlings to the community. This is the second year they have donated seedlings for us,î Trosper said.Although businesses, missionary groups and the military have also volunteered, Trosper said they still need more volunteers. ìWe need local people to be regular team leads and chipper operators in particular,î she said. ìWe provide training for both positions. We ask that volunteer groups or individuals commit to a three-project minimum.î Volunteer groups consist of a team leader and a chipper operator. Any group or individual interested in helping out, can contact Black Forest Together at 719-495-2445 or visit http://blackforesttogether.org.