Despite concerns from the majority of park users and peer-reviewed science demonstrating the counterproductive nature of “fuel reduction” for protecting communities from wildfire, Jefferson County Open Space plans to log in ten public parks over the next five years.
A Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request from Save JeffCo Parks reveals county plans for widespread tree removal across ten parks. 2025 targets Beaver Ranch Park, Lookout Mountain, and Mt. Falcon. From 2028-2030 Reynolds Park, Pine Valley Ranch, and Deer Creek Park are on the chopping block.
The County also intends to cut more trees parks already radically “thinned”—a logging industry euphemism that includes clearcutting and removal of mature and old growth trees, in this case, up to 211 years—within the last one to five years. 2025 zeroes in on the hidden north side of Alderfer/Three Sisters Park, as well as returning to White Ranch and Meyer Ranch. From 2025-2030 it’s iconic Evergreen Mountain in Alderfer/Three Sisters Park in the crosshairs along with the mostly clearcut Flying J Ranch.
According to documents from the CORA filing, at least $2.6 million in federal, state, and county taxpayer dollars have subsidized this decimation of over one thousand acres of biodiverse, carbon-storing public forests—U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D) personally earmarked a $358,000 grant to log Elk Meadow Park and Alderfer/Three Sisters—while paying private logging contractors (including two from Oregon) to cut trees and sell logs to sawmills, as firewood, or for polluting “biomass” energy.
Instead, this money could be returned to low-income taxpayers as grants for home hardening and defensible space pruning less than 100 feet around homes, the only actions scientifically proven to protect structures and communities from wildfire.
Ecological and climate impacts aside, Jefferson County’s unprecedented scale and scope of forest “fuel reduction” is challenged by a vast and growing body of peer reviewed science (including U.S. Forest Service studies) showing landscape-wide tree removal won’t stop the large weather-driven fires that threaten homes and lives.
To the contrary, this “thinning”/logging actually heats up and dries out the forest microclimate, which can make fires start easier and burn more intensely (including igniting crown fires), while opening stands that let winds spread flames quicker to nearby communities, potentially overwhelming evacuees and firefighters.
Since Jefferson County has admitted in media reports that it chose not to hold a public hearing prior to the logging (citing absurd claims of lack of attendance), in October Eco-Integrity Alliance organized its own forum in Evergreen which attracted a standing-room only audience of over 80 locals opposed to the cutting (no media outlets covered the meeting before or after).
Instead of listening to community concerns, County Commissioners continue to advocate for the logging. Commissioner Andy Kerr has walked away from and censored members of the public speaking at town hall meetings, and Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper falsely denied that the county was logging trees over 125 years old with photos of stumps on the table in front of her.
This controversial and unscientific “fuel reduction” logging is slated for millions of acres of Colorado’s biodiverse, carbon-storing forests—Denver Mountain Parks, County Open Space, National Forests, and Rocky Mountain National Park—with tens of millions of acres on the chopping block across the West.
Eco-Integrity Alliance 