There will be controlled burns in the Snyderville Basin and Summit Park Areas.
Burning slash piles is a way to keep forests healthy and mitigate dangerous wildfires.
“One of the things you’ll notice with these columns of smoke that you see going up is we want them to go high, and we don’t want them to stay low and just smolder and make a lot of smoke for the community. The companies that are out there doing the burns, the piles are wet, they sometimes take some encouragement to get going, which is good, because that means everything around them is going to take encouragement to get going as well. But once they get going, they do burn quite well.” PCFD Battalion Chief Mike Owens.
The vegetation being burned was cut down last fall and now that most of the snow is gone, it’s time to burn the piles before wildfire season starts in June. The controlled burns are easier to maintain when the ground is still wet.
Summit County residents can apply for a permit now until May 30th to burn clippings, bushes and pruning from trees.
Photo Credit: Chief Bob Zanetti
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