WOODLAND PARK, Colo. (KOAA) — Girl Scouts of Colorado is preparing for a higher-risk wildfire season, taking increased precautions at is summer camp properties.
The organization's full property portfolio is 1,600 acres, including nearly 900 acres at Sky High Ranch outside of Woodland Park. Throughout this summer, Chief Outdoor Program and Property Officer Heidi Vielhaber expects 500 campers to attend Sky High Ranch.
"We want to make sure that parents feel really confident sending their kids to Girl Scouts of Colorado camp knowing that they'll be safe, that they'll have adventure, that they'll make new friends and they'll have fun," Vielhaber said. "Safety is paramount."
In December, Sky High Ranch purchased a four-wheel, engine-powered machine called a skid steer with a masticating head that is being used to create defensible perimeters of buildings and chip up combustible materials in the surrounding land.
Site Manager Destry Forcum says the skid steer, which he refers to as "Chomper," allows his team to mitigate the property faster and more efficiently.
"Part of fire mitigation is running Chomper and getting rid of the dead trees throughout the property," Forcum said. "Teller County only let's us burn a pile eight foot by eight foot and no trees bigger than eight inches. That really limits what we can do with brush piles, but now that we have Chomper, all that energy goes back into the soil."
To increase defensibility against wildfires at is summer camp properties, Girl Scouts of Colorado is updating buildings with fire-resistant materials, purchasing backup generators for emergency communications, and working with arborists to identify and remove aging trees.
"880 acres is a significant chunk of land," Vielhaber said. "Our team has been working really hard to work from the buildings out and trim down a lot of the brush around those buildings."
In the event emergency crews need to access Sky High Ranch, Forcum says they have also opened old logging roads around the property.
"When will we be done? Never. This is going to be ongoing, ongoing, ongoing," Forcum said. "As soon as we got one area done, we're going to have to go back to areas in the past and re-work those."
All Girl Scouts of Colorado camps maintain extensive emergency and disaster preparedness procedures, covering scenarios including lost campers, tornadoes, fires, shelter-in-place, lockdown, active shooter situations, evacuation of campers with disabilities, and family reunification following an emergency. All properties are located in FEMA-designated low flood hazard areas as well.
"We do extensive training with our staff that come here and drill within the first 24 hours that campers arrive," Vielhaber said. "They're used to hearing the emergency system, they're responding, we're used to taking roll call."
The first-round of campers will arrive at Sky High Ranch on June 7th.
Email Senior Reporter Meghan Glova at meghan.glova@koaa.com.
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