Brush Creek-Hayden forest has new Ranger

Melanie Fullman, the new forest ranger for the Brush Creek-Hayden district, is ambivalent about the lack of snow in the mountains. If the dry conditions continue, they could add up to a rough fire season next year, continued forest health problems and tricky range management decisions.

The late fall has also afforded Fullman, new on the job in late September, some time to get acquainted with the forest.

“I have had an extended, late field season to get into areas of the mountains that you normally couldn’t get into,” Fullman said.

Fullman has worked for the forest service for 16 years, but also has employment at two state agencies and a county government under her belt. Those work experiences, plus a degree in forestry with a major in wildlife and a minor in recreation, give Fullman a wide range of experience to deal with a period of transition in the Medicine Bow-Routte National Forest.

After a decade-long, devastating beetle epidemic that left thousands of trees dead, campgrounds closed, and visitor numbers down, Fullman is ready to preside over what she called a “welcome-back campaign”.

Forest service employees have been busy making sure picnic tables are in good condition, parking is adequate, campsites are in order, posts are painted and upright, rings are campfire-ready, kiosks are well-signed and information about the forest condition is available in offices.

Fullman said all of the campgrounds should be open next year and the forest service is focusing on reacquainting locals and visitors with the forest.

“All of the trees are not 70- to 80-feet tall and green, but these facilities are safe,” Fullman said. “It may look different because the trees are gone, but in some of the campgrounds there are gobs of baby trees.”

Recreation is only one aspect of forest management. The national forests were originally created to protect watersheds for municipalities, Fullman said, but management of the forests evolved.

“We manage the land, and we manage for five things: water, wildlife, grazing, recreation and wood,” Fullman said.

At the top of her to-do list is forest health, which contributes to all five areas of management.

To that end, Fullman is finalizing a stewardship contract with Confluence Energy out of Kremmling, Colo., to carry on forest restoration work on 1,000 acres to remove dead lodgepole pines in exchange for the value of the wood.

The forest service continues to remove trees along roads and campgrounds and will maintain its normal timber sale program. Fullman said she was glad to see the Saratoga Mill coming back into operation.

In addition to improving the condition of the forest, a by-product of dead tree removal could be improved mule deer habitat. The forest service is a partnering agency in the Platte Valley Mule Deer Initiative.

Lack of snow hangs like a specter over all the potential uses of the forest and could make for an especially tough year for water resources and range management.

“We will be following up on range allotments and looking at conditions and seeing if we have to make adjustments next year,” Fullman said. “If we go into another dry year, we need to think about what will happen.”

Fullman will also be looking at the fire weather forecast for the forest, which she said currently predicts hot, dry weather and no moisture.

“We’ll talk about it over this winter and plan different management approaches based on different scenarios,” Fullman said. “We plan based on the forecast and act based on reality.”

Though there is a lot of work to do to maintain and manage the forest, Fullman doesn’t emphasize one use over another.

“My job is to keep an eye on all the resources – that is why I like the job,” Fullman said.

One of those resources is the public she works for. Fullman likes being involved in the community and knowing the people who play in, and make their living from, the forest. She takes the role of district ranger out of the office and into the public sphere.

“It’s being where people are that generates discussion,” Fullman said. “(My husband and I) have always gauged our engagement (with the community) by how long it takes to shop in the grocery store.”

 

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