Summit Park trails will close on Sep. 7 due to forest health project

Summit Park open space. Photo: Basin Recreation

SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — Trails in Summit Park will be closed for the week starting on Tuesday, September 7.

Crews will be in the area to continue their work on the Summit Park Forest Health and Fuels Reduction Project.

The project started in the fall of 2020. The project area is made up of the forested montane woodlands residing within the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) area of Summit Park, Pinebrook, and Timberline.

During the 2018 update to the Summit Park Forest Stewardship Plan, the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Forestry Fire and State Lands Division (FFSL) argued there was an urgent need for forest management in the area.

Specifically, the Douglas-fir stands that are very dense “due to lack of disturbance.”

Competition between various species and resources leads to “decreased stand vigor.”

The dynamic creates an increased risk of tree mortality from insects, drought, and forest diseases such as dwarf mistletoe.

This threat of tree mortality creates an increased risk for catastrophic wildfires.

However, officials believe these risks can be mitigated through planned forest thinning operations.

The Basin Recreation District for years has conducted small planned open space forest management treatments (“plucking the low hanging fruit”) within budgetary constraints.

The District was finally able to advance the first phase of its sizable forest health and fuels reduction project for Summit Park with numerous grants, like $150,000 from the Utah Watershed Restoration Initiative (WRI) and the Department of Water Quality.

The new increase in collected tax revenue was an important variable as well.

The primary objective of the project that is beginning on Tuesday is to improve forest health, protect watershed resilience, and mitigate hazardous fuels by patch-cutting, selectively thinning, and removing ladder fuels and brush.

The planned prescription will be conducted by contractors Alpine Foresty and Oregon-based Summitt Forests.

Much of the project was completed during the fall of last year. This session is intended to be the final year of work.

Overall treatments will do the following:

1. Create a shaded fuel break along boundary properties and within selected areas for fuels reduction.
2. Create small openings within densely forested and shrubby areas by using a patch-cutting technique.
3. Implement thinning operations focusing on age class variety and forest health measures to improve stand vigor.

Basin Recreation said there is a chance there will be firewood available for free public pick-up.

You can learn more about the project here.

Check this map to stay up-to-date regarding trail closures.