Mountain Living: What to Do With Slash

When my wife and I moved from the suburbs to the mountain foothills west of Boulder, Colorado, we were quite pleased at the prospect of trading our lawnmower for a chainsaw. With a hungry woodstove to feed, and pine beetles on the warpath, it has been an essential piece of equipment. There's a certain satisfaction in standing back and appraising large stacks of cut firewood. The feeling is quite different, however, when gazing upon the even larger piles of branches, or "slash", which usually accompany them.

The Problem

The question becomes, what to do with the slash? A small amount of slash is nice to have around for starting fires on those cold Colorado mountain mornings, but large piles of slash aren't so handy. Aside from the ever-present fire danger, slash piles are attractive to the ips beetle, a hungry cousin to the mountain pine beetle, which breeds four times as often. Here in Boulder County, there are land use codes which call for proper disposal of slash.

Option #1: Haul it

Nederland, Colorado, our small mountain town, is blessed with a recycle center which will now take slash for free, in light of the impending beetle invasion. The catch -- all of the branches must be cut to no more than 4 feet long, and aligned into perfect rows. Those of you who've dealt with pine will know that it doesn't like to be aligned into perfect rows, and much of my slash is 6 feet or longer. Add to this the fact that my slash piles are quite large, which would require countless gas-burning trips up the road, and this option isn't all that attractive.

Option #2: Chip it

Another option is to run the slash through a chipper. The end product is much more benign than the precursor. Pine chips make good, if acidic, mulch, and chip piles aren't much of a fire hazard. They can also be used for traction on a long, steep, icy driveway, like so many Colorado mountain homes claim as primary access. The drawback is that chipping is expensive. Hiring others to do it for you is expensive. Buying the equipment and doing it yourself is expensive. And it's still a lot of work.

Option #3: Spread it

Boulder County permits homeowners to drag slash a certain distance from the house and spread it up to two feet deep as a meal for the ubiquitous ants which inhabit these parts. This is a long process, however, and particularly so in the dry Colorado mountain climate. During the wait, the woods remain littered with slash on its very slow march toward decomposition -- makes those leisurely walks in the woods a little less pleasant.

Option #4: Burn it

A very effective, but somewhat risky tactic, is to just burn the slash. The smoke isn't an issue at altitude, but catching the whole neighborhood on fire certainly is. Another fact of mountain living is the often gale force winds which blow throughout most of the winter. Combine this with the regular summer droughts, and the timing becomes very tricky. Boulder County will issue open burn permits for small slash piles during the winter months. If the rare day arrives which offers that perfect marriage of at least 6 inches of snow on the ground and next to no wind, don't let the opportunity pass you by!