Fire department to conduct thinning around campus

The Flagstaff Fire Department will be working around the Flagstaff campus for the next several weeks to reduce wildfire hazards.

Crews will be thinning smaller-diameter trees and overcrowded areas. Most trees removed will be smaller than 7 inches in diameter, but some larger trees will be removed as well to create breaks in canopy cover.

The main cutting area will be 35 acres across the street from the Ceramics complex off of Lone Tree Road. The other area is 22 acres on the southeast corner Lone Tree and Zuni Drive

When completed, the area will look similar to work completed along Sinclair Wash (Urban Trail) between San Francisco and Lone Tree.

The work is beginning this week and should be completed within six weeks.

The wood will be cut into firewood lengths and stacked. Staff from Capital Assets and Services will remove the wood later this fall.

Slash piles of limbs, branches, tree tops, etc., will be stacked on site and burned once they have dried sufficiently, and when site conditions permit after snow has fallen.

If anyone has questions, contact Robert Chavez, director of Capital Assets’ Environmental Health and Safety, at (928) 523-6434 or Paul Summerfelt of the Flagstaff Fire Department Fuel Management Division at (928) 779-7685, ext. 7685.