FACT Mobile Chipping Program: Fire Adapted Community Trout Lake (FACT), in partnership with Mt. Adams Resource Stewards (MARS), is offering a free mobile chipping program to the Trout Lake Valley. This service helps people reduce wildfire hazards on their properties by disposing of small trees, limbs, and brush.
Dates: April through early June, with particular focus on the week of May 1-7 (Trout Lake Wildfire Preparedness Week). We will connect with you to schedule specific dates & times.
Important: Use this form to sign up only if you will be ready for a chipping visit by the date you specify (i.e., you will have already completed limbing/brushing/piling). This is NOT an interest list.
Cost: This service is provided free of charge, but donations are welcomed and will support FACT and MARS in continuing to lead programming to increase Trout Lake's wildfire resiliency.
Standards for piling: (see photos below)
- Create piles along accessible road or driveway.
- All butt end of branches should face access road, stacked neatly.
- Limit piles to 4 feet tall.
- Brush is OKAY, but no green vine-y material smaller than your pinky.
- Material will be chipped into a pile or dispersed, but NOT hauled away.
- Do NOT include in your chipper piles:
- Material larger than 8-inch diameter.
- Material longer than 10 feet in length.
- Logs less than 36 inches in length.
- Dirt, rocks, stumps, rotten logs, or inorganic material.
- If you are cutting mostly ponderosa pine, consider cutting all material within 30 days of scheduled chipping day to minimize chance of Pine Engraver Beatle outbreaks.
Process: Chipping will be limited to approximately two hours per site. This represents a lot of brushing, limbing, etc., but NOT a huge jumbled slash pile, remains from logging or land-clearing, etc. Neatness counts! The neater the limbs are stacked, the more work the crew can accomplish. Maximize efficiency but having all limbs face the same direction, butts-out toward where the chipper will pull up nearby, and no more than 4’ tall.
More information:
Click here for more information about defensible space (where and how to remove hazardous fuels around your property for wildfire risk mitigation).
Click here to access the Trout Lake Wildfire Mitigation Guide.
Questions? Contact Sarah Allaben (from Mt. Adams Resource Stewards) at 440-497-8224 or sarah@mtadamsstewards.org
