• Client: Douglas County, CO
• Date: March, 2007 – August, 2007
• Project Type: Wildfire Mitigation, Forest Restoration, Noxious Weed Inventory and Management, Erosion Evaluation
• Info: Douglas County contracted with Blue Mountain and Anchor Point Group to develop a comprehensive ecosystem management plan for the Castle Pines Homeowners Association.

Castle Pines is a 1,000-acre covenant-protected community and former Colorado home of the Professional Golf Association Tour. The property-wide real estate value exceeds $12.7 billion.

BMEC created the Castle Pines Ecosystem Management Plan in conjunction with a Community Wildfire Protection Program (CWPP) to meet long-range planning goals. Ensuring management activities were ecologically sustainable and integrating these directives were top priorities. 

Project objectives were applied to three distinct areas:

1. Forest Management and Wildfire Mitigation
2. Noxious Weeds 
3. Wildlife

The natural environment at Castle Pines is woven in with residential developments, golf courses, roads, trails and site infrastructure. These site conditions presented special challenges and opportunities for management.

For example, golf greens establish fuel breaks throughout the community. However, these areas are irrigated with recycled waste water. Salts and ions dissolved in this water source caused declines of ponderosa pine trees adjacent to fairways.

As a result, we expanded our forest management recommendations to address the use of recycled waste water and arboricultural issues associated with landscaping. Likewise, the noxious weed assessment identified erosion and sedimentation as a major cause for weed propagation. Unstable sites such as cut banks, water ways, ditches and construction areas are common throughout the property.

These ecological environments are ideal locations for weed establishment and dispersal. Our noxious weed management recommendations prioritized species and included erosion and sedimentation guidelines and restoration seed mixes.