Happy New Year!!
2021 flew right by, but we are very excited for the new year of 2022. For this year, with the end of our paid resource in Nathaniel, we are looking for some new organizational help. If you are interested in supporting our efforts through volunteering outside of events, please let us know. (Of course, you can volunteer at the events, too!!) Just like at our events, we have a job for everyone: operational (e.g. organizing events), education, marketing, communications, fundraising, community organizing, partner management and more. It doesn’t matter if you have a lot of time or a little, every little bit helps our small and scrappy team! Volunteering with us can also build some new skills if you are looking to break into new career paths. I promise we can make it work. Just contact us if you are interested. sawsandslaws@gmail.com or call Jody at 303-588-6639
Featured Volunteer – Tommy Drouillard
This month we are featuring Tommy Drouillard who has been volunteering with Saws & Slaws since 2017. He has over 50 hours of service at Saws & Slaws and finally was able to take our chainsaw class last year… so now he is an official sawyer!! Also, he has ensured we have received financial donations through his company’s charitable matching program. We are grateful for every hour and every dollar that Tommy has brought to us and our community. He is a joy to volunteer with, so here are some things you might like to know about him:
What’s your favorite Tree? The Blue Spruce. It’s noble, gorgeous, and our official Colorado state tree.
What neighborhood do you live in? Vonnie Claire.
If you had to evacuate right now what would you grab? We have a priority list. If evacuation is immediate, family and pets. If we have a little bit more time, grab the backup hard drive where we keep electronic documents and photos. Even more time: get the important paper documents from the fire safe.
How did you find out about Saws & Slaws? There was an event on Stanton/Dowdle drive and Patty Dohn asked if I was interested in helping out.
What motivates you to devote your time to fire mitigation with Saws & Slaws? Every moment and every dollar donated to Saws & Slaws helps the community. And I’ve learned so so much about forest stewardship and chainsaw safety.
What’s the best thing you’ve eaten at the Potluck? Ice cold water! Volunteering for Saws and Slaws definitely builds a thirst!
What’s your favorite thing about Coal Creek Canyon? This is a community of diverse and eclectic individuals and families that share similar lifestyles and hardships. While it seems like the world continues to grow less tolerant of each other, our community bridges those gaps and we come together like nowhere else.
Thank you, Tommy! We look forward to seeing you in the field this summer!
Upcoming Events:
Webinar: Residents’ Perspectives on Colorado’s 2020 Cameron Peak Fire
January 19th – 10:30 am
The 2020 Cameron Peak Fire burned more than 200,000 acres of public and private land in northern Colorado making it the largest fire recorded in Colorado’s history. Extreme fire behavior driven by dense and dry fuels, steep terrain, and weather and climatic factors greatly affected the range of potential management strategies. Many different communities were affected by the fire from smoke, repeated and long-term evacuations, emotional distress, and property impacts. Social science researchers at Colorado State University, in conjunction with the USDA Rocky Mountain Research Station, interviewed more than 50 landowners and residents in communities directly impacted by the Cameron Peak Fire to understand and share their experiences and perspectives. Join this webinar to learn about people’s attitudes on the communication and fire management strategies, their perceptions of post-fire landscape recovery and forest health, and their support for future forest and fire management.
There is a link to register for the webinar on our Facebook page or search for the title of the webinar in Google. (The link itself is nothing you’d want to try to type in!)
THANK YOU for our first Colorado Gives Day
Thank you to EVERYONE who supported us on Colorado Gives Day in December. It was our first run with this fundraising opportunity, and while we fell well short of our goal every little bit gets us one step closer to our big dream of replacing our dump truck! Thank you for the donations. Thank you for the social media likes and shares. Thank you for telling your friends and family. Thank you for all that you do to help us be successful throughout the year. We literally couldn’t do it without you!
Safety Tip of the Month: Let the chipper do the work! The risks of working with a chipper are obvious. They are powerful, and they cut things up into tiny pieces quickly. It is important to keeping your hands, arms and body in general away from the feeder that brings the material into the chipping part. The easiest way to do that is by letting the chipper do what it does. Get the material to the feeder and let the chipper take it from there. Ideally using longer pieces and thick end first, the feeder will grab the material and do the work. The best thing to do with smaller pieces is to stack them on top of larger pieces to make sure they get brought into the chipper. There is no reason to get your body any where near the feeder. Let the chipper do the work!
2022 Season Applications Now Open
Don’t forget to get your applications in for the 2022 season. We already have most of it planned, so if you’d like to take one of the last few spots, then be sure to get your application in soon! Now is the time to talk to your neighbors about getting on the schedule for summer and fall. Get out, connect with those in your proximity, and work toward getting your properties safer and healthier. Got questions? Call Us! (303) 642-0273. http://sawsandslaws.org
If you are interested in taking our Chainsaw Skills & Safety class this spring, let us know that too! sawsandslaws@gmail.com or on Facebook!
Saws and Slaws is a 501(c)3 organization committed to Building Stronger Communities Through A Healthier Forest. Find out more at http://sawsandslaws.org and Join Us!
