COVID-19 Update as of 4/5/2020
The concern at the top of everyone's list right now is the Covid-19 pandemic. With current recommendations for not only social distancing, but limited trips outside the home, no travel, stay at home orders, etc., the HOA has cancelled the April 18 general membership meeting. We encourage all residents to abide by the health and safety recommendations in place, support each other through phone calls, shopping assistance, video chats, etc. In order to support these recommendations, a list of resources available for the community can be downloaded here.
As you may be aware, the HOA sponsors a community-wide road cleanup day twice a year. Because of the Covid-19 restrictions, the first road cleanup has been revised to be an individual activity. Please download the flyer here. It is our hope that a group road cleanup can be scheduled this summer, provided the health and safety restrictions are lifted.
2020 Kids Fishing Derby
The annual Woodside Kids Fishing Derby will be held on June 6th, 2020 from 9am to 12 noon at Walers Pond on Woodside Drive (same pond used for previous derbies).
The Fishing Derby is open to all residents of Woodside Units 1 through 6. It’s a Colorado state free fishing day and a fishing license is not required. Poles, tackle and bait will again be provided by Colorado Parks and Wildlife to those needing them. Or, you can bring your own tackle and bait if you desire. Colorado State Fisheries will stock the pond a few days before June 6th so, the fish will be there. Prizes will be awarded to all the participating kids. Hot dogs, chips, and soft drinks will be served, courtesy of the HOA.
If you plan on attending, please contact Head Fish Guy, Bob Banks, at cbbanks26@aol.com or at (303) 838-0827 to sign up. Please provide you last name and total number of attendees in your party, and identify the number of adults, number of participating kids, and the kids’ names and ages. An accurate count is needed to ensure we have plenty of food and drinks on hand but, more importantly, a sufficient number of age-appropriate prizes for all the kids.
If you’d like to help out with Derby operations, please indicate this in your reply. In past years many adults have pitched in to cook, keep track of fish being caught and by whom as well as rigging and detangling fishing gear.
The Derby is one of our community’s hallmark events for residents to come together for a grand time. It is especially enjoyable to watch the youngsters exhibit their individual fishing prowess. We look forward to seeing you there!
Shred-a-Thon 2020
Crow Hill Insurance is sponsoring a Shred-a-Thon on Saturday, June 27th, 2020 from 9am to noon. The event is held at the Crow Hill Ins office at 460 Park County Rd 43, Bailey. Bring your documents that need to be shredded, and rid your home of unwanted clutter! Download the flyer here.
Broadband Initiative
Woodside, Elk Falls Ranch, Mountain View Lakes and Staunton State Park have joined hands in an effort to bring broadband internet to our area. Partnering with South Park Telephone, the effort targets submission of an application for grant funds by summer of 2020. Information has been disemminated to our residents on the mailing list as it becomes available, and there is additional information at 285broadband.com and on Facebook. Meetings are being held on a fairly routine basis to answer questions and update interested parties on the status of the effort. If you are not on our Woodside email list and would like to be, contact Bob Banks at cbbanks26@aol.com to get added.
Our New Community Wildfire Protection Plan
Kickoff meeting was held on November 3, 2018; work continues on development of the Plan by the Forest Stewards Guild.
What is a Community Wildfire Protection Plan?
A valid and current CWPP is required when applying for state and federal wildfire mitigation grants. They must meet Colorado State Forest Service guidelines. Sadly, they are often contracted out to third parties, written without community or agency input, and left to sit on a shelf gathering dust.
We are about to break that mold in North Park County.
The Platte Canyon Fire Protection District (PCFPD) recently hired the Forest Stewards Guild to help write and facilitate the creation of a new CWPP for north Park County. 311 square miles from Kenosha Pass to Pine Junction. This CWPP will include:
Why should we engage in this process? What’s in it for me?
None of us live in a bare dirt subdivision like Highlands Ranch. Our subdivisions were overlaid on a forest ecosystem that all of us share. We share the viewsheds. We share the watersheds. We share the underground aquifers. We also share a forest ecosystem that is adapted to and dependent for its health and vitality on Wildfire. We share the risk of a wildfire and unlike other natural disasters, both individually and collectively we can act to reduce that risk. Here are some of questions we should be asking ourselves as we start to engage in this process:
Becoming wildfire resilient is not possible without community. We can only do this together. So, join the conversation, learn how we can work together to reduce the risk of wildfire in our beautiful mountain community.
The concern at the top of everyone's list right now is the Covid-19 pandemic. With current recommendations for not only social distancing, but limited trips outside the home, no travel, stay at home orders, etc., the HOA has cancelled the April 18 general membership meeting. We encourage all residents to abide by the health and safety recommendations in place, support each other through phone calls, shopping assistance, video chats, etc. In order to support these recommendations, a list of resources available for the community can be downloaded here.
As you may be aware, the HOA sponsors a community-wide road cleanup day twice a year. Because of the Covid-19 restrictions, the first road cleanup has been revised to be an individual activity. Please download the flyer here. It is our hope that a group road cleanup can be scheduled this summer, provided the health and safety restrictions are lifted.
2020 Kids Fishing Derby
The annual Woodside Kids Fishing Derby will be held on June 6th, 2020 from 9am to 12 noon at Walers Pond on Woodside Drive (same pond used for previous derbies).
The Fishing Derby is open to all residents of Woodside Units 1 through 6. It’s a Colorado state free fishing day and a fishing license is not required. Poles, tackle and bait will again be provided by Colorado Parks and Wildlife to those needing them. Or, you can bring your own tackle and bait if you desire. Colorado State Fisheries will stock the pond a few days before June 6th so, the fish will be there. Prizes will be awarded to all the participating kids. Hot dogs, chips, and soft drinks will be served, courtesy of the HOA.
If you plan on attending, please contact Head Fish Guy, Bob Banks, at cbbanks26@aol.com or at (303) 838-0827 to sign up. Please provide you last name and total number of attendees in your party, and identify the number of adults, number of participating kids, and the kids’ names and ages. An accurate count is needed to ensure we have plenty of food and drinks on hand but, more importantly, a sufficient number of age-appropriate prizes for all the kids.
If you’d like to help out with Derby operations, please indicate this in your reply. In past years many adults have pitched in to cook, keep track of fish being caught and by whom as well as rigging and detangling fishing gear.
The Derby is one of our community’s hallmark events for residents to come together for a grand time. It is especially enjoyable to watch the youngsters exhibit their individual fishing prowess. We look forward to seeing you there!
Shred-a-Thon 2020
Crow Hill Insurance is sponsoring a Shred-a-Thon on Saturday, June 27th, 2020 from 9am to noon. The event is held at the Crow Hill Ins office at 460 Park County Rd 43, Bailey. Bring your documents that need to be shredded, and rid your home of unwanted clutter! Download the flyer here.
Broadband Initiative
Woodside, Elk Falls Ranch, Mountain View Lakes and Staunton State Park have joined hands in an effort to bring broadband internet to our area. Partnering with South Park Telephone, the effort targets submission of an application for grant funds by summer of 2020. Information has been disemminated to our residents on the mailing list as it becomes available, and there is additional information at 285broadband.com and on Facebook. Meetings are being held on a fairly routine basis to answer questions and update interested parties on the status of the effort. If you are not on our Woodside email list and would like to be, contact Bob Banks at cbbanks26@aol.com to get added.
Our New Community Wildfire Protection Plan
Kickoff meeting was held on November 3, 2018; work continues on development of the Plan by the Forest Stewards Guild.
What is a Community Wildfire Protection Plan?
A valid and current CWPP is required when applying for state and federal wildfire mitigation grants. They must meet Colorado State Forest Service guidelines. Sadly, they are often contracted out to third parties, written without community or agency input, and left to sit on a shelf gathering dust.
We are about to break that mold in North Park County.
The Platte Canyon Fire Protection District (PCFPD) recently hired the Forest Stewards Guild to help write and facilitate the creation of a new CWPP for north Park County. 311 square miles from Kenosha Pass to Pine Junction. This CWPP will include:
- Community input
- Collaboration between the PCFPD, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Elk Creek Fire Protection District
- State of the art wildfire modeling and operational analysis
- an action plan going forward that will make this CWPP a living, working document
Why should we engage in this process? What’s in it for me?
None of us live in a bare dirt subdivision like Highlands Ranch. Our subdivisions were overlaid on a forest ecosystem that all of us share. We share the viewsheds. We share the watersheds. We share the underground aquifers. We also share a forest ecosystem that is adapted to and dependent for its health and vitality on Wildfire. We share the risk of a wildfire and unlike other natural disasters, both individually and collectively we can act to reduce that risk. Here are some of questions we should be asking ourselves as we start to engage in this process:
- How can I protect my home from a wildfire? My business?
- What can we do as a community to ensure a safe evacuation in the event of a wildfire?
- What is our evacuation plan? What is my plan? What is the school district plan?
- What can we do about the risk of insurability?
- How can we make sure that our fire protection district is adequately funded?
- What can we do as a community to protect our forest eco-services? How do we avoid the prospect of living in a dystopian forest of black sticks?
- How can we avoid the flooding danger resulting from a large burn scar?
- How will a fire affect my well? My septic system?
- What is the true long-term cost of a wildfire?
- What is our recovery plan?
Becoming wildfire resilient is not possible without community. We can only do this together. So, join the conversation, learn how we can work together to reduce the risk of wildfire in our beautiful mountain community.
Presentation on Culturally Modified Trees
John Anderson gave a well-researched and educational presentation on culturally modified trees at our October 2017 General Membership Meeting. A pdf of his slides can be seen here. CMTs “are trees that exhibit peels, ax cuts, delimbing, wood removal, and other cultural modifications. Numerous CMTs are found in the foothills and mountains of Colorado. Research has shown that these trees are artifacts reflecting cultural utilization of trees by Native Americans and other people from the seventeenth century through the early twentieth century.” (cite from Colorado Encyclopedia at coloradoencyclopedia.org) Here are a couple of examples of CMTs:
John Anderson gave a well-researched and educational presentation on culturally modified trees at our October 2017 General Membership Meeting. A pdf of his slides can be seen here. CMTs “are trees that exhibit peels, ax cuts, delimbing, wood removal, and other cultural modifications. Numerous CMTs are found in the foothills and mountains of Colorado. Research has shown that these trees are artifacts reflecting cultural utilization of trees by Native Americans and other people from the seventeenth century through the early twentieth century.” (cite from Colorado Encyclopedia at coloradoencyclopedia.org) Here are a couple of examples of CMTs:
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