Fire mitigation is coming to a popular open space in Colorado Springs.

Starting next month in Stratton Open Space, crews will be cutting timber across 260-plus acres well known to hikers and mountain bikers.

While those enthusiasts can continue to access the open space during the project, a recent news release indicated “intermittent closures of certain trails may be necessary” and advised “caution around the work areas.”

The release explained the aim is to “reduce critical fuels by limbing, thinning stand density, chipping of any dead and down woody debris, and the removal of live, dead, and diseased standing vegetation.”

The ultimate goal for the open space bordering North Cheyenne Cañon Park and a historic neighborhood: to “protect the natural environment and wildlife” and “reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires,” Cory Ashby, the Colorado Springs Fire Department’s wildfire program coordinator, said in the release.

The project scope is more than double the 100-plus acres of Stratton oak and conifers that were treated in 2017. That job sparked some outcry, with open space regulars lamenting the loss of woods. The reaction was similar among Monument Preserve trail users following last year’s work by the U.S. Forest Service, ahead of the area’s recent controlled burn.

In a post to mountain bikers, Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates Executive Director Cory Sutela wrote his understanding of “a buffer” to be left along Stratton trails “to provide shade and to reduce the visual impact of the work.”

“But be forewarned,” Sutela added, “like most fire mitigation, it will look startling, especially for the first few months after the work is complete.”

He implored patience: “What we have seen in every fire mitigation case is that after a year the space looks ‘natural’ again, although with less congested undergrowth.”

Local land managers have ramped up education on a history of homebuilding and development in wild areas that has come with fire prevention — thus preventing natural cycles.

“So we’ve got overgrowth of our forests,” Pikes Peak District Ranger Carl Bauer said amid Monument Preserve mastication last year. “They’re overstocked, they’ve got too many trees, and it’s very unnatural.”

Bauer has been tasked with unprecedented federal funding for work across Pike National Forest; mitigation has also been focused around Rampart Reservoir.

The city, meanwhile, is working with Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) retention funds. Voters in 2021 approved up to $20 million toward a wildfire mitigation program.