A win-win for fire mitigation and heating homes, the annual firewood sale Oct. 10 at Mueller State Park gives dead trees a purpose.

A project of Friends of Mueller State Park, the sale reflects dedication and hard labor by volunteers with the nonprofit organization. It’s also a fundraiser for the Friends, who help fund special projects for the park.

A tour of the park on an ATV with Joe Mendygral, the organization’s president, offers a firsthand look at forest management that begins with thinning. Specialists do the thinning while Friends do the collecting.

To prepare for the sale, the volunteers hop on ATVs and head for the backcountry where they chop, load and haul the logs to a site near the gate off Colo. N. Hwy. 67. It’s not a bad gig for the hearty volunteers, who take in the spectacular views and often see herds of elk. They hear the bugle calls and see the trees marked with elk chew.

“We, the Friends, just love the park and want to make it better,” said Jim Stata, who is on site with his chain saw. 

He said last year the sale brought in $4,000 for the Friends.

As an aside, Mendygral offers a fun fact for people who find themselves in the forest without sunscreen. To demonstrate, he rubs the white part of the “chew,” which looks like powder but offers a level of protection from the sun.

In a state with multiple fires and hundreds of thousands of acres burned, the firewood project is an effort to reduce fuels in areas of the park’s dense forest.

“Thinning doesn’t prevent wildfire. In Colorado, fire is a natural part of many forest ecosystems,” Mendygral said. “The goal of our project is to make fires less severe and more manageable.”

Of the 5,000-acre park covered with aspen, Douglas fir and Engelmann spruce, the volunteers’ goal is to mitigate 10 to 20 acres a year.

“Instead of letting all that usable wood go to waste, we offer it to the public for a donation,” Mendygral said. “We’re taking something the forest needs us to do, turning the byproduct into something people need and using the proceeds to give something back to the park.”

After leaving Stata with his chain saw, Mendygral swings by the park’s new yurt, to be opened soon as an alternative to the park’s cabins which are all open to the public. The Friends helped fund the yurt project.

Along with chopping logs, the Friends are shading or replacing lights for the park’s Dark Sky Initiative as a pathway to earning certification as a Dark Sky site. 

“We are 80% there,” Mendygral said.

To carry a legacy for the park, the Friends provide transportation for school-age children to learn from park naturalists. To continue their work, the Friends rely on the firewood sale while putting out the word about the need for volunteers.

The sale begins at 9 a.m. Oct. 10 at a location 1.5 miles north of the park entrance on Colo. Hwy. 67. There will be signs to alert the drivers before approaching the gate, which will be unlocked. The sale lasts until all the wood is gone but ends at 2 p.m. Buyers are encouraged to arrive in pickups and/or trailers under 20 feet. Depending on the size of the truck, the donations range from $80 to $120. For information about the organization, check friendsofmuellersp.com.