The Forest Health Initiative, presented to fellow commissioners in early September, proposes 40 collection slash sites throughout the year where slash will be collected and processed on site. The processed material will then be hauled down to the Denver Botanical Gardens site at Chatfield, who are partners in the initiative, and laid into wind rows on four acres of land. The initiative presented by Commissioner Rosier was contrived by Bret Roller, an Indian Hills resident who stated the Forest Health Initiative creates a sustainable solution through collection, processing and biomass composting of slash.

Since September, Rosier has put together a team of “subject matter experts” who met with other working experts in the field of bio diversity, renewable energy, disposal services and the Colorado Department of Natural Resources to help organize the project scheduled to begin by this summer.

“The Forest Health Initiative is moving along quite well,” Rosier said.

He referenced Boulder’s slash recycling facility which shares similarities with Rosier’s initiative and has become a model for how it the initiative may work.

“We are in the process of putting out onto the street a request for proposal for a third party agency to come in and do that type of work,” as in the slash collection processing mitigation, he said.

The current issue Rosier faces when looking to Boulder is the cost for water needed to help turn waste into compost which costs about $44 a ton to move to a landfill. Commissioner Rosier is working with numbers for a base amount starting at $4.

“We’re trying to develop a program that will be cost effective for all of the citizens of Jefferson County plus provide an environmental benefit,” he said.