Mulching: A knowledge summary and guidelines for best practices on Colorado’s Front Range

Abstract

Mulching involves the use of heavy equipment to grind, shred, chip, or chop large woody material into smaller pieces. Mulching activities such as chipping and mastication have been relied-upon tools in forest management on the Front Range of Colorado and throughout the United States since the late 1990s (e.g. Hood and Wu 2006, Owen et al. 2009, Wolk and Rocca 2009, Battaglia et al. 2010, Gottfried and Overby 2011, Kreye et al. 2014, Jain et al. 2018). Chipping and mastication are specific types of mulching, and these techniques each have fundamental differences in operational constraints, ecological effects, and potential fire behavior (Table 1). Mulching can be used alone, or in combination with other management activities (e.g. multi-staged understory and overstory vegetation management, timber harvests, prescribed fire, site preparation, etc.).

Citation

Wolk, Brett; Stevens-Rumann, Camille; Battaglia, Mike; Wennogle, Chris; Dennis, Chuck; Feinstein, Jonas; Garrison, Kristin; Edwards, Gloria. 2020. Mulching: A knowledge summary and guidelines for best practices on Colorado’s Front Range. Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State University, Colorado Forest Restoration Institute. 20 p.