Pinewood Springs
Community Information

Pinewood Springs
Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP)
Pinewood Springs Fire Protection District
Firefighters 2024 Calendar


Download the CWPP document at pinewoodspringsfire.org.

PWS CWPP PSFPD Firefighters 2024 Calendar

OHVs in Pinewood Springs

Off-Highway Vehicles (OHVs) include: 
Dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), utility-terrain vehicles (UTV)/side-by-sides (SxS), three-wheelers, and buggies.

Colorado State Patrol,
Department of Public Safety
The Colorado OHV law changed in 2021
.
The law now prohibits the operation of all Off-Highway Vehicles (OHVs) on all public roads throughout the state, unless expressly permitted by local government.

To date, Larimer County has not made any such exemptions, meaning that the ban on OHVs still applies to all roads in Pinewood Springs, regardless of make, model, age of driver, speed traveled, or any other mitigating factor besides a dire emergency.

This law may not be a popular one, but it is nevertheless Pinewood residents' obligation to observe the laws established by the state and county. If you’d like to contact Larimer County to lobby for an OHV exemption, you can do so here.

Thank you for your cooperation in helping to keep our roads safe.

911 Green Reflective House-Number Signs


Help our First Responders locate your home during an emergency. The PSPOA is working with the PSFPD to get green reflective house-number signs at every address.  These are being sold at cost for $12.00.
This is not a fund-raising project.

911 Green Reflective House-Number Sign Order Form



Dogs & Other Pet Ordinances

Wandering dogs and nuisance barking have been ongoing problems in the community. Loose dogs have attacked and even killed other dogs, and injured people.

Larimer County Animal Control Ordinance

CHAPTER 6 LARIMER COUNTY CODE Revised Ordinance ANIMALS 

- Sec. 6-77. Disturbance of the peace and quiet prohibited.
- Each owner or keeper of a pet animal in the county shall not permit such pet animal to disturb the peace and quiet of any person by barking, whining, howling, yowling, or making any other noise in an excessive, ongoing, or untimely fashion.

- Sec. 6-78. Public nuisance prohibited

- Dogs must be contained on one's property by a fence, housing, or electronic means.
- Off one's property, dogs must be kept under restraint or be immediately responsive to voice command.
- Pets may not disturb the peace by barking, howling, or other noise in an excessive, ongoing, or untimely manner.
- It is the duty of pet owners to ensure that they pick up after their pets. A pet's feces must immediately be removed from public or others' private property. 

                               Leave no poop behind.
Why it’s important:
- Dog waste is toxic.
- It contains disease-causing bacteria and parasites. 
- Its contaminants/bacteria can leech into our water system. 
- It is overwhelming the ecosystem.
- It is an environmental pollutant.
- It smells bad.

                 
- Sec. 6-52. Reporting animal bites; confinement
- Any bite to a person or another dog by a dog must be reported to the Larimer County Health Department and animal control officer.
- It is unlawful to keep an animal that bites or attempts to bite a person or animal, or approaches in an attitude of attack.
- Offenders are subject to fines.


LARIMER COUNTY SHERIFF - To Make a Report 
https://www.larimer.org/sheriff/quick-links/make-a-report 
 

Call Larimer County Field Response Services:
https://www.larimerhumane.org/animal-control/larimer-county/
Animal Protection and Control provide service seven days a week; one field officer will respond as time permits based on priority level.
If you are in need of immediate assistance please call
970-226-3647, ext. 7.

Help keep Pinewood Springs roads, parks, trails, and properties clean.

Please be a good neighbor, leash and clean up after your dog.

Bear sightings in Pinewood Springs and Estes Park Estates 

There have been numerous sightings of two maybe three bears in the Pinewood Springs and Estes Park Estates area. Please remember a fed bear is a dead bear. Don't leave bird feeders or pet food out over night. Your trash should only be put out the morning of pickup. Clean out your cars of anything that might smell of food to a hungry bear, lip balms and air fresheners included. Keep your car doors and house doors locked. Don't leave windows open that are easy access to a bear. You might find one raiding your fridge!

Photos provided by Doris Bykerk

Rattlesnakes and Bullsnakes in Pinewood Springs

For more information go-to source: https://www.colorado.edu/cumuseum/snakes-colorado

The Pinewood Springs area is host to the Prairie Rattlesnake. They are found below 8000'. 
Bull snakes are preditors to rattlesnakes. Bull snakes are good. Rattlesnakes are not so good.

CALL 911 if you or another human are bitten by a rattlesnake.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is sharing safety information on rattlesnakes with the public for awareness in an instance a person, or even your dog, is bitten. 
 
What to do, and not to do, if bitten by a rattlesnake

Colorado Outdoors - the Podcast for Colorado Parks and Wildlife
1.28 - Rattlesnakes - April 27, 2022
WILDERNESS NATURE

If your pet gets bitten remain calm and seek medical attention. 
Take a bitten dog to:
 - Aspen Meadow Veterinary Specialists (open 24/7) 104 S. Main Street, Longmont, 303-678-8844 
 - Lyons Veterinary Clinic (business hours Monday-Saturday) 412 High Street, Lyons, 303-823-6767 

Estes Park Medical Center and Estes Park veterinary clinics do not have antivenom because the elevation is too high for rattlesnakes. 

The Prairie Rattlesnake 
venomous

The Bullsnake
non-venomous

Diffuse Knapweed

Diffuse knapweed is categorized as a noxious weed in our area, for example, by the Estes Land Stewardship Association. It is also on the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s noxious week “LIST B” - weeds for which the State "implements … management plans designed to stop the continued spread.”
[Source: https://ag.colorado.gov/conservation/noxious-weeds/species-id]

Diffuse knapweed is a so-called “biennial” plant - it takes the form of a low rosette-shaped cluster in its first year, and then grows vertically in its second year, producing flowers and seeds before it dies at the end of that second summer.

Flat, rosette-shaped first-year plant emerging.

Rosette first-year plant postemergence.

Erect second-year plant before forming flower heads
(pine cone for scale).

How to Remove Diffuse Knapweed

At our elevation here in Pinewood Springs, knapweed is already up and growing. And now is a great time to get the emerging plants out of your life. They are relatively easy to pull out especially since we’ve had a decent amount of rain recently.

Recommended removal technique:

If second-year plants are growing in good organic soil, it is often possible to pull them completely out by grasping them with both hands at the base of the main stem and pulling steadily upward.

First-year plants are not amenable to this technique because they have a leaf arrangement that lies close to the ground without any stem to grab.

However, by using a common hand weeding tool, both first- and second-year plants can be readily extracted from the ground as follows:

1. Place the tool in a threatening position close to the plant.

2. Insert the tool into the soil about 2 inches from the base of the plant.

Push it straight down as far as you can. Along a road or driveway edge, you may need to wiggle the tool as you push it in to guide it around gravel and stones.

3. Move the handle of the tool away from the plant so that the tip of the tool that is in the ground is pushed towards the center of the plant.

What we are trying to do is to pop the deep taproot out of the ground.

4. If your technique is good, you may feel the whole plant release from the ground.

Grasp first-year plants at the center of the rosette, and second-year plants at the base of the main stalk, and pull smoothly upward.

You should get the whole root system still attached to the plant.

5. Express your contempt for this noxious weed by tossing it into the middle of the road where it can be run over and wither and die in the sun.

Please note that this last step will not work if the plant has already formed mature flower heads - it will just use its remaining energy to go to seed.

Instead, if you are harvesting plants that already have set flowers, put them in a plastic garbage bag and dispose of them in a way that will not release the seeds back into the environment.

Pinewood Community Church

Pinewood Springs Community Church
260 Button Rock Road
Lyons, CO 80540
(303) 823-6272

Sunday worship is at 10:00 AM with coffee and conversation following in Fellowship Hall.
Everyone is always welcome!

How to be a Good Neighbor in Pinewood Springs

Article by Diane Emerson, PWS Resident

The Big Ponderosa Pine

Ever wonder how old the trees are in Pinewood? The wind blew down the big ponderosa that stood guard at the Seneca Bridge. Several neighbors in the bridge area came together and cleaned up the mess. Donn Fairbank took the time to count the tree rings. The tree was 114 years old.