It’s time to start thinking about preparing your trees, flowers and vegetable gardens for fall. And there are just a few weeks left to get free mulch made from donated slash materials.  

Mulch will be available from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the next three Saturdays: Sept. 10, 17, and 24, at the Black Forest slash/mulch site,  located on the east side of Herring Road, just south of Shoup Road between Black Forest and Vollmer roads.

The program will close for the season Sept. 24 at 4 p.m. No slash will be accepted after Sept. 11.

Mulching helps protect trees and plants during winter and conserves moisture. As mulch decomposes, it forms topsoil, so residents also can store mulch over the winter for use in the spring.  

Slash is the residue left from cutting and trimming trees, pine cones, limbs and needles. The slash/mulch program accepts only tree and brush debris and does not take stumps, roots, weeds, grass, lumber or trash.

Hand-loaded mulch is offered for free. Mulch that is loaded for pick up is $4 per bucket.

The site is open to residents of El Paso and Teller counties and is run by volunteers as a wildfire mitigation and recycling program. Sponsors are the El Paso County Environmental Division, the Colorado Forestry Association and the Black Forest Fire Department, in cooperation with the Colorado State Forest Service and the State Board of Land Commissioners.

For more information, go to www.bfslash.org.

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