Community Chipping Program

About the Program

The community chipping program is offered to all residents of Inter-Canyon and Elk Creek Fire Protection Districts. 

The Community Chipping Program is designed to encourage homeowners to mitigate their lands and help reduce wildfire risk. This program is free of charge and is operated each summer from May through October. To register for this program you must have an ambassador (or completed a home assessment). Go to www.chipperday.com/elkcreek, and input your physical address. You will either find open events to sign up for, or enable email notifications when an event is available for you. Registration is first-come-first-serve and seats for this program fill up quickly.  When registering be sure to fill out the required fields carefully and completely, any incorrect or mistyped information may lead to a delay or inability to full-fill your request.  Please only submit one request per household. You will receive a confirmation email after your successful registration. Please read and understand the Program Parameters and Guidelines.  Each year we ask for your patience and understanding with the program, as the crew operating the chipping program also responds to in-district emergencies including, but not limited to wildfires, all-hazard, etc.  If you miss the sign up or are outside of our service range, please consider the other options listed on this site for removal.

Registration/Sign Up

Pay attention to the following:

• Only 1 request allowed per household/property. 

  • • • • No duplicate or double requests will be permitted. Using different names or phone numbers wont work, we will know.

• You must understand and agree to the Program Parameters and Guidelines, failure to abide may cause service rejection.

• Submit your complete physical address, P.O Boxes will be rejected. We use this information to locate your residence and chip your slash piles.

• Phone numbers help us contact you if there are any issues or further instructions for access are required.

• Include expected pile locations and special access (gate codes, shared drive ways, etc) in the "Notes" section. 

  • • • • Leaving this field blank can lead to a delay in service.

• Choosing between "Haul Away Chips" and "Spray Chips" is your preference. We can haul the mulch away, or broadcast it onto your property from the roadside (for more about chips/mulch and its benefits click HERE). If choosing "Broadcast Chips" please consider the following:

  • • • • Our equipment shoots chips out at a high rate of speed, 90 degrees from where your piles are located.

        • Will your house, vehicles, driveways, etc be impacted from this debris via the location of your piles.

        • Our equipment does not create "neat piles" or "even distribution" you may need to further spread the mulch after we complete your request.

        • We do our best to clean up, but overall cleanup is the responsibility of the homeowner.

Program Rules/Guidelines

Please follow all guidelines and parameters, our crews work hard and diligently to serve as many of our community members as possible. Dealing with improper, hard to find, and hard to access piles take much needed time and effort out of the program. Thank you for your understanding, participation, and support.

• Piles must be stacked by 8 a.m. on the first scheduled chipping day (check your group assignment).

• Improperly stacked piles, and any piles stacked after 8 a.m, may not be identified or collected.

• Chipping will take place weekly Monday through Friday.

• Stack piles neatly (no bags), with the large ends of branches facing the road.

• Place piles within 5 feet of the roadway, but not touching the road or in drainage ditches.

• NO piles on or in driveways, piles must be on a roadway accessible to the crew and its equipment.

• Maximum pile size is 5 'x 5' x 5'. There is a 15-pile limit per address for each sign up period. Piles over the limit will not be chipped.

• Maximum acceptable material diameter is 10".

• Please no piles of tiny sticks and twigs (rakings), they cant be picked up and they jam our chipper.

• Do not combine piles with neighbors' piles or place piles in other neighborhoods.

• After crews have removed your pile, clear away any remaining branches, needles and debris.

• NO piles that have been created by any machinery. 

• NO rotted/punky/burned material.

• NO rakings.

• Piles that have rocks, dirt/debris, trash, or root wads will NOT be chipped.

While we will do our best to stick with the outlined schedule above, we continue to assess the most appropriate measures to protect the health and safety of our personnel, the local community, and society at large in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and our wildfire response priorities. As a result, the Chipping Program might be affected in ways that we can't currently predict.