Forest Health

This page chronicles the Summit County Citizens Voice articles on forest health and the pine beetle epidemic.

is there any hope? We need to find the political and social will to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions, and some researchers suggest studying options for replanting with new species and using managed fire to improve forest health.

Forest cover plays big role in global warming measurements

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Impacts of  deforestation on global warming vary with latitude

New research on the relationship between forest cover and surface temperatures suggest that deforestation in northern latitudes may have a regional cooling effect, but closer to the equator, cleared areas likely result in a net warming. In a nutshell, the [...]

Summit County: Logging traffic expected in Mesa Cortina

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Contractor clearing out beetle-killed trees

Residents of Mesa Cortina and Wildernest can expect more logging traffic this winter, as a contractor removes trees cut during ongoing forest health and wildfire hazard mitigation work. The project, a part of the White River Wildland Urban Interface Stewardship project in Summit County. Logging [...]

Breckenridge: Forest summit meeting comes to CMC

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Panels will focus on science and management

Conservation experts, forest managers, loggers and scientists will gather at Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge this week to pow-wow once again on the condition of Colorado’s devastated lodgepole pine stands. The Colorado Bark Beetle Collaborative summit meeting is set for Friday, October 28, from 9:30 [...]

Report: New approach needed to prevent wildfire disasters

Posted on October 15, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

The U.S. Forest Service says preventing wildfire disasters requires a change of approach, away from costly and “strategically ineffective” efforts aimed at increasing fire protection capabilities.  Instead, efforts should be focused toward reducing the ignition potential directly around homes …

USFS touts wood as low-emission building material

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Forest Service research shows that timber stacks up well against other building materials

The U.S. Forest Service is touting the benefits of wood as a green building material, in part to encourage the use of beetle-killed timber from the Rocky Mountain region. A recent study found that, “harvesting, transporting, [...]

Summit County: Tree-clearing to begin on Peaks Trail

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Forest Service continues hazard tree removal

The popular Peaks Trail, between Frisco and Breckenridge, and the Gold Hill Trail are next up for hazard tree removal, with work set to begin Oct. 5. The work is expected to continue through October and November or as long as weather permits. [...]

South Dakota gets $3 million for bark beetle fight

Most of the money aimed at removing hazard trees

Gov. Dennis Daugaard and the U.S. Forest Service last week announced $3 million in cooperative federal grants for community assistance, bark beetle, and forest health needs in South Dakota. The federal grant awards complement Gov. Daugaard’s recently announced Black Hills [...]

Firewood transport spreads deadly oak infestation

Education, enlightened self-interest seen as key to halting spread

The transport of firewood from Arizona to California may be to blame for a catastrophic infestation of goldspotted oak borer, which has killed more than 80,000 oak trees in San Diego County in the last decade. The spread of the [...]

Environment: Are New England’s iconic maples at risk?

Invasive Asian longhorned beetle has potential for wide reach in region’s forests

An Asian beetle that arrived in the U.S. via wooden packing material in the 1990s could spread into forests near northeastern cities, according to a study appearing in the latest issue of the Canadian Journal of Forest [...]

Global warming: Whitebark pine in danger of extinction

Feds say global warming one of the key threats to iconic western trees

Climate change is one of the factors threatening whitebark pine, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists said last month, declaring that the iconic high altitude tree of the northern Rockies needs endangered species protection. But even [...]

Summit County: Keystone gets OK for forest health work

Salvage logging approved on about 1,600 acres at Colorado ski area

Keystone Ski Area has a green light to begin salvage logging and other forest restoration efforts across 1,648 acres at the resort as part of a project to reduce risks to the public and infrastructure from falling trees. [...]

Summit County forest health group eyes statewide efforts

Economic use of beetle-killed wood a high priority for forest experts

Some key players from Colorado’s emerging  forest health and forest products field will discuss the latest info from a statewide perspective  during this week’s meeting of the Summit Forest Health Task Force roundtable [...]

Forest-killing fungi could multiply in a warming world

Permian forest extinction offers clues to current climate change impacts

A warming climate has already been implicated in the rapid expansion of bark beetles that have killed millions of acres of western forests. The beetles transmit a fungus that causes the blueish stain seen in the cut stems of [...]

Colorado’s struggling sawmills get some relief

Forest Service to allow mutual cancellation of unfavorable timber contracts

Three struggling sawmills in Colorado will have a chance to get out of some costly timber contracts that were signed before the 2008 recession collapsed the timber and housing markets. Some of the mills locked into those contracts have [...]

Old growth forest preservation has climate benefits

Research shows logging cuts in Pacific Northwest increase carbon sequestration

Researchers at Oregon State University and the Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station have used satellite sensing and other high-tech mapping tools to show that a 1993 plan to preserve old-growth forest habitat had a powerful and unintended consequence [...]

Summit County: Look out for logging on Colorado Trail

More hazard tree removal set for popular hiking path between the Swan River and Highway 9

The ongoing hazard tree removal work in Summit County this summer will include logging along the Colorado Trail, between the North Fork of the Swan Road (FDR #354.1) and Tiger Run RV Resort [...]

Colorado: Another twist in the roadless saga

California congressman wants to revoke roadless status for all federal lands

In another twist to the seemingly endless saga of roadless land management, Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy has introduced legislation that would lift what he calls restrictive management practices on inventoried roadless areas and terminate both the 2001 and [...]

Colorado: Roadless rule elicits more than 50,000 comments

Conservation groups still seeking more protection for certain areas

U.S. Forest Service officials say they’ve received more than 50,000 comments on a draft roadless rule that would determine management of more that 4 million acres of national forest land in Colorado. The comment period ended July 14 after a [...]

Summit County: Forest health groups pow-wow in Frisco

Groups will offer updates on statewide and regional forest health plans and strategies

Federal and state agencies have developed an elaborate and sometimes overlapping bureaucratic superstructure and spent millions of dollars to try and deal with impacts of the tiny bark beetles that are chewing their way through the [...]

Colorado: Big logging project begins on Frisco Peninsula

Crown Point Road to be closed, campgrounds, trails remain open

Major logging operations are set to begin on the Frisco Peninsula July 11 as the U.S. Forest Service clears out beetle-killed trees. Campgrounds on the peninsula will stay open, but Crown Point Road (FSR #1008.1) will be closed to [...]

Summit County: USFS eyes sale of Dillon compound

Agency also preparing a study on building a new facility along Dillon Dam Road

A long-discussed plan to sell off some Forest Service property in Dillon and develop a new housing and work compound along Dillon Dam Road may be moving closer to fruition, as the agency prepares both [...]

Colorado: Udall seeks relief for struggling sawmills

Democratic senator says continued operation of wood processing plants critical in ongoing efforts to clear beetle-killed trees from forests around the state

Colorado’s struggling timber mills are getting some high-level help from Sen. Mark Udall, who is urging the U.S. Forest Service to modify several timber contracts that are [...]

Colorado: Aspen-area habitat restoration project gets OK

Forest Service tackles 10-year project in the Roaring Fork Valley

With development rapidly eating up wildlife habitat along the bottomlands of Roaring Fork Valley, the U.S. Forest Service is going to try and make some large-scale improvements on national forest lands during the coming decade. White River National Forest [...]

Colorado: Over-eager motorists damaging forest areas

Forest Service asking visitors to respect closures and wait for the snow to melt

Over-eager motorists in Colorado are causing extensive damaged to roadside vegetation by driving around snowdrifts in the high country, according to the U.S. Forest Service. “We know that people are anxious to get out and [...]

Summit County: Expert panel eyes future forest health

June 30 meeting will address emerging impacts to Colorado’s mountain forests

This week’s luncheon meeting (June 30) of the Summit County Forest Health Task Force will focus on how to optimize future forest conditions with the limited resources available to land managers. A panel of forest experts and ecologists will discuss what [...]

Wildfires: Forest regeneration stymied by hot crown fires

Arizona research calculates wildfire carbon-balance impacts

Wildfires that have burned across almost 750,000 acres in Arizona are doing more than turning forests into charred stumps. Researchers with Northern Arizona University say the fires, burning in unnaturally dense stands of ponderosa pine, are turning the forests from carbon sinks into [...]

Summit County: Logging under way in Keystone Gulch

Wildfire mitigation work continues in Summit County

Logging crews are clearing trees along three miles of Keystone Gulch Road this week, and the Forest Service is asking people to avoid the area if possible through June 24, as the road will be closed on and off. “This work is [...]

Summit County: Summer logging under way

Logging slated in Lake Hill area

Hikers at the Old Dillon Reservoir Trail will see loggers at work clearing beetle-killed trees from the area. The work is aimed at addressing the effects of the pine beetle epidemic, and the Old Dillon Reservoir Authority is also planning on starting its enlargement project soon. [...]

Summit County: Some TLC for local forests

Tree-planting volunteers needed for June 4 Legacy Forest project

After a 10-year pine-beetle epidemic Summit County’s forests are in need of some TLC, and the Bristlecone Foundation is once again helping the restoration efforts with a countywide tree-planting day coming up June 4. Volunteers are still needed for the [...]

Summit County awards $247,000 for wildfire mitigation

Grant program targets fuel reduction around neighborhoods and in open space areas

Local officials last week awarded $247,000 for local projects under the hazardous fuels reduction grant program, including $26,500 to treat 19 acres in the Spruce Valley area at a cost of about $2,700 per acre. The grant [...]

Summit County: Forest Service OKs Keystone forest project

Beetle-kill trees targeted for salvage logging, some spraying planned to protect high-value trees

Keystone Ski Area may be able to begin an extensive forest health treatment program this summer, clearing dead trees, spraying others to protect them from pine beetles and replanting seedlings to help speed recovery of beetle-stricken [...]

Summit County: Forest Health Task Force partners with outdoor group to raise awareness of bark beetle impacts

May 12 meeting to focus on the role of outdoor industry and local service groups

As a slow-moving ecological event, the bark beetle epidemic coursing through the Rocky Mountains has garnered plenty of attention from scientists and forest rangers, but has remained a bit under the radar of national publicity [...]

Summit County: Tree-planting volunteers wanted

Forest Service, stewardship groups team up to replace beetle-killed trees at Blue River campground

The beetles came, the trees died and now it’s time to help restore the forest. That’s the plan for May 14 at the Blue River campground, north of Silverthorne, where about 120 volunteers are needed [...]

U.S. Forest Service holds open house on new planning rule

A broad new rule for national forest plans has been out in draft form for several weeks now, with the Forest Service taking public comment through the middle of May.

Colorado: Beetle-kill a catalyst for dramatic forest changes

Summit County: Dead forest equals more runoff

Forest health and water supplies are closely linked

Global warming: Lodgepole pine may be down — and out

UN designates 2011 as International Year of Forests

Morning photo: Year of forests

Morning photo: Ominous beauty

Ophir Mountain logging aims at long-term forest health

Peak 7 logging: Project should focus on ‘red zone’

Local officials  said they will listen to public comment on a proposed forest health logging project in the Breckenridge area, and said the U.S. Forest Service needs to cooperate more closely with the community and try to focus its logging efforts in the critical Red Zone, where homes are at [...]