Forests: Canadian scientists decode pine beetle genome

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
Mountain Pine Beetle. Photo by: Ward Strong, B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations

Mountain Pine Beetle. Photo courtesy Ward Strong, B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations.

Findings may help forest managers control outbreaks

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Scientists who recently completed decoding the pine beetle genome say their findings could help forest managers develop ways to manage the epidemic in the future.

“We know a lot about what the beetles do,” said Christopher Keeling, a research associate at Canada’s Michael Smith Laboratories. “But without the genome, we don’t know exactly how they do it.” (more…)

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Environment: Are Colorado’s majestic high country spruce forests next on the bark beetle hit list?

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Global warming is likely to increase insect populations and make trees more susceptible to attacks

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So far, high-elevation spruce-fir forests in Summit County have been relatively free of spruce beetles, with the exception of a hotspot in the Baylor Park area, near Ski Sunlight. Spruce beetle activity south of Breckenridge has slowed down. Bob Berwyn photo.

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Spruce beetles are spreading quickly in the San Juans.

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — The mountain pine beetle epidemic has run its course in the Colorado high country, but there’s a new bug on the rise.

Spruce beetles have killed huge swaths of mature spruce beetles in southwestern Colorado, especially on the Rio Grande National Forest — and they appear to be moving north.

Researchers and resource managers are trying to get ahead of the curve to anticipate how far the outbreak will spread in Colorado’s 4.7 million acres of spruce-fir forest, and how the bugs  may affect wildfire behavior and ecosystem services in a zone where large fires are rare. (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, Colorado, Environment, Forest health, forests, global warming | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Colorado foresters say no need to spray for pine beetles

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Local company continue to offer spraying services, saying some property owners would rather be safe than sorry

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Pine beetle populations have dropped to the lowest level in 30 years in parts of the Colorado high country. Bob Berwyn photo.

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — While some local property owners report that they’re getting advertisements from local tree spraying companies about protecting lodgepole pines from mountain pine beetles, state officials say there’s no need to apply pesticides this year.

“Mountain pine beetle numbers are the lowest they’ve been in 30 years,” said Ron Cousineau, district state forester for the area covering Summit and Grand counties. “The mountain pine beetle population has crashed … spraying has to be based on an actual threat,” he said. “The current population of pine beetles does not warrant spraying.”

Essentially, the bugs have killed most of the available trees. With very few brood trees remaining, beetle populations aren’t likely to reach epidemic levels again anytime soon. The latest forest surveys showed pine beetle activity on only about 200 acres in Summit County last year, with only a few pockets of trees within those areas affected by the beetles. (more…)

Filed under: Colorado, Environment, Forest health, forests, pine beetles, Summit County Colorado, Summit County news | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Colorado gets new state forester

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Mike Lester says Colorado forests face ‘extraordinary changes’

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Colorado’s aspen forests may see more die-offs as a result of last summer’s drought.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Colorado’s new state forester and director of the Colorado State Forest Service may be moving here from Pennsylvania, but his forestry roots are pure Colorado.

Mike Lester is a CSU alumnus and spent time with the Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. He currently serves as assistant state forester for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, a position in which he is responsible for more than 300 staff, manages 2 million acres of state forest land, oversees the Pennsylvania State nursery manager, and manages a silviculture program that yields $25 million in annual revenues.

As Colorado  state forester, Lester is responsible for the protection of Colorado’s forest resources; ensuring forestry education, outreach and technical assistance to private landowners; and carrying out the duties of the Division of Forestry within the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. (more…)

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Colorado’s forgotten forest?

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Recovery uncertain in vast swaths of piñon pine forests

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Some southwest Colorado landscapes changed dramatically after ips beetles killed huge swaths of piñon pines, and recovery is uncertain. Bob Berwyn photo.

Piñon-Juniper woodland are Colorado's most extensive forests.

Piñon-Juniper woodland are Colorado’s most extensive forests.

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — Recent research suggests that most beetle-hit lodgepole pine forests are recovering about as expected. But other Colorado forest types have been also suffered the effects of drought and insect infestation — and the outlook for recovery is not as clear.

Across much of the West Slope and especially in the Four Corners region, the tiny ips beetle struck after piñon-juniper woodlands were left dessicated by the early 2000s drought. Within just a couple of years, by 2004, up to 80 percent of the mature piñons in the hardest hit areas were dead, and U.S. Forest Service researchers say some of those areas show little signs of regrowth. (more…)

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Can tropical forests survive global warming?

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Study suggests some resilience, but physiological responses need more study

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Tropical forests won’t lose as much biomass as some other forest types as the planet warms.

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Tropical forests may show resilience in the face of global warming, losing less biomass in response to greenhouse gas emissions than may previously thought, according to a new study published online this week in Nature Geoscience.

The results suggest that, while the risk of climate-induced damage to tropical forests will be relatively small, a lot more research is needed to quantify the physiological response of tropical forest ecosystems to climate change. The study was aimed in part at determining the future evolution of tropical rainforests — including the role they play in the global climate system and carbon cycle.

The research team included climate scientists and tropical ecologists from the UK, USA, Australia and Brazil and was led by Dr. Chris Huntingford, with the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in the UK. The research team looked at computer simulations with 22 climate models to explore the response of tropical forests in the Americas, Africa and Asia to greenhouse-gas-induced climate change. (more…)

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Climate: NASA satellites see thinning forest cover

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Study says mid-Atlantic region most affected

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A spruce beetle infestation is thinning forests in southwestern Colorado, and in some cases, wiping out huge stands of mature trees. Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Between mountain pine beetles, sudden aspen decline, spruce beetles and ips beetles that attacked southwest Colorado piñon pines in early 2000s, a significant chunk of the state’s forests have changed significantly in the past decade.

But climate change is also driving more subtle changes in forests around the country, and on the ground, those changes may not be as easy to see as a stand of dead lodgepoles.

Using satellite images, to track vegetation patterns, NASA scientists say warmer temperatures and changes in precipitation have resulted in a significant decline in forest canopy cover.The changes were most striking in the mid-Atlantic region, where the researchers estimate that 40 percent forests have been affected. (more…)

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Study: Colorado forests not doomed

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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New dawn for Colorado’s beetle-killed forests.

Intensive research shows vigorous regrowth in beetle-killed tracts

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — After years of uncertainty over the future of Colorado’s forest landscapes, a new study by U.S. Forest Service scientists puts the recent pine epidemic into perspective.

The insect outbreak ultimately will result in more diverse and resilient forests in the long run, adding structural complexity and species diversity, researchers with the USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station concluded after carefully monitoring regrowth in beetle-killed stands.

New growth is surging under the dying lodgepole canopy with the vertical growth rate of lodgepole and fir doubling in beetle-killed areas that were left untreated after the epidemic. Harvested stands also showed strong lodgepole regrowth, with aspen gaining ground in some places.

“Forests come and go … It’s not a crisis, but this was an amazing synchronism,” Forest Service biogeochemist Chuck Rhoades said of the massive pine beetle outbreak that will alter the forest landscape of the Southern Rockies for generations to come.

The bugs swarmed across vast swaths of the Canadian Rockies; they’ve invaded the Front Range and moved east to the Dakotas, especially the forests of the Black Hills.

“This event is not over, but the fear part should be over,” said Rhoades, who, with a team of researchers from the Fort Collins-based Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, has been carefully studying regeneration in beetle-killed areas. “But the idea of forest health and maintaining forest ecosystem processes is something we’ll always be thinking about,” he said. (more…)

Filed under: Colorado, Environment, Forest health, forests, pine beetles, pine beetles and wildfires, public lands, US Forest Service | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Morning photo: Forest friends

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

A break from winter

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A parasol mushroom growing in a forest in Upper Austria. This is a variety I’ve not yet found in Colorado, though the guidebooks say a similar species does grow in the U.S.

FRISCO — After writing a story about the importance of biodiversity, I went back to a folder from last July to look over the mushroom images I shot during a few forest visits in Austria. The biodiversity story got me thinking about how some of the mushrooms I found in Europe were completely different from anything I’ve ever seen in the West, while a few other species were almost identical. Why is it that some species are common on both sides of the Atlantic, while others are more specialized to either the Rockies or the forests of Central Europe? I’m not really sure, but I think it has something to do with the plant communities. Since some fungi are in specialized symbiotic relationships with certain species of shrubs and trees, they may not be able to grow if those plants are present. Maintaining healthy forests requires making sure that all the constituent elements of the ecosystem are there, and in Colorado, we know so little about the fungi that are a key part of the ecology that we may just be stumbling in the dark. (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, Colorado, Environment, Forest health, Morning photo, mushrooms and fungi, photography | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Colorado: Research suggests last summer’s heat wave is likely to result in another wave of aspen mortality

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

‘It’s never just drought, and boom, you’re dead’

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Is there more trouble ahead for Colorado’s aspen forests?

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — Colorado’s aspens could take another big hit in the next few years as the after-effects of last summer’s heat wave take a toll on the state’s iconic trees. Recent research suggests that aspens damaged in previous droughts are more likely to die during subsequent heat waves.

Overall, Colorado reported one of its hottest summers on record in 2012, and even though researchers didn’t see excessive aspen mortality last year, it may take a few years before the full impact becomes apparent.

“We had a two or three year lag after the last drought,” said Forest Service aspen expert Jim Worrall, who helped analyze and describe the massive wave of aspen mortality that started in about 2005 and lasted for several years, leaving aspen ecologists puzzled and worried. (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, Colorado, Drought, Environment, forests | Tagged: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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