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 »

Climate: Bark beetles invading high-elevation forests

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
Whitebark pines are in imminent danger of extinction, and global warming is one of the most significant threats to the species. Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service.

Whitebark pines are in imminent danger of extinction, and global warming is one of the most significant threats to the species. Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service.

Researchers see threat to whitebark pines

By Summit Voice

FRISCO —Bark beetles have already killed millions of acres of mid-elevation forests across the West, and warming temperatures are enabling the tree-killing bugs to invade higher elevations, where they are attacking trees that haven’t evolved with strong defenses to repel them.

Global warming is essentially giving the insects a huge advantage, as the trees, with their long lifespans, have no chance to develop biological resistance, according to researchers from the the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who report a rising threat to the whitebark pine forests of the northern Rocky Mountains. (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, Colorado, Environment, Forest health, forests, global warming, pine beetles and wildfires | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Summit County: Task force to provide overview and update of local forest health efforts

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Learn more about local forest conditions this week with the Summit Forest Health Task Force.

Aug. 29 lunch meeting includes info on local logging and restoration

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Local forests appear to be starting a comeback from a decade-long pine beetle invasion that killed up to 75 percent of mature lodgepole pines in the area, says Howard Hallman, co-director of the Summit Forest Health Task Force, which has been tracking the course of the epidemic and working with stakeholders to spur mitigation and restoration efforts.

The task force is hosting a lunchtime roundtable this week (Aug. 29) to update the community on beetle-kill logging projects in the area, as well as on efforts to monitor the state of local forests in the wake of the insect outbreak. The meeting is at the Mt. Royal Room in the County Commons and includes pizza, salad and drinks. (more…)

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

Forests: Red, dead needles burn faster

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Researchers continue to pinpoint the fire risk associated with beetle-killed trees.

New study helps quantify ignition time of beetle-killed trees

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — Chemical changes in pine attacked by bark beetles start as soon as two weeks after the bugs start to burrow under the bark and make the trees more prone to ignition.

Overall, beetle-killed trees in the early and mid-stages of infestation may pose a greater risk of fast-spreading crown fires, though other factors are also important, including the structure of the tree, the presence or absence of ground and ladder fuels and terrain and weather. (more…)

Filed under: Colorado, forest fires, forests, pine beetles and wildfires | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Summit County: Pine beetle numbers drop sharply

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Only a few pockets of high activity remain 

Large swaths of Summit County forests survived the latest pine beetle epidemic. PHOTO BY BOB BERWYN.

SUMMIT COUNTY — The mountain pine beetle epidemic that spread through Colorado’s north-central mountains and other parts of the West is subsiding in Summit and Eagle counties, according to the Colorado State Forest Service.

A Colorado State Forest Service map shows the distribution of lodgepole pines in Colorado.

In the end, the bugs killed about 75 percent of the mature, susceptible lodgepole pine trees in the area, according to Colorado state forester Paul Cada. In neighboring Grand County, where lodgepole forests were even more prevalent than in Summit County, between 95 to 98 percent of the trees were killed by the beetles, Cada said.

He estimated that about 60 percent of Summit County’s forest cover consisted of lodgepole pine before the beetle outbreak, with 40 percent a mix of spruce and fir (along with a sprinkling of aspen and tiny pockets of trees like Douglas fir, which grow on rocky outcrops around Swan Mountain). (more…)

Filed under: agriculture, Colorado, Environment, forest fires, Forest health, forests, pine beetles, pine beetles and wildfires, Summit County Colorado, Summit County news | Tagged: , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Breckenridge: Forest summit meeting comes to CMC

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Panels will focus on science and management

There are still considerable areas of healthy forest in Summit County, but nobody really talks about them anymore.

SUMMIT COUNTY — 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 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge. (more…)

Filed under: Colorado, Environment, Forest health, forests, pine beetles, pine beetles and wildfires, US Forest Service | Tagged: , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Experts surprised by intense fires in beetle-killed stands

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Montana wildfire observations will increase understanding of fire behavior in changing Western forests

The Saddle Complex fire burned so intensely that it created its own weather, which further fueled the fire. PHOTO COURTESY MAGGIE MILLIGAN.

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — Fire experts said they were surprised by the intensity of a pair of fires that burned in Montana this summer during less-than-extreme fire weather. The fire moved through areas of beetle-killed lodgepole faster than some previous fire modeling suggested.

The rapid spread of the two fires was probably the result of a perfect mix of fuels, including recent  beetle-killed lodgepole pine with flammable red needles, stands of older beetle-kill in the gray stage. Live trees and an a full-grown understory that provided ladder fuels.

The observations could help experts gain a better understanding of how fires will behave in beetle-killed forests. Some previous fire observations, in Yellowstone, for example, suggested that pure stands of dead gray-stage lodgepoles could actually slow the spread of a blaze, and some fire modeling has also suggested that the gray trees are not as susceptible to fire. (more…)

Filed under: Environment, forest fires, forests, US Forest Service | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Summit County: How do you measure forest recovery?

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Local forest health group to discuss restoration and monitoring at a Sept. 15 lunch meeting in Frisco; the public is invited

The Summit Forest Health Task Force will focus on restoration and monitoring at a Sept. 15 lunch session.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — After nearly a decade of pine beetle infestation and widespread clear-cutting in Summit County, the local forest health task force is starting to look at how to monitor and measure the success of forest health treatments.

At the group’s Sept. 15 lunch meeting at the Backcountry Brewery in Frisco, Dr. Tony Cheng, director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute will lead a conversation about how to enhance  capacities of local land managers, landowners, governments, and communities to mitigate forest wildfire risk and restore forest resilience. (more…)

Filed under: Colorado, Environment, Forest health, forests, pine beetles and wildfires, Summit County Colorado, Summit County news | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Summit County: Keystone gets OK for forest health work

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

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

The mountain pine beetle epidemic has advanced far up the slopes of Keystone Mountain.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — 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. The resort’s forest health project should also help increase lodgepole pine regeneration following the mountain pine beetle epidemic by removing dead, dying and susceptible trees, the Forest Service said in a press release announcing the go-ahead. Click here to read the White River forest supervisor’s decision. (more…)

Filed under: Colorado, Dillon Ranger District, Environment, Forest health, forests, pine beetles, Summit County Colorado, Summit County news, US Forest Service, White River National Forest | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Global warming: More fires, fewer lodgepole pines

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Increasing temps and fire frequency could drive rapid and dramatic changes in subalpine and boreal forests

Lodgepole pine forests like this one in the Black Hills of South Dakota could see big changes in just a few decades as temperatures and fire frequency increase.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Warmer temperatures in the West will increase the frequency of fires in Yellowstone’s vast lodgepole pine stands, which could result in dramatic changes to the region’s forest landscapes in the next few decades.

“What surprised us about our results was the speed and scale of the projected changes in fire in Greater Yellowstone,” said Anthony Westerling, a professor of environmental engineering and geography at University of California, Merced. “We expected fire to increase with increased temperatures, but we did not expect it to increase so much or so quickly. We were also surprised by how consistent the changes were across different climate projections.”

The results suggest that  subalpine and boreal forests in other parts of the West could also see dramatic changes within just a few decades. (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, Colorado, Environment, forest fires, Forest health, forests, global warming, Summit County Colorado | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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