Forest Service focuses resources on beetle kill

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

Anyone hiking or camping in the mountains of Larimer County knows that the mountain pine beetle is taking a huge toll on the forests.

In Larimer County, almost 50 percent of land managed by the U.S. Forest Service has been affected by the beetle, according to Reghan Cloudman of the Canyon Lakes Ranger District. In the Rocky Mountain Region of the USFS, which includes five states and 17 forests, the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest is among the top three for beetle damage.

In this county, 310,000 acres of USFS lodgepole forests had been impacted as of late 2009. In addition, 4,500 acres of ponderosa forests were affected. Total USFS holdings in the county are 650,000 acres, Cloudman noted. Figures for 2010, which are likely to be higher, are not available yet because beetles don't attack new trees until late summer.

The 2009 figures do not include private forestland, which has also been ravaged by the pine beetle.

In Colorado and southeastern Wyoming, 3.6 million acres of USFS land have been impacted by the persistent beetle. Congress authorized $30 million for pine beetle mitigation this year in Colorado, and the state's U.S. senators are pushing for additional funding next year.

Some local projects were funded this year with the extra pine beetle funds, with some work done by private contractors, providing jobs in the current tough economy.

Most USFS beetle mitigation efforts have been geared to public safety, including the removal of hazardous trees from campgrounds, trails and roads. The agency has also been spraying trees that have not yet been impacted by the beetle.

In Larimer County, Cloudman said, the beetle has gradually moved down from the high mountains, and mitigation work has followed the same path. One campground, Brown's Park in the Laramie River Valley, was cleared of all lodgepole this year when the Forest Service conducted a salvage sale. Eventually, Cloudman said, all lodgepole campgrounds will be cleared out.

In 2010, the Canyon Lakes District sprayed 16,400 trees at campgrounds and trailheads to protect them from the beetle. In addition, foresters cut 4,400 infested or hazard trees at trailheads and campgrounds. About 32 miles of trails were cleared of hazard trees.

The agency is currently cutting hazard trees along Deadman Road west of Red Feather Lakes.

"It's an ongoing effort," Cloudman noted, and work will continue next year regardless of extra federal funding. "Mountain pine beetle will still be a major focus no matter what," she said.

Eventually, the USFS will need to plant new trees in the wake of the beetle epidemic. The Canyon Lakes District made a small-scale start in that direction in September, when volunteers planted 500 trees at the Dowdy Lake Campground near Red Feather Lakes on National Public Lands Day.

In the wake of the beetle's devastation, one major concern of the Forest Service is public safety. The agency is "doing a lot of education," Cloudman said, to encourage people to be aware of the danger of falling trees. They can fall without warning, especially on windy days, so vehicles and tents should be placed in areas away from dead and dying trees.

The USFS also encourages campers to carry saws or axes with them to remove fallen trees from roads in case campers become trapped.

"With millions of infested trees, we can't cut them all," Cloudman pointed out, so campers must share responsibility for their own safety.

Another area of concern is water quality and supply. According to the USFS web site, 68 percent of Colorado's surface water originates on national forest lands. Officials predict that the water supply will increase temporarily after the beetle-infested trees die. As the forest grows back, water yield is expected to return to normal, but that process could take 50 to 60 years.

Officials expect water quality to stay the same unless there are major fires, since groundcover remains good in the beetle-ravaged areas.

Many reservoirs, ditches and pipelines are also located on Forest Service property, and those could be damaged if wildfires occur in the beetle-infested areas.

Besides beetle mitigation, there is a lot of fuels reduction work going on in northern Colorado. Using a sub-grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Colorado State Forest Service is spending $1.7 million in Larimer, Boulder, Gilpin and Grand counties to remove forest fuels and reduce the risk of wildfire.

The CSFS awarded a contract for the work to Anchor Point Group, LLC, a Boulder-based company. Anchor Point has projects underway in 19 communities. Projects were identified in Community Wildfire Protection plans. More than 50 people have been hired for the fuels reduction work in the four-county area.