Pine beetle infestation bringing drastic change

By Stephen Clearheart Johnson
Correspondent

Like a plague of locusts on a biblical scale, the mountain pine beetle infestation that ravaged the lodgepole forests of neighboring Grand and Jackson counties has crossed the Continental Divide to attack Larimer County forests.

According to Forest Service aerial survey results announced in January, Larimer County experienced a 1,500 percent increase in infested lodgepole pines in 2007, with a forecast of 95 percent mortality of mature lodgepole pine forests within the next three to five years. Each infested tree houses enough young beetles to infest eight to 10 trees the next year.

Colorado is not alone. Beetles have infested large areas of the Rocky Mountain West. Canadian forests are particularly hard hit with over eight million acres destroyed. In southern states, the southern pine beetle is also devastating forests.

Hardest hit areas in Larimer County include the Rawah Wilderness Area, the Laramie River valley, Chambers Lake in the upper Poudre Canyon and the mountain valleys near Estes Park.

Forest managers know that the plague cannot be stopped. They concentrate on prevention of catastrophic forest fires that could result from the presence of so much dead fuel.

Fire mitigation work will continue for years, according to Forest Service regional team leader Richard Edwards. The major danger will come in 10 to 15 years when dead trees begin to fall, he said.

Edwards explained that standing dead trees may suffer fast-moving crown fires, but fallen trees can produce a ground fire that also kills seedlings and underbrush, and creates soil damage that can cause excessive runoff and subsequent silt buildup in lakes and reservoirs.

One certainty is that the infestation will be expensive to property owners, taxpayers and consumers. What is not certain is the extent to which ponderosa pines in the lower, more populated elevations will be affected. And, there may be some benefits through increased economic activity, jobs, grant money and new investment to deal with the extensive biomass of so many dead trees.

Residents of the Red Feather Lakes area in western Larimer County are not alarmed at the news. They have worked with the problem since the 1970s when another major outbreak hit the area.

According to Lucille Schmitt of Ponderosa Realty, "Our biggest problem is the people who come up here saying that they've heard that all the trees are going to die."

Some home sites will lose the privacy value of being hidden in trees, but other sites will gain greater viewing vistas.

Area homeowner associations have for years been working to educate people, to coordinate volume discounts for spraying and to manage the burning of community slash piles. Mike Koehn of Crystal Lakes advises owners "to get as much education as you can now and get aggressive, as the problem is only going to get worse."

Campers and hikers in the mountain country can expect to see large areas of dead "red pine" and may experience more temporary campsite closures while Forest Service personnel spray or cut trees at campgrounds and trailheads.

They may also see more smoke from the burning of slash piles left over from cutting operations. This winter the Forest Service has burned 3,800 slash piles in the Estes area and some 5,100 piles in the Crystal Lakes area.

Motorists can expect to see more logging trucks and work crews removing hazardous trees along roadways. Urban dwellers may see local trees affected. There are reports that Scotch pines in Loveland, Greeley and Fort Collins are being killed by beetles that may have arrived via firewood brought from the Western Slope.

Consumers may see higher prices for utility services as expenses increase for removing hazardous trees along power and phone lines and as water districts work to protect their mountain facilities. Taxes in fire districts may increase and special tax districts in mountain areas may be created.

Colorado statutes require that owners remove dead or infested trees. The county forester is empowered to intervene where owners fail to act. But, according to Larimer County Forester David Lentz, there will probably be little enforcement of this provision "due to the large scale of the problem." Home and business owners can obtain consultations and site visits by calling him at 498-5765 or by contacting the State Forest Service at 491-6303.

"Our job is really to help the private landowners," said Boyd Lebeda, Fort Collins district forester for the Colorado State Forest Service.

Lentz said that the ponderosa pines will suffer less than lodgepoles because they are more age-diverse and mixed with other species. He expects that stands of ponderosa will experience mortality rates ranging from 20 to 60 percent.

Valuable trees should be sprayed in June, as the young beetles fly out from infested trees during July and August. Lebeda said that spraying, although expensive, is cost-effective compared to the price of removal. Otherwise, property owners must cut down infested trees and remove the bark to kill beetles hiding in the inner bark layer.

Debarking is labor intensive. An alternative is to cut and split the tree into firewood, stack it in a sunny spot and cover the pile with plastic sealed by a dirt berm around the edges. Newly infested trees can be identified by pitch tubes in the bark and sawdust frass around the tree base. Stands of ponderosa should be thinned to a distance of 20 feet to help strengthen the health of remaining trees.

The recommended treatments don't suit everyone. At Fox Acres Country Club, owner Kevin Frazier said that stringent protocols in place for 20 years have kept his area in the ponderosas "virtually untouched." At Fox Acres, no tree cutting is allowed between June and November, as their experience is that damaged trees attract even more beetles, he said. When trees are thinned or removed for construction purposes, all debris, including sawdust, is immediately removed and stumps are sealed with plastic covers.

To the west and at a higher altitude among lodgepole, Beaver Meadows Resort owner Don Weixelman is concerned that loss of trees may allow snow to blow off winter trails. "The ambiance of Beaver Meadows will definitely change," he said.

The beetles, native to Colorado, are normally kept in check by winter temperatures in the minus 30 degree range, but the high country has not seen such temperatures since the early '70s. One forest manager who spoke in a recent KRFC radio interview was Clint Kyhl, U.S. Forest Service incident commander for the White, Routt and Arapaho forests. He avoids the term "global warming" but admitted that "climate change may be a factor."

One challenge facing homeowners is where to take the trees being removed. Ironically, burning the wood releases stored carbon and may simply increase the greenhouse gas effect.

Next month, the North Forty News will report on new efforts to deal with biomass from dead trees, on legislative efforts to increase funding, possible tax credits for the struggling timber industry and the possible economic benefits to mountain communities. In addition, Johnson will look at the potential effects on wildlife and the prospects for reforestation.