Waging war on beetles

Initiative sought to create united front to protect forests

April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News

Wednesday, September 6, 2006

Millions of pine beetles have infested more than 600,000 acres of Colorado's forests, killing countless trees and damaging the state's tourism economy.

Calling the problem an epidemic, the Forest Service in Colorado Tuesday announced a four-state initiative to stop the bark beetle from wiping out forests. The states include Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico. In Colorado, the counties targeted include Eagle, Grand, Jackson, Summit and Jefferson.

"They are a significant threat to the economy, life and property of the counties hit the hardest," said Mark Rey, U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary. The infestation has already affected nearly 2.8 percent of Colorado's forests.

Rey joined a half-dozen state and local officials at the state Capitol to discuss the proposed Healthy Forest Partnership Act.

The federal legislation would allow the U.S. departments of Agriculture and the Interior to team with private property owners, state, tribal and local governments to speed up projects needed to control pine beetles and enhance forests, rangeland and watershed restoration.

"This legislation allows us to look at the whole system in our efforts to tackle this problem," said Regional Forester Rick Cables. "Right now, it does no good for any of us to go it alone."

The public-private partnership touted Tuesday could bring millions in federal funding, Cables and others said.

The epidemic has been a bane to ski areas and high country home owners because the dead timber increases fire danger.

Also, forest officials fear the state's watersheds will suffer as groves of pine trees die off, causing soil erosion.

Property owners, towns, counties and ski resorts have been shelling out tens of thousands of dollars to fight the beetles.

The town of Winter Park and the Intrawest Corp., which operates the ski area on land leased by the Forest Service, spent roughly $800,000 last year to deal with the epidemic.

Keystone ski resort and towns such as Frisco have spent more than $300,000.

"It a problem that threatens our whole lifestyle in Summit and Eagle counties," said Chuck Tolton, director of mountain operations for Keystone.

Pine beetles are a natural phenomenon that can play a healthy role in the regeneration of the forests. The beetles drill through a tree's bark and lay eggs that later hatch into wood-eating larvae. Within in a year, the trees go from green to rust-colored then lose their needles before turning gray.

The beetles become problematic on a larger scale under certain conditions such as drought, mild winters and the older forests.

Colorado's forests have been protected in recent decades and thus have not naturally been allowed to thin out. The trees boast an average age of 130 years, making it impossible for them to fight off the beetles, said Cables.

"Five years ago we couldn't get the public to support the thinning of the tree to make the forest healthy," Cables said. "Now they're clamoring for us to do something. They're seeing the dying trees and the potential threats."

washingtonam@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5086