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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Destruction of the Forest
Beetle Scourge Threatens Tourism Gold Mine
By Richard Martin, 8-01-06
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We spent last weekend at Grand Lake, fishing, boating, and hiking in nearby
Rocky Mountain National Park. As I wrote before the trip, I wanted my 6-year-old
son to see the area before climate change transforms the landscape irrevocably.
As it turns out, we were already too late.
Much of Grand County is withering under a record infestation of mountain pine
beetle that is slowly destroying the dense lodgepole pine forests that cover the
lower slopes. Like tracks of blood, big swathes of rust-brown dead and dying
trees now scar the mountainsides surrounding Grand and Shadow Mountain lakes,
and Forest Service officials estimate that the beetles could
kill one-half to 90 percent of the trees in Grand and Summit
counties.
Like wildfire, periodic beetle infestations are a part of the natural life-cycle
of Western forests, especially in lodgepole pine cover that has grown far too
dense in the era of total fire suppression. Indirectly, though, the beetle
invasion has been intensified by the hotter, drier climate.
Drought weakens the lodgepoles, leaving them more susceptible to takeover by the
beetles, and the lack of hard freezes allows the bugs to survive the winters and
flourish in summer. I've heard it said that it takes a week to 10 days of
nighttime temperatures well below zero to kill off a population of
Dendroctonus ponderosae, the mountain pine beetle.
Late summer is when the insects
take flight and migrate, as "pioneer" beetles scout out new, unscathed trees
for colonization. Despite
hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent to protect healthy stands by
spraying, local officials have already written off the landscape as we see it
today: “We’re not going to stop this epidemic in Grand County or Routt or Summit
County,” White River National Forest deputy supervisor Don Carroll told a recent
meeting of the regional pine beetle task force; now it's time to focus on
protecting property from the inevitable massive wildfires that follow a
widespread lodgepole die-off and on developing a blueprint for the "next forest"
that will be healthier -- and more bug-resistant -- than the present one.
What damage the death of the forest will do to the economies of the Western
Slope -- the heart of Colorado's tourism gold mine -- is impossible to
calculate. Property values in parts of the region have already started to
wobble, though try buying a place in Vail or Aspen, or on Grand Lake.
Despite the ugly sight of the dying forest, not everyone takes a grim view of
the current situation. Referring to the beetle-killed wood as "nature's gift,"
Randy Piper of Grand County has said he plans to buy the Granby sawmill and
begin producing
lumber from the beetle-killed trees, with the hope of producing affordable
housing in the pricey resort towns of Grand and Summit counties. Similarly, a
company called
Breckenridge Timber To Log has acquired a Finnish-made mechanized woodcutter
to produce products from the distinctive, blue-stained pine-beetle wood. And the
logging industry is eager to begin the
widespread cutting program that the Forest Service will almost certainly
approve in the coming months.
Earlier this month a delegation from Colorado met with Forest Service officials
and congressmen in Washington to develop plans for fire prevention and forest
restoration. With huge stands of tinder-dry trees waiting for a spark, however,
not much can be done to forestall the coming blazes. The result will almost
certainly be Biblical in scope.
"It's going to happen and needs to happen," Grand Lake Sports sales manager
Sarah Johnson told the Rocky Mountain News earlier this month.
For More Information Contact:
GreenWay, llc
Main St., Granby, Co
Tel: 970-887-3739
FAX: 970-281-4071
Internet:
recycledtimber@begreenbuildblue.com