Trees are sparking conversations, but their deaths are not fueling fires

By Ashley Bunton, Associate Editor, Telluride Daily Planet

In the fight against beetles killing trees, dead trees are not large sources of fuel for wildfires in Telluride. But their presence in the region is sparking conversations about how trees should be managed in southwestern Colorado’s forests.

Each summer, pilots take to the skies over forested areas in San Miguel County to help the U.S. Forest Service count the number of dead trees in forests from native beetle infestations.

Amy Lockner is a forest entomologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service’s Gunnison Service Center.

Lockner said the trained experts fly Aerial Detection Surveys (ADS) for the forest service.

“We fly most of the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Region, where it’s forested,” she told the Daily Planet on Oct. 11. “ADS records on a tablet by placing polygons on top of new trees that are infested. They are able to identify the tree species and with their knowledge of the area and current insects… determine if it’s mountain pine beetles in lodgepole (for example) or Douglas fir beetles in Douglas fir trees.”

As infestations are picking up, many agencies and officials are combating beetle infestations.

San Miguel County has been working to eradicate beetles throughout the county — such as in Ophir and near the Via Ferrata — by placing pheromone packs on Douglas fir trees that contain a chemical called methylcyclohexanone, or MCH. Recently, the Town of Mountain Village identified an outbreak of Douglas fir beetles in a pocket of Douglas fir trees.

But in response to the observable infested or dead trees on the forest floors in Colorado, some people are growing more concerned about what to do with the timber — or what the timber would do, as fuel for any potential future wildland fires.

At the Rocky Mountain Research Station, researcher Jason Sibold studies tree mortality and forest ecosystems.

“On the fire front, we really don’t have evidence at this point that beetle-killed forests increase fire risk — fires are much more driven by weather conditions,” Sibold said.

Both Lockner and Sibold believe Rocky Mountain forests will recover from beetle damage.

But the trees are changing, Sibold and other researchers noted in The Journal of Ecology in 2022. Recent bark beetle outbreaks have reduced tree size and altered species composition, the researchers reported after studying three types of native bark beetles that infest aspen, Engelmann spruce, lodgepole pine and subalpine fir.

“Nonetheless, beetle kill can significantly increase the challenges and hazards of wildland fire fighting — falling trees, very hard to move through down timber — and fire likely moves through these stands faster (as wind speeds increase),” Sibold said. “These variables might result in decreased suppression effectiveness or increased risk to a community when the weather conditions are ripe for wildfire.”

Telluride Fire Protection District Deputy Chief John Cheroske said beetle infestation is more prevalent during drought years. He said some small pockets of trees were affected, “but no large areas that create significant fire spread potential, as seen on the Front Range.”

“Pine and spruce beetle populations have been in decline for the last seven years according to the Colorado State Forest Service,” Cheroske said. “The majority of damage was done between 1999 and 2014 affecting lodgepole pine, which we don’t have in our county.”

Cheroske added that drought conditions have lessened.

Janet Kask, director of San Miguel County’s parks and open space department, said the deployment of the MCH packs — a way to trick bark beetles into thinking the tree is already infested — is going far in the county’s efforts to prevent the onslaught of bark beetles.

More than 100 packs have been placed on trees along the county’s M59 River Trail.

“Application of the pheromone packets…have proven quite effective in preventing over-colonization of Douglas fir trees in our area,” Kask said. “The county will continue to work to control bark beetle populations as just one aspect of maintaining forest health.”

Packets have also been placed in the areas of Ophir, Ames, Ilium Valley, the Bridal Veil Trail recreational area, Alta Lakes and the Via Ferrata, in coordination with help from San Miguel County staff, Ophir town officials and residents, Telluride Mountain School and concerned county citizens.

As the trees die, some people are advocating for their removal.

Russ Andrews, a Republican candidate vying for Rep. Lauren Boebert’s congressional seat, said 834 million trees have died and are lying on forest floors in Colorado. He wants legislation to create incentives for removing fallen trees, and told the Daily Planet he is in favor of creating a program that would issue payments to people who want to remove them.

The dead timber “gives off 25% more global-warming gasses than what it would give off if it was used for lumber or something,” Andrews said. “Instead of charging people to drag these logs out of the forest, I think we should flip the paradigm to pay them instead if the product being manufactured used beetle-killed trees.”

Rep. Boebert did not respond to the Daily Planet for comment.

Mountain Pine Manufacturing, a logging and sawmill business in Routt County, is using beetle-killed trees to make its product, called WoodStraw, into a ground-cover to control erosion at construction sites.

Mountain Pine Manufacturing President Trent Jones said if people can get access to dead trees and get the trees removed fast enough, they can be turned into things like fencing, housing, furniture and “basically sequester that carbon into wood to help society.” But, without many new temporary roads allowed to be built through national forests, some dead trees remain inaccessible.

“My take is that the Forest Service has done a great job trying to make a dent in the beetle-killed forests under the rules and regulations that they are required to follow,” Jones said. “One unique thing they have done is grant funding for projects…trying to build an industry that can utilize these dead trees. The only reason I have a business is because of these wood-innovation grants.”

Jones said if he could ask for anything in the world, it would be a change in legislation to allow for better access to the dead and diseased forests.

Andrews said he believes that if people can make products in Colorado from wood that is sourced from beetle-killed trees, they should be able to sell those products without being taxed.

But some don’t think that’s a feasible direction. Legislation is leaning more favorably toward logging living, healthy, green trees, said Mason Osgood at Sheep Mountain Alliance, who wrote in his recent letter to the Daily Planet that Montrose Forest Products could not make the dead trees profitable.

“Now, instead of logging dead or dying trees to reduce fire danger while helping the local economy, the Forest Service is authorizing loggers to remove healthy, living spruce-fir and aspen trees,” Osgood said. “...The agency’s decision to target tens of thousands of acres of green trees for logging is a dramatic shift, one based on economics rather than forest ecology.”

Ahead of a recent gathering discussing the U.S. Forest Service’s newly revised forest management plan for the 3.2-million acres of the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison (GMUG) national forests, panelist Jim Ramey said the old-growth trees are important for carbon sequestration. Ramey is the Colorado director for The Wilderness Society.

“The GMUG is actually the highest-carbon sequestration forest in the Rocky Mountain region,” Ramey said.

Read the full article here.