Representatives from the Colorado State Forest Service presented the annual Forest Health Report, warning the Mineral County Board of County Commissioners of an escalating insect and disease crisis driven by a prolonged period of hot, dry weather.
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lferrell@alamosanews.com
MINERAL COUNTY—Representatives from the Colorado State Forest Service presented the annual Forest Health Report, warning the Mineral County Board of County Commissioners of an escalating insect and disease crisis driven by a prolonged period of hot, dry weather.
The State Forest Service warned that the region is experiencing a notable uptick in mountain pine beetle and Douglas-fir beetle activity, particularly along major transit corridors.
"As you've noticed, we are in a hot and dry spell," Scavo told the board. "It's pretty rough out there. We've been seeing an uptick in insect and disease issues throughout the valley."
The bark beetle infestation is hitting the Highway 149 and Highway 160 corridors particularly hard. Scavo noted that the Douglas-fir beetle is currently the most prominent threat along Highway 149, following years of severe stress on local trees caused by western spruce budworm defoliation, drought and low snowpacks.
While natural beetle activity typically targets small groups of three to four trees, Scavo warned that the current environmental stressors are creating conditions for larger-scale die-offs.
Compounding the management challenge, the U.S. Forest Service has significantly curtailed its aerial survey flights due to budget and operational constraints. Instead of gridding the entire national forest as they have in previous years, federal flights have only monitored narrow corridors along major highways, leaving local officials with an incomplete picture of the infestation's true scope.
To combat the spread near residential areas, state foresters have been working with local communities to deploy pheromone packets. The synthetic pheromones mimic the chemical signals sent out by beetles to indicate a tree is already "full," encouraging the pests to seek out different habitats away from populated zones.
The State Forest Service has passed management of the pheromone program directly to individual communities and local contractors to oversee deployment in high-risk areas, including the Elk Creek vicinity.
