{"id":103099,"date":"2017-10-22T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-22T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pine-beetle-poses-threat-to-southwest-colorado-forests\/"},"modified":"2017-10-22T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-10-22T15:00:00","slug":"pine-beetle-poses-threat-to-southwest-colorado-forests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pine-beetle-poses-threat-to-southwest-colorado-forests\/","title":{"rendered":"Pine beetle poses threat to Southwest Colorado forests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Gretchen
Gretchen Fitzgerald, a forester with the U.S. Forest Service\u2019s Columbine District, explains how pine beetles damaged the bark on a ponderosa pine, eventually killing the tree. Fitzgerald was explaining forest health to students from Colorado Timberline Academy near Rockwood north of Durango.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

<\/p>\n

The forests of Southwest Colorado may be facing yet another new and highly destructive threat: the pine beetle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not completely unexpected, but it\u2019s worrisome,\u201d said Gretchen Fitzgerald, a forester for the U.S. Forest Service\u2019s Columbine District, which manages nearly 700,000 acres of the San Juan National Forest in La Plata and San Juan counties.<\/p>\n

Over the past two decades, more than 120,000 acres of the Weminuche Wilderness \u2013 Colorado\u2019s largest designated wilderness area at 488,210 acres \u2013 have fallen prey to the destructive spruce beetle.<\/p>\n

In its wake, the spruce beetle has left vast areas of dead trees, most visible over Wolf Creek Pass. However, the spruce beetle, for the most part, targets only Engelmann spruce at elevations of about 9,000 feet.<\/p>\n

The pine beetle, on the other hand, is another destructive force all its own.<\/p>\n

From 1996 to 2016, the pine beetle ripped through more than 3.4 million acres of Colorado\u2019s forests \u2013 about 14 percent \u2013 according to the Colorado State Forest Service, by far the state\u2019s largest infestation.<\/p>\n

However, the majority of forests affected by the pine beetle were in northern areas of the state. Southwest Colorado, for the most part, has been relatively unaffected by Colorado\u2019s most harmful tree pest.<\/p>\n

That is until recently.<\/p>\n

The Forest Service\u2019s Fitzgerald said an annual survey of an area by Vallecito Lake, northeast of Durango, found that a number of ponderosa pine trees appeared dead because of beetle kill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did what we could do to remove the population there, but it made me concerned the beetles may be increasing up there,\u201d she said. \u201cWe just haven\u2019t seen too much pine beetle on the Columbine District.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon further inspection, it turned out there were three subspecies of bark beetle that appeared responsible for the kill-off.<\/p>\n

The western pine beetle hit the tree\u2019s main body. The ips beetle worked on the top of the tree, as well as its limbs. And the red turpentine beetle ate away at the base of the tree.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny one of those beetles don\u2019t necessarily do enough to kill a tree, but when they all get together, you start seeing mortality,\u201d Fitzgerald said. \u201cThe length and number of different kinds of beetles attacking all at once is unprecedented as far as we know.\u201d<\/p>\n

This particular kill-off is a new discovery for forest managers in this region, which prompted other surveys that found the pine beetle at work near Rockwood, Junction Creek and Falls Creek.<\/p>\n

Kent Grant, a district forester with the Colorado State Forest Service, said Southwest Colorado has seen periodic outbreaks of pine beetle, but current conditions in the forests here have spelled out a sort of perfect storm.<\/p>\n

Most of the ponderosa trees at risk are more than a 100 years old in densely forested areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen trees are getting older, and at the same time competing for sunlight, nutrients and moisture, they\u2019re stressed and easier targets,\u201d Grant said.<\/p>\n

Plus, Grant said the effects of climate change are added to the mix: warmer winters translate to longer seasons for beetles to take their toll, and drought weakens a tree\u2019s ability to defend itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cBark beetles are native, but when the conditions are right, then that\u2019s when we start to see more and more tree mortality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And with climate change, \u201cwe\u2019re not used to seeing this kind of mortality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there\u2019s not much in the way of preventing a beetle outbreak. Certain steps, such as thinning and prescribed burns, can hold off a massive die-off, but those costly measures can work only for so long.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s grim news,\u201d Grant said, \u201cbut it\u2019s just a fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald said at this point, the pine beetle activity is not at an \u201cepidemic\u201d level, but it\u2019s worth keeping a very cautious eye on. The Forest Service is evaluating its options to get out on the front end.<\/p>\n

Some good news, she said, is that there are tree stands in the area that seem to have fought off the pine beetle\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Fitzgerald said people need to be aware that cutting wood could attract beetles at certain times of the year. And, it\u2019s important that recreationists do not damage any trees, thereby making them easier prey for beetles.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, it\u2019s natural,\u201d Fitzgerald said. \u201cI just don\u2019t want it to get any bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3 species combine to kill ponderosa trees near Vallecito<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,13,199],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-103099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-san-juan-national-forest"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103099"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=103099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}