{"id":14881,"date":"2025-12-26T16:44:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T23:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/first-lodgepoles-now-ponderosas-colorado-fights-pine-beetles-on-multiple-fronts\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:33:09","slug":"first-lodgepoles-now-ponderosas-colorado-fights-pine-beetles-on-multiple-fronts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/first-lodgepoles-now-ponderosas-colorado-fights-pine-beetles-on-multiple-fronts\/","title":{"rendered":"First lodgepoles, now ponderosas: Colorado fights pine beetles on multiple fronts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lodgepole
Lodgepole pine trees are unloaded for processing at the Montrose sawmill in this 2010 file photo. (William Woody, Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>William Woody<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order last week aimed at curbing a mountain pine beetle outbreak in ponderosa forests along the Front Range.<\/p>\n

Polis said the infestation is in the beginning stages but will eventually be visible along U.S 285 and the Interstate 70 corridor. He attributes the outbreak to drought and a warming climate.<\/p>\n

Polis said he recently received a briefing and was shocked by the projections of how much the infestation is expected to spread.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means that most or nearly all mature Ponderosa pines will be killed by pine beetles in the western Front Range over the next several years,\u201d Polis said.<\/p>\n

He notes that people can still see the rust-colored dead trees in mountain communities which faced the same pine beetle infestation years ago, but with lodgepole pines. He said he wants to make sure the impacted areas along the Front Range are prepared and all on the same page.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat we\u2019re ready for what lies ahead with reducing forest fire risk, treating landscapes, reducing landslide risk and much more,\u201d Polis said.<\/p>\n

His executive order creates a task force to try to use the best science to coordinate a response with landowners \u2013 from counties and private individuals \u2013 to the state and federal government. He said in some ways this new outbreak will be more challenging to deal with than the lodgepole pine infestation, which occurred primarily on remote federal lands with fewer entities involved in coordinating a response.<\/p>\n

\"Blue-stain
Blue-stain ponderosa delivered to Aspen Wall Wood for processing. The fungus carried by pine beetles creates blue-gray streaks with occasional yellow, purple and red highlights.Emily Rice\/The Journal<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The latest beetle infestation is also much closer to the state\u2019s population centers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely critical that we have mitigation to take down affected trees quickly,\u201d Polis said. \u201cEspecially near residential areas, creating defensive barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polis said he is also concerned about the risk for wildfires, water quality, recreation and the economy.<\/p>\n

The only natural intervention that could slow the beetle outbreak is prolonged cold temperatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we have several weeks where it\u2019s below zero. And that was more the norm every few years, 30, 40 years ago. We haven\u2019t seen one in a while,\u201d Polis noted. \u201cWe\u2019ve had cold days, cold patches, but not that sustained cold that would help limited infestation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Homeowners can do some things to protect ponderosa pines they want to save with preventive paint, but there\u2019s currently no forest-level treatment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Infestation is in early stages but will spread along U.S. 285 and Interstate 70<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-14881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14881","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=14881"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19399,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14881\/revisions\/19399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14881"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=14881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}