{"id":64228,"date":"2019-05-18T18:47:09","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T00:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/in-beetle-kill-forests-there-are-winners-and-losers\/"},"modified":"2019-05-19T00:47:09","modified_gmt":"2019-05-19T00:47:09","slug":"in-beetle-kill-forests-there-are-winners-and-losers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/in-beetle-kill-forests-there-are-winners-and-losers\/","title":{"rendered":"In beetle-kill forests, there are winners and losers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"This
This 2016 aerial view of The Glade area shows the impacts of a growing beetle kill problem in the San Juan National Forest.<\/span>Courtesy photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When it comes to how wildlife adjust to living in forests ravaged by the beetle outbreak in Colorado, there are winners and losers, according to new research.<\/p>\n

The mountain pine and spruce beetle epidemic has wiped out about 21% of Colorado\u2019s 24.4 million acres of forested land since 1996, perhaps the starkest change on the landscape in recorded history.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a huge impact,\u201d said Jake Ivan, a senior research scientist with Colorado Parks and Wildlife<\/a>. \u201cThis level of outbreak, that we know of, is bigger than anything, at least in recorded history. And maybe beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because the outbreak is relatively new to the landscape, not much study has been done on how species are affected by living in beetle-kill forests.<\/p>\n

<\/p>

Recently, however, CPW and the U.S. Forest Service partnered to take the first step to understand how wildlife has responded<\/a>, among the first pieces of work to quantify the consequences of the beetle outbreak to animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still a relatively new phenomenon,\u201d Ivan said. \u201cWe just don\u2019t know much about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

First study<\/div>\n

Bark and spruce beetles are native to Colorado. But dense forests and rising global temperatures set the stage to allow them to overrun Colorado\u2019s mountains, an event that researchers in the report called \u201cunmatched in recorded history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the summers of 2013 and 2014, about 300 game cameras were placed throughout the state at elevations between 8,500 and 12,000 feet, specifically in lodgepole pine and Engelmann spruce forests affected by beetle kill.<\/p>\n

The cameras were able to capture more than 336,600 images of 26 mammal species, of which researchers noted habits of 13 species.<\/p>\n

Ivan said there were no definitive conclusions in the study. Instead, it\u2019s the first piece of the puzzle to figure out which animals thrive and which animals struggle in beetle-kill habitats.<\/p>\n

Winners<\/div>\n

The winners: ungulates such as elk, deer and moose.<\/p>\n

All the ungulates seemed to respond positively to the \u201cdietary boon\u201d of the diverse and abundant vegetation on the forest floor, the report said, as well as the cover and safety the thick understory vegetation allows after large trees die.<\/p>\n

But there were differences among them. Elk and moose, for instance, preferred areas of high-severity beetle kill, while deer seemed unaffected. Instead, deer preferred to be in areas of beetle kill a couple of years after the outbreak started.<\/p>\n

Marmots, too, seemed to thrive in beetle-kill areas, the report said. Red foxes also tended to populate beetle-kill zones a couple of years after outbreaks.<\/p>\n

Losers<\/div>\n

The losers: red squirrels, chipmunks and coyotes.<\/p>\n

Red squirrels exhibited the strongest negative response of all animals included in the study, likely because of the disappearance of their main food source, cone crops, and an aversion to dense vegetation on the ground.<\/p>\n

\"Trees
Trees damaged from an infestation of the spruce bark beetle are seen in 2013 in the Rio Grande National Forest. A new study from Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Forest Service used about 300 game cameras over the summers of 2013 and 2014 to document the impact of beetle kill on wildlife in Colorado.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

And the red squirrel\u2019s decline can affect the whole food chain, the study showed, including birds that rely on the rodent for prey and vegetation that is influenced by its habits.<\/p>\n

Ground squirrels, chipmunks and coyotes \u2013 which have wider diets \u2013 also showed negative responses to beetle-kill areas, but not to the degree of red squirrels.<\/p>\n

Most surprising to researchers was that bears, snowshoe hares and porcupines \u2013 all expected to flourish in beetle-kill areas \u2013 showed no discernible impact.<\/p>\n

Southwest Colorado<\/div>\n

About 75 of the 300 cameras were placed in the San Juan Mountains, but the study didn\u2019t go so far as to break down whether wildlife in Southwest Colorado have reacted differently than other parts of the state, Ivan said.<\/p>\n

The beetle outbreak started on Wolf Creek Pass in the late 1990s and has since gone on to tear through more than 120,000 acres of the Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado\u2019s largest wilderness area at almost 500,000 acres.<\/p>\n

Aaron Kimple, forest health program director for Mountain Studies Institute<\/a>, said the forest looked pretty bleak all those years. But more recently, he said there\u2019s more life than meets the eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s green there, there\u2019s regeneration happening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Standing and fallen dead trees, Kimple said, provide protective areas for vegetation and certain animals to thrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always pressure to get the dead stands out,\u201d he said. \u201cBut dead stands support habitat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawrence Lujan, a spokesman for the Forest Service, wrote in an email the agency is \u201cactively working to treat beetle-killed forests through thinning, prescribed fire and other fuel-reduction methods to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildland fires, which have additional impacts on wildlife habitat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ivan said more study needs to be done on how beetle-kill forests affect wildlife \u2013 a lot of the hypotheses drawn are just that, guesswork.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things up there we value, and we need to get a handle on this,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not an isolated impact. It\u2019s a huge impact across the whole state.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Wildlife and bark beetle study (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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