A recent trip to Breckenridge brought a firm reminder of the most serious epidemic currently facing Colorado. No it is not avian flu, mad-cow diseased beef, or hold your breath, SARS but something that will have a far greater impact on Coloradans than those ailments combined, the mountain pine beetle epidemic.
Having not visited the area around Lake Dillon since prior to the spring melt off I was absolutely shocked at the damage done to the Frisco peninsula and surrounding areas. In large areas I would estimate that as many as 9 out of 10 pines had been killed by pine beetle infestation.
Like many Coloradan's who travel certain mountain areas only in Winter months in search of fresh powder or perfect moguls I had not driven through this stretch of Summit County during the summer months in over a year. After the veil of winter snow has melted off you are presented with a far different picture of the Frisco peninsula and surrounding areas of Lake Dillon.
As background on the mountain pine beetle, they are small insects who bore into a variety of evergreens and then lay eggs for their offspring inside the tree. As the larvae mature they feed under the bark, killing the tree. As the tree dies its needles turn a dull yellow and then rust colored before finally coming down.
The pine beetles move from tree to tree performing this ritual and decimating an area. They also thrive in the warm and dry conditions that have existed in the Colorado high country for the last decade. The expansion of the mountain pine beetle is only stopped when it is unable to bore into very healthy and resistant trees, subjected to spraying by specialized insecticides, or when the wintertime temperature drops well below 0 degrees for an extended period.
Some consequences of the infestation are visible as damage to beautiful vistas, elimination of habitat for numerous tree dwelling species, and intense wildfires sparking on a more frequent basis.
However, this epidemic will also impact those who do not frequent impacted areas through damage to tourism income, the cost of expensive insecticide treatments for ski resorts passed on through the price of a lift ticket, and rapiddevegetation creating mud slide conditions which impact the watershed and all of us who live downstream and use that water.
The conditions in much of Colorado's high country have produced a 'perfect storm' for this pine beetle epidemic with warm dry winters combined with intense wildfire control which allows old, overgrown, and unhealthy forests to remain where they would have naturally burned out over time.
On May 29th, Governor Ritter stopped at the Frisco peninsula to sign HB1130 into law. The measure, sponsored by Representative
Gibbs and Senator
Fitz-Gerald, provides $1 million toward developing pine beetle mitigation techniques and assisting communities with removing damaged forest areas. This program represents a drop in the bucket of what is needed to address a problem estimated to cost over $1 billion to fully fix but is a valuable first step. By cleaning out dead and diseased trees, as is currently going on for the Frisco peninsula, and exploring new and cost effective methods to deal with the beetles we can hope that a solution will be found before more of our forests fall under the bite.
HB 1130 is not only a good start but a challenge to Governor Ritter and the Colorado Legislature to continue to address the problem in the 2008 session.