High cost still hampers forest health

Forest Service ranger delivers swan song at Forest Health Task Force meeting

BY Bob Berwyn

Summit Daily News

Summit County, CO Colorado

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SUMMIT COUNTY — Local stakeholders have made “substantial strides” in tackling forest health issues, Dillon District Ranger Rick Newton said during a farewell appearance at breakfast meeting of the Summit County forest health task force.

 

Newton said the Forest Service will soon start looking at forest health projects in the Upper Blue around Breckenridge, in the Golden Horsehoe and south to Hoosier Pass. The fieldwork for that area is planned for this coming summer, with the planning phase slated for next winter. Along with pine beetle kills in lodgepole stands, Newton said there are some spruce and fir issues in the Upper Blue.

 

And planned treatments in the Lower Blue, from Dillon Reservoir north to the county line, could include prescribed burns to nudge forest ecosystems back toward a more desirable condition.

 

Newton’s remarks came against the backdrop of a regional Forest Service report on pine beetles and forest health. The latest aerial surveys show no slowdown in the infestation, and by all estimates, many of Colorado’s mature lodegpole forests will be all but wiped out during the next few years.

 

Local efforts have focused on creating the “next forest,” intended to be more resilient and able to withstand future insect outbreaks, Newton said.

 

“It’s been a cultural change for this community to see the return of the timber industry,” Newton said. The last time there was any significant logging in the area was in the early 1980s, also coinciding with a cycle of increase pine beetle activity.

 

That outbreak waned naturally, but given climate-change predictions, it’s no longer clear that pine beetle populations will be controlled by a prolonged cold snap.

 

“We do need to embrace a different world with the climate issues we’re dealing with,” Newton said.

 

A boost in federal funding will enable the Forest Service to get more logging projects under way in the coming months, Newton said. The Keystone phase of the greater Dillon Reservoir forest health project should be under contract within the next few months, he said.

 

Newton acknowledged once again that pine beetles have also started attacking spruce trees in the area. But he said the damage is likely to be minimal, as the pine beetles can’t reproduce in the spruce trees.

 

“We’re seeing some spill-over,” said timber specialist Cary Green. “But we don’t think they’re being very successful in reproducing.”

 

Newton advocated for boosting the role of the timber industry. The U.S. imports most wood products from overseas. The cost of transporting those materials should be considered, especially in the context of fossil fuel usage, he said.

 

“Maybe we should be producing some of those things closer to home, if you think about the oil it takes to get it here,” Newton said.

 

The biggest challenge for aggressively treating local forests remains the high cost.

 

“We need to get that unit cost down,” Newton said. 

 

A new pellet fuel plant planned for Kremmling could help with that, reducing the cost of transporting wood, he concluded.

 

<i>Bob Berwyn can be reached at (970) 331-5996, or at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .</i> 

 

By the numbers

National Forest Acres in Summit County: 315,000 acres

 

Lodgepole forests: 105,000 acres

 

Mature lodgepole susceptible to beetles: 100,000

 

Suitable for treatment: 35,000 acres

 

Accessible for aggressive treatment: 3,000 acres

 

Acres treated in Summit County in 2007: 1,500

 

Cost of treatment: $1.3 million