Brad Piehl

At the last meeting you commented that we needed to fund projects that would become self supporting and sustainable to deal with the problems caused by the Pine Beetle. Could you please elaborate with some examples?

We want to create a sustainable forested landscape in Summit County. As some of our leaders found out last month when they visited with the US Forest Service officials in Washington DC, we will not get federal funding to treat large areas of our beetle killed forest. In addition, there is little traditional commercial timber value in our forests and basically no forest products industry to utilize the wood. We need to create a situation where an industry develops that can utilize the forest products from forest restoration activities and make a profit. One way to create this situation is to develop a landscape-scale plan for restoration of our forests and have local, state and federal officials approve it. That plan then creates some assurances for companies to invest in utilizing forest products that are the result of restoration treatments.

An essential note on this approach -
The vision of a sustainable forested landscape will determine what we want the forest to look like and how it should function. That vision then can be a blueprint for restoration treatments. These treatments need to be result oriented, in other words they achieve a result on the ground in terms of tree density, species composition, woody debris, etc. The forest products that are removed then are just by products of achieving our vision of the sustainable landscape. This approach is a major shift in thinking from the traditional timber sales that we think about when talking about the timber industry.

Examples -
One example is on the Pike National Forest in Colorado. They have used a Landscape Assessment to guide their approach to a 650,000 acre landscape that has seen many catastrophic fires in recent years. They have completed several small NEPA (Federal clearance) projects to implement the forest restoration treatments identified in the Landscape Assessment. To date they have treated over 8,000 acres where they have reduced tree densities from 70% to 25% canopy closure. This is a joint project between the US Forest Service, State of Colorado, Denver Water Department and many private landowners. There are other examples that are not as far along, but are trying hard to get the treatments to pay for themselves.

Your company works with large scale long term environmental solutions. What type of issues are we looking at in the aftermath of the Pine Beetle infestation?

I think that the issues fit into challenges and opportunities.

Our challenges are:

Overall, we need to create a sustainable forest ecosystem across the landscape. The only way to do that, in my opinion, is to look at all of Summit County together.

A diverse stakeholder group would need to create a landscape vision that is tied to the ground.

Areas would need to be prioritized because we will not have the resources to restore all of the MPB areas.

We will have to deal with different levels of environmental clearance to get restoration projects approved and completed.

We will likely have some wildfires that may have some undesirable results such as; homes and businesses lost, soil erosion and associated water quality impacts, wildlife habitat lost, recreation facilities or sites lost or unusable for years, air quality impacts, visual impacts of blackened forests, and economic losses due to tourists avoiding Summit County.

Following wildfires, our challenge is to not let those events distract us from achieving the goal of a sustainable forest ecosystem. We will need to keep our focus on what the forest will look like in 20-50 years.

In my experience, one of the biggest challenges is leadership. We need leaders who will make this a priority, be able to see the benefits and will get good information and act on it. We have some good news on this issue today with the County Commissioners endorsing the Draft MPBS.

The opportunities are:

We can improve the function of the forest in providing quality wildlife habitat, potentially increasing wildlife populations for some species.

We can create more sustainable watershed conditions that will reduce our risk of water quality impacts from wildfires.

We can create more diverse views, including more aspen stands, that will enhance our visual resources.

We can improve recreation opportunities through more diverse and sustainable conditions.

We can educate the public and visitors about forest ecosystems and what we are trying to achieve.

We can reduce our economic risk by reducing the potential for large, catastrophic wildfires, especially in the high value places.

The local community will be more involved as stewards of the landscape.

What can we start doing now to diminish the effects of the Pine Beetle and prepare for reforestation?

I think that we need to start working on a landscape-scale plan and a vision for a sustainable forest ecosystem, as soon as possible. We need to know what sustainable conditions mean now that humans are such an important component of the landscape. Once we have a plan then we will know what to do and where to do it.

Most of our efforts are focused on fire mitigation, tree spraying, and preserving our property and forests as best we are able. Looking at the big picture, what are we missing?

We are missing how those activities fit into the broader landscape. Fire mitigation and protecting private property is very important. However, a burned landscape surrounding a house that was saved decreases property values and quality of life for that homeowner. We also may be able to leverage some broader treatments so that they can benefit private landowners through reduced treatment costs, etc.