For The Forest

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For The Forest

FAQ

What is "For The Forest"?
For The Forest is a Basalt, Colorado-based 501(3c) nonprofit formed to promote forest health and sustainability throughout the Western United States.

In the short term, For The Forest is focused on providing education and leadership for Roaring Fork Valley communities as they develop appropriate responses to the devastating effects of the mountain pine beetle epidemic in area forests.

Over the long term, For The Forest aims to promote the long-term sustainability of Western forests by providing research, management, expertise and related resources, and developing and implementing forest management plans related to the protection and conservation of forests.

Why is "For The Forest" so focused on the mountain pine beetle?
The beetle has now destroyed over two million acres of Colorado forests, especially in Eagle, Routt, Grand and Summit Counties. Around Aspen and Pitkin County, local lodgepole pines have begun to turn red and dead, a clear signal that the beetle epidemic has arrived at our doorstep.

Little time exists for the community to decide on its response. If we fail to take action, it's likely that the lodgepole and other pines in our region will suffer the same fate as the forests around Vail and Breckenridge.

A number of forest stewardship practices have proved successful in the fight against the mountain pine beetle. For The Forest will work to stimulate a public discussion about the level of stewardship appropriate inside our communities and in the wildland/urban interface.

Conventional wisdom says that nothing can be done. Are there any exceptions out there?
The community of Merritt, B.C., has used an imaginative and aggressive program to save approximately 70 percent of the pine trees within its city limits and the adjacent forest of its wildland/urban interface.

Merritt residents and community leaders agreed five years ago to a plan that involves identifying and removing infected trees before the beetle larvae hatch and fly out from the dead trees in search of new hosts.

The effort also involves stapling packets of verbenone, a natural organic compound produced by the beetles, to a large percentage of trees within Merritt's protection area. In the most aggressively protected area, the mortality rate has been reduced to just a few percent.

Merritt's success comes in spite of the fact that the beetle epidemic in Western Canada has consumed over 50,000 square miles of pine forests, killing off close to 100 percent of the pine population in many areas.

Are there any other successes to report?
Aerial dispensing of verbenone, even in small amounts and without the accompanying removal of infected trees, has been shown to reduce mountain pine beetle attack rates by 60-66 percent in test areas in California and Idaho. This treatment has proven effective for lodgepole pines.

Have there been pine beetle outbreaks in the past?
Yes. The Mountain Pine Beetle is a vital part of the forest ecosystem, and outbreaks have occurred over the decades. In the mid-1920s, for instance, the New York Times reported on an outbreak that was devastating the pine forests of Montana. And, in 1951, the Rocky Mountain News reported on the ravages of another pine beetle outbreak.

What if anything is different about this epidemic?
The scale. The current epidemic has spread across the continent in a way never seen before. It stretches 2,200 miles from Canada to New Mexico.

Most of the interior forests of southern and central British Columbia have been affected. The pine beetle is moving north into the Yukon and east into Alberta, where it has never been found. Climbing temperatures have also expanded the beetle's range into high alpine ecosystems and northern climates that previously had extended low temperatures at or near 35 degrees below zero, which kills off beetle populations.

What are the causes of this outbreak?
1. Climate change has raised the winter low temperatures that used to control beetle populations. The beetles' reproductive cycle has now dropped from two years to one.

2. The extended drought of the late 1990s and early 2000s weakened the trees' natural defense systems, making them more susceptible to attack.

3. Fire suppression efforts over the last six decades have resulted in unnaturally high populations of lodgepole pines of the age and size that are most susceptible to attack. Suppression has also led to high population densities that make the trees more vulnerable.

What are the reasons for trying to save the forests in and around our towns?
1. Public Safety. Protecting trees in towns and in the wildland-urban interface reduces the chance of dangerous wildfires near homes.

2. Watershed Protection. Healthy forests provide stability on hillsides, reducing the likelihood of mudslides and erosion, especially after a wildfire.

3. Economics. Resort communities around Colorado have built their economies in part on their proximity to healthy, green forests. By preserving the forests, we are protecting our economy.

4. Wildlife Habitat. The Ute Indians used their own "prescribed burns" to improve wildlife habitat for better hunting. Thinning an overgrown forest, which reduces wildfire danger and strengthens the trees' natural immune systems, also enables it to support more wildlife.

5. Scenic Beauty and Quality of Life.

Would you rather walk through a green forest or a dead one? Is the Roaring Fork Valley doomed to the same fate as the Eagle Valley and Vail?
The upper Roaring Fork Valley is blessed with greater forest diversity than many areas of Colorado where the pine beetle seems to be killing every tree in sight. Our balance of spruce, fir, aspen and lodgepole pine endows local forests with greater resistance to insects and diseases. However, Smuggler Mountain and Hunter Creek, Lenado, the backside and top of Red Mountain, the long ridgeline from Smuggler to the Midway Pass/Lost Man area, Warren Lakes, Dinkle Lake and the base of Mt. Sopris, Reudi and the upper Frying Pan, and parts of Woody Creek all contain extensive lodgepole pine populations that are now severely endangered.

How long do we have to act?
A few months. If we wait another year to begin, the task will be exponentially greater and the chances of success smaller. The pine beetle has already established a foothold in this area and, if recent history is any indication, will rapidly spread throughout the forests here. The beetles fly in search of new hosts between late June and August, making a timely response critical. Canadian forest experts estimate that every infected tree, if left alone, can infect five others.

What's the global warming connection?
Warming temperatures helped unleash the pine beetle epidemic. Now, as the vast forests killed by beetles decompose, the trees are releasing their carbon back into the atmosphere, contributing to more warming. Canadian scientists calculate that the beetle-killed forests of British Columbia are releasing 990 megatons of carbon into the air. If the epidemic spreads to other northern forests, this already enormous number could climb dramatically. "This is the kind of feedback we're all very worried about in the carbon cycle - a warming planet leading to, in this case, an insect outbreak that increases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which can increase warming." -Andy Jacobson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Won't these forests grow back naturally?
Many will, but not in time to help solve the earth's global warming crisis. We don't have the luxury of waiting another 70 or 100 years.