8G

• Board Meeting Date: 1/22/2008
• Description: CWCB Legislative Priorities and Recommendations - Other Legislative Matters
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

http://www.eenews.net/Landletter/print/2008/0 1/17/1

Jeff Jahnke, director of the Colorado State Forest Service, said in a statement that
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reducing fire danger across such an expansive area requires an investment in
human and financial capital on the part of all stakeholders including land

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slow-burning fire that's more destructive than the fast-moving crown fires" Colorado
has experienced in the past, Sturtevant said.

Bob Sturtevant, a forestry specialist with a dual appointment from Colorado State
University and the Colorado State Forest Service, said the worst risk for fires will be
over the next 10 to 15 years, as new trees start to grow alongside the dead trees
that have fallen. The young trees will carry the fire through the fallen dead wood, he
said.

One of the major concerns surrounding the beetle epidemic is that the dead trees increase fire risk for the affected areas. "Trees that
are healthy and nourished and have moisture in them are far less susceptible to fire than those that are diseased or in the process of
dying," said Forest Service spokeswoman Janelle Smith.

Epidemic raises risk of forest fires

Despite these conditions, Bob Cain of the Forest Service said he was surprised by how quickly the beetles spread from 2006 to 2007,
increasing the total affected acres from 1 million to 1.5 million. "In a single year, that's quite an impressive jump," he said.

Although bark beetles are a natural part of lodgepole pine ecosystems, the Forest Service says warm winters and the recent drought
have intensified the problem and provided an ideal environment for the beetles to multiply and spread

show any new activity, but
expanded and intensified.

This map shows the area infested by
of the Forest Service. Click the image

The report, compiled by the Forest Service and Colorado State Forest
Service, said places like the Williams Fork and areas in Grand
County, which had previously been hard hit by the epidemic, don't
in many other areas across Colorado, generally north of Leadville, the outbreak in lodgepole pine has

the mountain pine beetle. Courtesy
to download a larger version.

Mountain pine beetles have reached epidemic levels in high elevation
lodgepole pine forests in Boulder, Chaffer. Clear Creek, Gilpin, Lake
and Larimer counties, the report found. For example, both Boulder
and Larimer counties have seen more than a 1,500 percent increase
in beetle activity.in the past year.

Most of the lodgepole forests in Colorado have some level of
mountain pine beetle-caused tree mortality. The majority of large
lodgepole pine has been killed and the pine beetle epidemic has run
its course in some lodgepole pine forests, forestry officials said.

"Dead and dying trees that were isolated to five northern Colorado
counties last year can now be seen in some Front Range areas, as
well as southern Wyoming," said Rick Cables, Rocky Mountain
regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service, in a statement. "Working
with our many partners to mitigate impacts to high-value areas from
the bark beetle epidemic is a top priority for the Forest Service."

The 2007 aerial survey of Colorado's forests revealed that the bark beetle infestation affected about a half million new acres in
Colorado in 2007, bringing the total number of infested acres up to 1.5 million acres since the first signs of outbreak in 1996.

Federal and state forestry officials say that at current rates, the mountain pine beetle will likely kill the majority of Colorado's large
diameter lodgepole pine forests within the next three to five years. The outbreak has become a "top priority" for the Forest Service, in
part because of increased risk of forest fires associated with the problem.

1

Eryn Gable, special to Land Letter

FORESTS: Beetles Infestation spreads

ncreases risk of forest fires

(01/17/2008)

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Beetles infestation spreads, increases risk of forest fires -- _0 1/17/2008

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