Mountain Pine Beetle infestation discovered up Slate River Valley

“Fortunately, there’s not a lot of Lodgepole Pine located
immediately in and around Crested Butte”

If you’ve passed through Frisco, Dillon and other Front Range forests rendered red by Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB), you understand why a red flag went up recently when some local lodgepole pine up Slate River Rd. showed signs of pine beetle infestation.

A landowner from a subdivision near Nicholson Lake contacted the Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS) late this summer with concerns about a large, dead lodgepole on their property.
Sam Pankratz, a forester with the CSFS, said, “We had gotten a call from a concerned landowner in a subdivision northwest of Crested Butte towards the end of August. The landowner had noticed a large lodgepole pine in their backyard had died and the needles had turned brown. The landowner contacted a local tree cutter who looked at the tree, and had a suspicion it was mountain pine beetle that had killed the tree. The contractor urged the landowner to contact our agency. Myself and Gunnison District forester Tim Cudmore went out to the property and confirmed that the tree had been killed by mountain pine beetle. Within the immediate area we were able to identify two newly infested trees.”
In addition, one infested tree was found on the adjacent Crested Butte Land Trust parcel at the Slate River Trailhead. Ann Johnston, executive director of the CBLT, said, “We have found one tree that is infected. We will remove and destroy that tree this week.
“We certainly have concerns about the problem spreading, and will continue to monitor our properties for infestation,” she added. “We are happy to work with the neighboring landowners as well.”
As Pankratz explained, “We’re currently working with the Crested Butte Land Trust and multiple private properties to mitigate this issue. I performed a survey of multiple properties within the immediate area. Working with multiple private and public landowners in the immediate area, we identified a total of five newly infested lodgepole pine. Adult beetles fly from their host tree where they complete their lifecycle in late July/early August and search out new host trees. In addition, I identified four large-diameter dead trees across property boundaries that had hosted beetles in years past.”
Mountain pine beetle is a native insect to the pine forests and the two have coexisted for millions of years. Mountain pine beetles are native to the western half of North America. According to data provided by the CSFS, since 1996, a total of 4,100 acres in Gunnison County have been affected by MPB. Since the current epidemic began in 1996 a total of 2.9 million acres have been affected by MPB in Colorado.
According to Pankratz, “Population numbers in some areas of the state are slowing down due to host depletion, but we really haven’t been hit by a major outbreak in this county and our susceptible host trees are still standing. Fortunately, there’s not a lot of lodgepole pine located immediately in and around Crested Butte, and the results of my survey indicate that beetle populations are nowhere near the epidemic populations seen in other counties. There is the potential for beetles to reach epidemic populations in particular in the eastern half of the county, where the majority of our lodgepole pine is located. Locally, the ‘magnitude’ of the issue is relative to what’s at stake for the individual landowner, the ecosystem and our economy.”
Regarding the potential impacts on individual landowners, “On the individual landowner basis there are major concerns for loss of aesthetics, property value, increased fire hazard, increased hazards to life and property and increased costs for dealing with a bunch of dead trees,” said Pankratz.
Again, the MPB is native to these forests, but it’s the potential for populations reaching epidemic levels that have landowners and the CSFS taking an aggressive stance with the infected trees up Slate River valley.
“It’s likely not the first time MPB has been found in this area considering lodgepole pine and MPB have coexisted for millions of years,” Pankratz said. “However, this is likely the first find of the beetle on private land in this area since our current statewide outbreak and it’s been at the forefront of our state’s forestry issues and in the public eye.”
The source of the MPB could be local, but it’s also possible to transport the beetles via infected firewood. “Again, it’s very difficult to point a finger at the source of the beetles in this area,” Pankratz explained. “Aside from the random flight and spread patterns of the beetle and its endemic nature in small populations, there are also a lot of campers traveling through this area bringing in firewood. Our two biggest messages for firewood users is, ‘Don’t Move Firewood’ and ‘Burn It Where You Buy It.’”
Mitigating the issue requires cooperation across public and private sectors, because the beetles don’t heed property boundaries. The CSFS recommends healthy forest management as the number one weapon for fending off a beetle epidemic. “Increasing the overall health and promoting age and species diversity of your forest will make trees more vigorous, and increase their potential to withstand small-scale beetle outbreaks,” Pankratz said.
Efforts to manage the forest for human habitation and other anthropogenic values over the last century-plus have created a conundrum, and techniques for managing the forest for overall forest health continue to evolve.
“Looking at the magnitude of the problem statewide, I think we’ve learned a very valuable lesson on being good stewards of our forests and the impact that humans have had on our landscape,” said Pankratz. “The magnitude of this issue stems from the human component of resource management, and our desires to live in an ecosystem that is regulated by native insects, disease and wildfire and our tolerance regarding these issues.
“Over the past century our abilities to suppress wildfires have created an unnatural forest composition of overly dense, over mature unhealthy stands of pine that allowed mountain pine beetles the perfect opportunity to reach epidemic populations,” noted Pankratz. “Under ‘natural’ conditions, impacts from wildfire, native insects, disease, and catastrophic weather create a patchwork of diverse species and age structures across the landscape. This diverse patchwork of healthy forests creates a difficult situation for insects to reach widespread epidemic populations like we’re seeing today.”