Changes in the Colorado forests

[eleny]

We went camping this past week at Chapman Reservoir - a tiny alpine lake south of Steamboat Springs up in the Routt Nat'l Forest. The fur trees are dying en masse.

Some fed workers came up to fell some of the dead trees. They stopped at our campsite to let us know where they'd be working and why. The trees are suffering from 9 straight years of drought. They have root rot and are struggling against beetles.

This devestation is obvious as soon as you drive west out of Denver. The rusty looking dead trees abound. The federal worker we spoke with said that the Colorado forests will see major changes in the coming 5 years.

[m-jean03]

1. I'm sorry --

That's so sad to hear, eleny. Never been to Colorado but I'm deeply attached to the forests of the Pac. Northwest and Upper Michigan. These kinds of changes are always so upsetting. :hug:

[BigBigBear]

2. The I70 corridor is also showing lots of blight

I was just driving that way yesterday - you can really see it above Silver Plume and around Vail.

It's very sad. Oddly, the state overall is a couple of inches ahead of normal precip for the year, although it looks like July is setting up to very dry...again.

[eleny]

7. Yes, that area is so sad

We camped at Chapman Lake - 4 hours from Denver. We had a beautiful view of the tiny lake. In the early morning it looked like a Bob Ross painting with the trees on the far side reflecting in the edges of the water. But as you look up the hill on the far side, the rusty, dead fir trees contrast with the green of the aspens.

I guess the extra moisture we've been getting all year isn't enough to combat the 9 years of too dry conditions for fir. It's hard to even imagine the forests without their numbers. In fact, the air didn't even have that piney fragrance.

[classof56]

3. Very sad, indeed

I grew up in Colorado and spent many pleasant hours in the Rockies, enjoying the forests, the aspens, the lakes, the incomparable beauty of it all. A college friend was from Steamboat Springs, so had lots of enjoyable times in that area, too. Years after leaving, I returned and was dismayed to see all the development taking place--condos, etc. everywhere. Really diminished the beauty I recalled so fondly, in my eyes, and now the trees dying. Also heard not long ago that the aspen had been affected by some disease. Kinda breaks my heart. Wish we could have some hope that things will get better. Bush's attitude about the forests infuriates me. Last year he was in my town while a huge forest fire raged nearby. Could almost hear him saying, if we'd only cut down those trees they wouldn't all be burning right now. Loggers and timber companies love him! Ugh.

Tired Old Cynic

[eleny]

8. About the logging

I just don't get his attitude. But what else is new, huh? The thing is, the loggers probably wouldn't want the dead trees. Don't they want the live ones? If they wanted the dead and diseased trees, then it might help to remove those. What good could it do to harvest live, healthy trees and leave the dead ones behind.

We did see groves of aspens near timberline that were dead. But it seems that they're doing much better than the fir.

[classof56]

10. Very controversial issue, logging dead trees

The forest ecosystem is complex, and just the logging process itself can be damaging to live trees that aren't logged. My daughter spent two years with the forest service, working on a post-forest fire assessment to meet all the requirements for logging burned timber. Whole thing ended up in court, because the environmental groups objected to logging the dead trees, which can cause erosion and be detrimental to forest restoration and riparian areas along streams and rivers. Like I said--very complicated and controversial, but timber companies do want the burned trees (guess they still do well in the milling process), however the longer they wait to log, the less chance for usable timber. I'm torn on the issue--hate the wholesale "slaughter" of forests that has gone on for far too long, but see the value to extracting and using the burned trees. I was in Yellowstone about 10 years after the big fires there, and the forests had barely begun to recover. Takes awhile!

Sorry--didn't mean to go on so long. I read in another of your posts that the piney fragrance in the Rockies forests has all but gone. How unfortunate--that was always one of my favorite pleasures of being in the mountains. That and the aspen--glad to hear they might be faring better than I'd heard.

You live in a very special part of the country. Much to enjoy. Long may it continue!

[eleny]

11. Interesting info about burned trees

Thanks for that! I had no idea that burned trees were still useful to the lumber industry.

In some areas, we saw whole swaths of dead trees. Then in others, it was a tree here and another there. But the root rot and beetles are busy at it.

I'm wondering about that lack of pine scent. There were still many fir where we camped. But cearly many more aspen. At least we were up there during the week and didn't have to put up with the dirt bikers.

Pardon me if anyone is offended by that. But they really are noisy and irritating. They abound on the weekends. I may not like getting older but appreciate the benefits of being retired. Weekday camping is so quiet that I felt compelled to keep my voice down. There was only one fella down at the lake fishing. I didn't want to risk messing up his solitude.

[classof56]

13. Way to go, Eleny!

You're my kind of camper. I couldn't agree more about the dirt bikers. I know forests are multiple use, and I guess bikers are part of the equation, but noisy and irritating says it all! Like you, I'm retired and enjoy hiking in the woods (not much into camping anymore), but the experience is so much better when not so many people and you can hear the wind moving softly through the trees. Can't recall going to Chapman Lake, but it sounds wonderful. Lots of beautiful lakes in the Rockies, and here in the Cascades, too, not far from where I am now. I'm trying to soak in the joy of nature while we still can.

Take care!

[SpiralHawk]

4. This Waldstreben crisis is all across New Mexico, too

Millions of dead pinons, and other pines. The 4th year of drought -- and the bark beetles -- have done the damage, just as they have done in S. California. Now comes fire season.

May the monsoons -- this year --- deliver.

Your little wind-blown clouds,
your thin wisps of clouds,
your great masses of clouds
replete with living waters,
you will send forth to stay with us,
your fine rain caressing the earth.

Send forth your massed clouds to stay with us,
stretch out your water hands,
let us embrace.

-- Zuni prayer for rain

[Warpy]

6. I'm in NM

and we're in our eighth year of drought. The monsoons have fizzled every summer and the snowpack has been inadequate every winter. Some ski areas haven't opened at all in recent years, and others have relied heavily on artificial snow and have opened only partially. The Rio Grande is more mud than water. The browning of the hillsides is visible even here in the valley, and we know massive fires aren't far behind.

The one positive thing is that all those lush lawns of Kentucky bluegrass have kicked the bucket and are now converted to buffalo grass, cactus and rocks.

It's all part of the cycle of death and rebirth. We just hope that after fire cleanses the land and opens all those pinon cones to distribute the seed that the rains come in time for rebirth. In other words, we hope global warming hasn't made this a permanent change.

[patricia92243]

5. I assume the lack of water is from global warming?

[donsu]

9. yes it's global warming

a recent report said this is the worst drought in 500 yrs.

and all we can do is say 'it's so sad'

yep, we are spectators at the death of the world

tick, tick, tick, tick

[cornfedyank]

12. spectators ... we are along for the ride

we are participants.

[bex]

14. Siskiyou Wild Rivers Imminently Threatened

I don't have enough posts to start a new thread. I would really appreciate it if someone would repost this as a new topic. Anyone who has been to the California/Oregon border area will understand the grave seriousness of this threat. Please spread the word.

Bush Team Pushes Huge Timber Sale
Under Guise of Fire Protection

Under the guise of preventing forest fires, the Bush administration is planning the biggest timber sale on public lands in modern history. The Biscuit Project would allow logging of 372 million board feet of timber across 30 square miles of southwest Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest—enough timber to fill 70,000 logging trucks. The logging would be done on wildlands of uncommon beauty and ecological diversity, far from any community that could be damaged in a fire.
"It's the biggest logging sale since World War II," says Steve Holmer, communications director with the Unified Forest Defense Campaign, a coalition of national and regional conservation organizations. "Timber companies have made huge contributions to the Bush campaign. This project is political payback."
-----
In an unusual step, the USFS has granted "emergency exemptions" to 11 sales included in the project. These exemptions enable the USFS to allow logging to begin immediately after issuing its final plan for each sale, even though there is usually a waiting period required for public appeal.
Holmer sees politics in this rush to cut. "This is an election year. Oregon was a close state in the last election. The Bush administration is using the Biscuit Project to show they've come up with a solution to the fire issue." There is also an economic factor. "If the trees aren't cut soon, they'll rot to the point of losing economic value. If they're not logged this summer, will pretty much lose their chance."
-----
"There are costs to preparing a sale," says Holmer. "The Forest Service has to build roads. Or if it's logging with helicopters, you've got to create landing pads, 2-acre clearcuts. Also, salvage timber sells at 25-percent of green timber. It's the same wood, same volume, at fire sale prices. The timber industry gets a huge windfall because it's a salvage project."
Holmer emphasizes the survival of the forest—a shelter for wildlife and wild rivers—is at stake.
"Under the Clinton administration, the Siskiyou was almost made a national monument. It's an area of unparalleled biological diversity, home to rare species that exist only in this region, clean water for salmon, and very important to the local tourism and recreation industry. If there was going to be a new national park on the west coast, the Siskiyou would be a prime candidate."
###
Send an instant message: http://www.actionstudio.org/public/petition_view.cfm?op ...
http://www.siskiyou.org/SWRC /
You can call your US Senators at 202-224-3121 and let them know what you think of this timber sale. To find out who your Senators are you can go to: http://www.senate.gov /

[LastDemocratInSC]

15. Welcome to our present situation - in the east

Our fir forests have been with us here since the last ice age when they were pushed south. The highest peaks here in the east - 5000 feet and above to almost 7000 feet - have been cloaked in black for thousands of years.

About one hundred years ago a load of wood imported from Europe carried an adelgid - a tiny insect that burrows into the bark of fir trees and kills them.

In my lifetime I have seen our rich, thick fir forests go from being full of life to being full of skeletons.

And now, our huge mountain hemlocks are being attacked by another alien adelgid. Our forest giants are disappearing before our eyes in 1 generation.

[Dayton]

16. just a couple of things

a decade or two of drought will not kill established forrest. I believe that what has happened is that the forests or being over planted by humans.

Not sure of the CO forest situation but where I live the 'experts' are planting 200 to 500 trees per acre when in fact, before we started trying to 'correct th problem' 30 to 40 trees was the norm and helped alliviate things like bugs becoming a problem. since the bugs mentioned do not migrate easily, and only become an issue when densities become to great.