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Mountain pine beetle kill has taken hold over entire mountains in Summit County, including large parts of Summit County Open Space. This summer the county cleared about 700 trees from a blow-down near the County Commons, and several hundred trees from other open space tracts around the county.
SUMMIT COUNTY - The pine beetle epidemic doesn't stop at the edge of national forest land, and the county's open space environmental experts have been among the most active in the ongoing fight to limit impacts and potential fire threats from beetle-killed trees on tracts of open space.
This summer the county cleared about 700 trees from a blow-down near the County Commons, and several hundred trees from other open space tracts around the county. Additionally, several stands of trees were sprayed with pesticides to protect them beetles, including 3,900 trees around the County Commons and another 1,300 trees in the Mesa Cortina area.
Altogether, the county spent about $37,000 on spraying to protect high-value trees, to preserve desired aesthetic attributes or to maintain forested buffers consistent with the open space values of the parcels, according to Brian Lorch, a resource expert with the open space and trail department.
Lorch said the spraying and the other components of forest health treatments are part of a sustained effort to help prevent a catastrophic wildfire and to nudge those patches of forest back toward some semblance of health.
This summer the county cleared about 700 trees from a blow-down near the County Commons, and several hundred trees from other open space tracts around the county. Additionally, several stands of trees were sprayed with pesticides to protect them beetles, including 3,900 trees around the County Commons and another 1,300 trees in the Mesa Cortina area.
Altogether, the county spent about $37,000 on spraying to protect high-value trees, to preserve desired aesthetic attributes or to maintain forested buffers consistent with the open space values of the parcels, according to Brian Lorch, a resource expert with the open space and trail department.
Lorch said the spraying and the other components of forest health treatments are part of a sustained effort to help prevent a catastrophic wildfire and to nudge those patches of forest back toward some semblance of health.
"We're not really trying to impede the progress of the beetle at the landscape level. You can't really do that," said Steve Hill, assistant county manager for special projects.
"We're trying to reduce fuels and the risk of wildfire. That's the bulk of our effort. What we can do is recognize that we have some aesthetic issues," he said, explaining the county's decision to commit to a costly spraying program that might continue for three to five years, or longer, depending on the course of the beetle epidemic.
Hill said there are about 110,000 acres in need of treatment in Summit County, but the optimistic plan is to treat about 5,000 acres annually. The number of infected trees in the county grew from 8,000 trees in 2002 to 104,000 in 2005.
Other key areas to protect include tree islands between the highway and the recpath, Lorch and Hill said.
"We're trying to reduce fuels and the risk of wildfire. That's the bulk of our effort. What we can do is recognize that we have some aesthetic issues," he said, explaining the county's decision to commit to a costly spraying program that might continue for three to five years, or longer, depending on the course of the beetle epidemic.
Hill said there are about 110,000 acres in need of treatment in Summit County, but the optimistic plan is to treat about 5,000 acres annually. The number of infected trees in the county grew from 8,000 trees in 2002 to 104,000 in 2005.
Other key areas to protect include tree islands between the highway and the recpath, Lorch and Hill said.
"It's what the feds call "facade management," Hill said, explaining that those trees provide important local values.
Hill's role has increasingly been focused on tackling the linked pine beetle and wildfire threats, and Lorch said the issues is also taking increased bites out of his other open space duties.
"What do we want at the end of the day?" Lorch said, echoing a question frequently posed by federal land managers these days as they try to direct attention toward the "next" forest that will spring up in place of the diseased and dying lodgepoles.
"We can let natural processes work in some areas where there is no imminent fire hazard," Lorch said, explaining that lodgepole, as a pioneer species, is likely to regrow in many areas. In other places, dormant aspen stands may sprout and thrive in sunny clearings.
Hill's role has increasingly been focused on tackling the linked pine beetle and wildfire threats, and Lorch said the issues is also taking increased bites out of his other open space duties.
"What do we want at the end of the day?" Lorch said, echoing a question frequently posed by federal land managers these days as they try to direct attention toward the "next" forest that will spring up in place of the diseased and dying lodgepoles.
"We can let natural processes work in some areas where there is no imminent fire hazard," Lorch said, explaining that lodgepole, as a pioneer species, is likely to regrow in many areas. In other places, dormant aspen stands may sprout and thrive in sunny clearings.
"It's not all doom and gloom," said Hill, explaining that even in devastated-looking clearcut areas (like the Frisco Peninsula), the undergrowth will start to make a rapid comeback, with grasses, shrubs and wildflowers expected to dominate the scene for the first few years.
The open space forest efforts have been lauded as an exemplary stewardship model by the county manager's office, and ongoing monitoring is part of the deal. For one, the experts want to know how effective the spraying is. And it's also important to see what's sprouting in areas where trees are cut. That would help determine whether reforestation efforts might be needed.
Bob Berwyn can be reached at (970) 331-5996, or at bberwyn@summitdaily.com.
The open space forest efforts have been lauded as an exemplary stewardship model by the county manager's office, and ongoing monitoring is part of the deal. For one, the experts want to know how effective the spraying is. And it's also important to see what's sprouting in areas where trees are cut. That would help determine whether reforestation efforts might be needed.
Bob Berwyn can be reached at (970) 331-5996, or at bberwyn@summitdaily.com.
