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Headline:

Bugs threaten forests
Tiny beetles emerge as huge problem in Colorado as pest populations surge

http://www.denverpost.com/cda/media/...36%7E53%7E1632
851,00.html

By Ben Scott
Special to The
Denver Post
Each smaller than a grain of rice, mountain pine and spruce beetles look less
menacing than a raging wall of flames, but these pests and their kin could soon
become as big an enemy to Colorado's forests as wildfires.
Century-old trees are dying from beetle infestations and turning parts of
Colorado's pine-green forests a rusty color that has nothing to do with autumn.

The mountain pine beetle alone killed more than 600,000 trees in Colorado last
year, while spruce and Ips beetles inflicted similar damage; state and federal
wildlife officials believe the toll this year will be higher. And those numbers
could grow exponentially over the next few years as Colorado approaches the
peak of a natural cycle in beetle populations.

The number of trees killed by beetles hasn't reached the 500,000 acres of trees
burned in the 2002 wildfires, yet controlling the insects' spread can be as
difficult.


Jeff Witcosky, entomologist for the U.S. Forest Service, said officials haven't
summarized 2003 data taken from aerial surveys.

"But my impression is it's at least as bad as last year," Witcosky said. "There
are new areas starting to have problems that didn't in the past."

Dave Silvieus, a district ranger in the White River National Forest, said 2,000
to 3,000 acres of trees in the forest have been ravaged by the spruce beetle
this summer.

"That might double next year," Silvieus said. "In four or five years, it could
be 30,000 to 40,000 acres."

A third type of beetle, the Ips beetle, killed 50 percent of southwestern
Colorado's pinon pines last year and continues to ravage the area this year.

And in Grand County, one of the state's hardest-hit areas, pine beetles have
invaded trees near Dillon Reservoir, Winter Park and elsewhere in the Fraser
River Valley.

Billy Sumerlin, Grand County's director of natural resources, said private
landowners have called his office all summer, wanting to know how to save
trees. Landowners surrounded by the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest north of
Granby have watched tree after tree wither and die from beetle infestation.

"For many, up to 90 percent of their trees have died," he said.

Bill Lewis owns 80 acres in Shadow Estates adjacent to the Arapaho-Roosevelt
National Forest. When he bought the property, he said, 100-year-old lodgepole
pines fanned across the landscape.

But in the past three years, Lewis said, he has lost about 900 trees to
mountain pine beetles and spent more than $20,000 hauling out dead wood to
protect the area from wildfires and more beetle infestation. ... (cont)