Trees cut, chipped along Ute Pass in beetle fight

WOODLAND PARK - The best defense is a good offense, so the saying goes.

That’s the strategy of the U.S. Forest Service in the battle to keep the mountain pine beetle infestation — which has ravaged much of Colorado’s high country — from worsening in the Pikes Peak region.

Officials are cutting and chipping 150 acres of trees along Ute Pass, just east of Woodland Park, the first effort in Pike National Forest to prevent the beetles from becoming more pervasive here. Reporters on Thursday were given a tour of the area for the two-week project.

The area has the largest beetle infestation in the region, about 5 percent to 10 percent of the trees — mostly ponderosa pine.

A number of dead pines with brown needles dot the area.

Officials hope to stop the spread by cutting the trees and chipping them to expose larvae to the cold.

“Here in the ponderosa pine, it’s really just slightly elevated conditions,” said Forest Service entomologist Jeff Witcosky. “We still have the opportunity to manage beetle problems.”

Typically, the beetles target a tree weakened by drought or a lightning strike.

They burrow into the bark, emit a signal to summon other beetles and lay a fungus that prevents water from spreading.

They mate and lay eggs under the bark that later hatch and feed on the tree.

To the west, drought and overgrowth have helped the beetles proliferate, and within five years they are expected to wipe out Colorado’s lodgepole pine forests, home to the state’s ski resorts and some of its most spectacular scenery.

This summer, they began attacking trees on the east side of the Continental Divide, and could eventually reach the lower ponderosa pine forests.

The beetles are native to the lower forests, too, but in much smaller numbers.

“What we don’t know is if the beetles, once they move through the lodgepole, will get into the ponderosa pine and cause the same damage,” Witcosky said.

The beetles have been known to flock from one forest to another.

In the Canadian Rockies, they were even picked up on Doppler radar.

Officials hope projects such as this one will ensure they don’t find out how destructive the beetles could be here.

After the 150 acres are cleared, the number of trees halved and all infested trees removed, an additional 250 acres north of Woodland Park will be treated.

The beetles are dormant in winter, so the Forest Service hopes to stop problems before the weather warms.

Officials in the Woodland Park area, who have conducted their own efforts to keep the beetles out, applauded the project.

“Woodland Park has been very proactive over the years,” said city Planning Director Sally Riley. “Our code was put in place in the 1980s. We value our trees in Woodland Park, and we do not want to become ‘Woodless Park.’”

“What’s happening in Grand County, they’re chasing it after it happened,” said Teller County Commissioner James Ignatious. “We’re trying to be proactive before it happens.”

The project cost is $52,000, or $350 an acre.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 476-1605 or scott.rappold@gazette.com