A century ago, experiment on Pikes Peak helped launch modern forestry
A few crumbling concrete slabs near the top of the Manitou Incline are all that’s left of the foundation of modern understanding of how forests flourish in the Rocky Mountains.
The slabs are the remains of the Fremont Experimental Forest, a tree science laboratory that opened 100 years ago today with the mission of studying how Coloradans could repair forests that were quickly disappearing.
By 1900, forest maps show, more than 75 percent of the forests around Pikes Peak had been destroyed by fire or logging. Reforesting efforts were still generally limited to scattering seeds, then trying to poison the rodents that came to eat them.
There was little science behind forestry. That’s why the Fremont Experimental Forest was established, said Eric Swab, an avid local hiker who became interested in the Fremont forest when he came across piles of rusted scientific instruments in the forest. He has researched the forest’s history and unearthed old photos from its heyday. His findings are on display in a new exhibit at the Old Colorado City Historical Society’s History Center, 1 S. 24th St.
The Fremont forest was started by a 24-year-old graduate in the new field of forestry named Carlos Bates. He and a group of men quickly threw up a few small shacks on a spot on No Name Creek that was site (on the slope of Pikes Peak almost 9,000 feet above sea level) with easy access (less than a mile from the Manitou Incline).
Bates turned the surrounding hills into his laboratory. His team planted maples, oaks, Japanese larch and other exotic trees to see which species were most suited to the Rockies.
No surprise. It turned out to be the native evergreens that were already there, Swab said.
The team experimented with how to best replenish forests ravaged by logging. They found leaving scattered mature trees for seed and shelter encouraged quicker regrowth, that seedlings have more success than seeds, that seeds gathered from trees very close to the planting site make the hardiest seedlings — practices still used today.
The foresters at Fremont ran experiments until 1935, when it was closed due to its remoteness and small size. The knowledge it collected was scattered all over the Rockies.
In 1945, the U.S. Forest Service had the buildings demolished. Today, hikers will find almost nothing to suggest the influential experiments that once flourished here, but keen eyes will find five Japanese larch, still growing in the gravely soil almost a century after they were planted.
DETAILS
The Old Colorado City Historical Society exhibit on the Fremont Experimental Forest opens Friday with a reception 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Exhibit creator Eric Swab will give a talk on the history of the forest 11 a.m. Sept. 11.
Address: 1 S. 24th St.
For information: 636-1225
