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This so-called “hand of death,” a beautiful yet heartbreaking image, was created by the increasingly tightening clutch of bark beetle infestation.
Despite its overall eco-friendliness, camping in the Colorado forest this summer might be a little less green.
The forest canopy important to so many campers is under attack by epidemic proportions of the mountain pine beetle, and campgrounds around the state are closing or cutting down trees to protect human forest wanderers.
In the past two weeks, the National Forest Service and Rocky Mountain National Park announced campground closures for the summer because of the mountain pine beetle. Private campgrounds have begun removing their own red trees, too.
The critter, which burrows into a tree’s bark and digs tunnels throughout its innards, is native to Colorado and is a normal part of the ecosystem. But the national park has never seen an outbreak of this magnitude, park officials said.
The U.S. Forest Service said in a report last fall that communities are joining together to fight the beetle “and get ready for the next forest.”
With the news in January that most, if not all, of Colorado’s old lodgepole pine trees will be dead within five years, those preparations are not hyperbole.
Most trees in Rocky’s Timber Creek Campground, on the park’s west side, were killed by the mountain pine beetle epidemic. Park officials said the 98-site campground will be closed through early July so the dead trees can be removed.
The campground is about 10 miles into the park from the town of Grand Lake and sits in a lodgepole forest above the Colorado River.
As any westbound Trail Ridge Road driver knows, the trees start to turn brick-red as the road dips into the Kawuneeche Valley. The dead, dry trees could fall on campers, so park officials will start removing them this summer.
“The west side of the park is mainly lodgepole, and the beetles have definitely gone after the lodgepole,” said Kyle Patterson, spokeswoman for the park. “It’s still unknown as to what kind of impact they’re going to have on the ponderosa (pines)—we’ve got more mixed conifers on the east side, with a lot of ponderosa, so it’s hard to tell at this point but a lot of forest health experts have indicated we are seeing more of it in Boulder and Larimer counties.”
That means periodic site closures in campgrounds on the park’s east side, too, as well as backcountry sites used by backpackers.
Just outside the park’s boundary, campers at private resorts are also dealing with the red trees.
At Winding River Resort Village, just south of the park gate, owner Marcia House said she already had 2,000 trees removed this season.
“We’ve taken out probably about 10,000 in the last four years. So we have definitely been hit,” she said. “But the good news is we have some incredible views that we didn’t know existed. Some of the mountains I didn’t know existed just appeared, and I was like, ‘wow.’”
The resort, which is bordered on two sides by Rocky Mountain National Park and on one side by the Arapaho National Forest, offers RV and tent sites and activities like horseback riding and an 18-hole disc golf course. It is popular enough with Front Range residents that they come back year after year, House said.
She said reservations have been steady for this summer, but people are concerned about the beetle epidemic.
“Occasionally it does come up as far as what we’ve done. A lot of our guests are repeat customers, so they are aware, because they’ve been coming up regularly, of our situation of removing trees,” she said. “Their questions are things like, ‘Do we have any trees left?’ They’ll specify their favorite site, and ask about if there are any trees there.”
House said many trees on the national forest land have already been cleared away after cutting began last summer.
National forest sites are also facing temporary closures.
Twenty-one out of 223 recreation sites, mainly campgrounds and picnic areas across three national forests in Northern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming, will be closed this summer. Seventeen others will open late because of the bugs, according to the forest service.
“Public safety is our No. 1priority. Beetle-killed trees in campgrounds and picnic areas are a hazard because they can fall anytime as the roots start to rot,” said Clint Kyhl, commander of the Rocky Mountain Region Bark Beetle Incident Management Team, in a statement.
The news is not all bad, however.
In addition to the new Never Summer Range views House mentioned, park and forest service officials are trying to save trees that have not been infested yet.
Patterson said crews plan to spray up to 5,000 “high-value” trees near campgrounds, visitor centers and historic sites, starting this week and ending before Memorial Day weekend. The Longs Peak campground will not be sprayed, but visitors can expect spraying in Timber Creek, Moraine Park, Glacier Basin and Aspenglen campgrounds; Kawuneeche, Moraine Park, Beaver Meadows and Fall River visitor centers; the Bighorn ranger station; and other sites.
The project is expected to cost about $600,000. In the past two years, the park spent more than $200,000 on beetle mitigation work, Patterson said. Last year, about 5,000 trees were sprayed, and most were not attacked by beetles.
The caustic spray, Carbaryl, prevents the beetles from attacking the trees—but it has to reach every part of the tree or it won’t work.
“You literally have to stand right in front of the tree to spray it. It’s very concentrated, and you have to make sure you get the whole tree. We have some trees sprayed on the (park’s) west side where there was like a strip they didn’t hit, as far as the spray, and the beetles went right for that strip of the tree. It’s amazing,” Patterson said. “If you leave pretty much any of the trees exposed, the beetles will go right in there. There are just so many of them, they look for any opportunity they have to get in the tree.”
The state forest service announced its own seven-county beetle mitigation plan last fall, covering more than 80,000 acres of forest over the next five years. The program includes timber salvage projects, like finding new uses for the wood, and tree removal.
There might be another silver lining in the red forest—fewer sites in the national park may mean more business for private campgrounds nearby.
House said her resort’s reservations have increased over last summer.
She spoke to a man from Illinois who planned a summer trip, and he said he wouldn’t be stopped by the bugs.
“I told him what to expect, that we do have in the public lands a lot of dead trees,” she said. “He said, ‘it doesn’t change my mind, I still love that area. The mountains are still beautiful.’ And I said that’s the truth of the matter—if you look beyond the red, there is still a lot of beauty here.”
The forest canopy important to so many campers is under attack by epidemic proportions of the mountain pine beetle, and campgrounds around the state are closing or cutting down trees to protect human forest wanderers.
In the past two weeks, the National Forest Service and Rocky Mountain National Park announced campground closures for the summer because of the mountain pine beetle. Private campgrounds have begun removing their own red trees, too.
The critter, which burrows into a tree’s bark and digs tunnels throughout its innards, is native to Colorado and is a normal part of the ecosystem. But the national park has never seen an outbreak of this magnitude, park officials said.
The U.S. Forest Service said in a report last fall that communities are joining together to fight the beetle “and get ready for the next forest.”
With the news in January that most, if not all, of Colorado’s old lodgepole pine trees will be dead within five years, those preparations are not hyperbole.
Most trees in Rocky’s Timber Creek Campground, on the park’s west side, were killed by the mountain pine beetle epidemic. Park officials said the 98-site campground will be closed through early July so the dead trees can be removed.
The campground is about 10 miles into the park from the town of Grand Lake and sits in a lodgepole forest above the Colorado River.
As any westbound Trail Ridge Road driver knows, the trees start to turn brick-red as the road dips into the Kawuneeche Valley. The dead, dry trees could fall on campers, so park officials will start removing them this summer.
“The west side of the park is mainly lodgepole, and the beetles have definitely gone after the lodgepole,” said Kyle Patterson, spokeswoman for the park. “It’s still unknown as to what kind of impact they’re going to have on the ponderosa (pines)—we’ve got more mixed conifers on the east side, with a lot of ponderosa, so it’s hard to tell at this point but a lot of forest health experts have indicated we are seeing more of it in Boulder and Larimer counties.”
That means periodic site closures in campgrounds on the park’s east side, too, as well as backcountry sites used by backpackers.
Just outside the park’s boundary, campers at private resorts are also dealing with the red trees.
At Winding River Resort Village, just south of the park gate, owner Marcia House said she already had 2,000 trees removed this season.
“We’ve taken out probably about 10,000 in the last four years. So we have definitely been hit,” she said. “But the good news is we have some incredible views that we didn’t know existed. Some of the mountains I didn’t know existed just appeared, and I was like, ‘wow.’”
The resort, which is bordered on two sides by Rocky Mountain National Park and on one side by the Arapaho National Forest, offers RV and tent sites and activities like horseback riding and an 18-hole disc golf course. It is popular enough with Front Range residents that they come back year after year, House said.
She said reservations have been steady for this summer, but people are concerned about the beetle epidemic.
“Occasionally it does come up as far as what we’ve done. A lot of our guests are repeat customers, so they are aware, because they’ve been coming up regularly, of our situation of removing trees,” she said. “Their questions are things like, ‘Do we have any trees left?’ They’ll specify their favorite site, and ask about if there are any trees there.”
House said many trees on the national forest land have already been cleared away after cutting began last summer.
National forest sites are also facing temporary closures.
Twenty-one out of 223 recreation sites, mainly campgrounds and picnic areas across three national forests in Northern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming, will be closed this summer. Seventeen others will open late because of the bugs, according to the forest service.
“Public safety is our No. 1priority. Beetle-killed trees in campgrounds and picnic areas are a hazard because they can fall anytime as the roots start to rot,” said Clint Kyhl, commander of the Rocky Mountain Region Bark Beetle Incident Management Team, in a statement.
The news is not all bad, however.
In addition to the new Never Summer Range views House mentioned, park and forest service officials are trying to save trees that have not been infested yet.
Patterson said crews plan to spray up to 5,000 “high-value” trees near campgrounds, visitor centers and historic sites, starting this week and ending before Memorial Day weekend. The Longs Peak campground will not be sprayed, but visitors can expect spraying in Timber Creek, Moraine Park, Glacier Basin and Aspenglen campgrounds; Kawuneeche, Moraine Park, Beaver Meadows and Fall River visitor centers; the Bighorn ranger station; and other sites.
The project is expected to cost about $600,000. In the past two years, the park spent more than $200,000 on beetle mitigation work, Patterson said. Last year, about 5,000 trees were sprayed, and most were not attacked by beetles.
The caustic spray, Carbaryl, prevents the beetles from attacking the trees—but it has to reach every part of the tree or it won’t work.
“You literally have to stand right in front of the tree to spray it. It’s very concentrated, and you have to make sure you get the whole tree. We have some trees sprayed on the (park’s) west side where there was like a strip they didn’t hit, as far as the spray, and the beetles went right for that strip of the tree. It’s amazing,” Patterson said. “If you leave pretty much any of the trees exposed, the beetles will go right in there. There are just so many of them, they look for any opportunity they have to get in the tree.”
The state forest service announced its own seven-county beetle mitigation plan last fall, covering more than 80,000 acres of forest over the next five years. The program includes timber salvage projects, like finding new uses for the wood, and tree removal.
There might be another silver lining in the red forest—fewer sites in the national park may mean more business for private campgrounds nearby.
House said her resort’s reservations have increased over last summer.
She spoke to a man from Illinois who planned a summer trip, and he said he wouldn’t be stopped by the bugs.
“I told him what to expect, that we do have in the public lands a lot of dead trees,” she said. “He said, ‘it doesn’t change my mind, I still love that area. The mountains are still beautiful.’ And I said that’s the truth of the matter—if you look beyond the red, there is still a lot of beauty here.”
