District forester John Twitchell looks at the dead stands of ponderosa pine where once the red stain of mountain pine beetle painted its deadly swath.
“They’re kind of gray ghosts now,” said Twitchell, who works for the Colorado State Forest, which is located on nearly 72,000 acres north of Fort Collins, a small section in Larimer County but mostly in Jackson County.
The scourge of the mountain pine beetle is old news now, but it is something forest managers will be dealing with for decades to come.
The destruction left behind is being managed in different ways.
Some trees will be left to naturally fall and decompose.
Some stands have been logged to make way for new growth, to simulate to an extent, what a natural fire would do for the landscape, to diversify the age and species of trees. The logs are sent to Saratoga, Wyo., where they are made into lumber, and the proceeds go back into managing the forest.
Still other trees were removed almost immediately after they died — stands located along roads and in campgrounds that posed risk for falling on campers, hikers and vehicles.
The land is being managed for habitat and recreation, so there is a better chance to control a major fire were it to spark and so people and wildlife can enjoy a slice of nature for years.
With this mixture of management, foresters are creating what a Twitchell calls “the next forest,” a diverse, beautiful and viable forest, though different than it had been for decades.
This particular forest is a popular area for different kinds of recreation.
The Colorado State Forest State Park has campgrounds and lakes, tent spots as well as rentable cabins, hiking trails and four-wheel drive roads.
Each year, the park records about 400,000 visitor days at its location just over Cameron Pass. At 9,200 feet and bordering National Forest land and Rocky Mountain National Park, the state park is an easy drive up the Poudre Canyon.
Twitchell calls it “80 miles to everywhere” because of its distance to Fort Collins, Steamboat and Laramie, Wyo.
The area is rich with recreation, wildlife including bear, moose, deer and many more species, as well as history. The buildings at the park offices date to the 1920s and were recently placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Much of the construction of those buildings as well as other park projects that were completed during World War II were tackled by German prisoners of war held at a nearby camp. In fact, three of the rentable cabins at Michigan Reservoir were prisoner housing at that camp.
And surrounding that history are acres of land to be managed, campgrounds, trails and roads that are well-used and well-loved throughout the summer.
Just inside one of those areas, Ranger Lakes Campground, a first glance reveals stump after stump from victims of the mountain pine beetle. But, look more closely, and you’ll see young trees naturally regenerating, nature bringing back stands of pine and aspen.
A short drive from Ranger Lakes, up Bull Mountain Road and then veering off onto Kiwi Road, the view over the landscape is eye-opening. Remnants of the “gray ghost” turn portions of the landscape into an old black-and-white movie, while in other areas, older green trees remain and vibrant stands of young trees are returning in different stages, painting the landscape with shades of green.
“We are getting this diverse forest coming back,” said Twitchell, noting that natural regeneration is key because the new trees are growing from the original genetics of the area.
“You’ll have this mosaic of different ages … This is where the art meets the science.”
With science and history in their toolbox, foresters are deciding exactly where to cut and where to leave the trees alone to create a patchwork quilt of a forest with diverse ages and types of trees.
In one area, Russ Gross stands next to a pine tree that is taller than him while several yards away the younger growth is much smaller, only knee high. This shows the difference in ages, specifically managed for this area.
While areas that have been logged speed up the new growth that eventually would come naturally, they are strategically chosen for the benefit of the forest and the balance of recreation, habitat, fire suppression and overall forest health.
“We’re not on a mission to get every last dead tree or manage every last one,” said Twitchell. “We can’t … It’s not a tree farm, it’s a multiple use forest with lots of things going on.”
The plan is to diversify the forest, to balance the needs and uses, and to protect and boost the land
“It’s a landscape changing,” said Twitchell. “It’s in transit, and we’re sort of nudging it in its change.”
Pamela Johnson: 970-699-5405, johnsonp@reporter-herald.com, www.twitter.com/RHPamelaJ.
