Posted by Jan Wondra | Jan 27, 2021
Even as winter snows cover the ground, the unease is growing across this state and the nation that the steady march of climate change is impacting our western forests in ways we cannot stop. Here in Colorado, our timberlands are beset by drought, being eaten alive by a variety of beetles, loved to death by human beings over-running public lands, with their resiliency damaged by decades of fire suppression that has left the dead timber load at historically high levels.
The Colorado Forest Service estimates a backlog of $4.2 billion in forest-thinning, just to protect homes in the growing urban-wildland interface areas. (see related