Forest Stewardship Tip of the Day: Bring us your beetle-infested trees!

Summer is in full swing which means we are quickly approaching the annual flight window (mid-July to mid-Sept.) for mountain pine beetle.  If you are cutting pine trees within this proximity of beetle flight it is highly recommended that you haul freshly cut logs and slash to the community forestry sort yard located just outside Nederland.   Bark beetles are moderately attracted to both slash and logs that are cut from a tree that is green (beetles aren’t attracted to wood that has been dead for a year or more). If you leave this fresh green material in your forest this time of year you might inadvertently invite additional beetles to your property.  When you cut green material it sends “smells” into our forest that beetles hone in on and treat like a really stressed weakened tree.  You are encouraged to keep cutting for both beetle mitigation and wildfire mitigation but make sure to have a plan for how you will manage your freshly cut material.  Feel free to contact us with questions.

Announcement: Community Forestry Sort Yard Prepares for seasonal location change

The Nederland area sort yard site is scheduled to close July 9, at 5 p.m. The Allenspark Site will open Aug. 9, at 9 a.m. The To see a more detailed news release about this seasonal location change please visit: (http://www.bouldercounty.org/apps/newsroom/templates/bc.aspx?articleid=2695&zoneid=1)

Forest Health Outreach – Schedule of Upcoming Forestry Events:

There are several forestry presentations and community meetings scheduled in July that you might find interesting.

• On July 6, I will be presenting a natural history talk about “Fire, Bark Beetles and Our Disturbance Driven Forests”.
• On July 12, we are hosting a community meeting in Nederland to gather community feedback about how the first year of operation of the yard went for the community.  The sort yard is a brand new service for residents in the area and the County wants to make sure that we are providing forest landowners the best in public service at the yard.
• On Aug. 1, Jim Webster the County’s community wildfire protection planner (CWPP) will present the draft Countywide CWPP, the product of thousands of hours of discussion with community volunteers and professional fire folks.

To view additional details including locations and times of upcoming forestry events please visit our Forest Health webpage.(http://www.bouldercounty.org/live/environment/land/pages/foresthealthevents.aspx)

Cheers,
Ryan

Ryan Ludlow | Forestry Education & Outreach Coordinator
Boulder County | Land Use Department
P.O. Box 471, Boulder CO 80306
O: 720.564.2641 | F: 303.441.4856
rludlow@nullbouldercounty.org | www.bouldercounty.org/ForestHealth

*Please visit our website to sign-up to receive emails about forestry workshops, community meetings, bark beetle management tips and more!