Today’s Forest Health Outreach update covers the following:
*Forestry Tip of the Day: End of Mountain Pine Beetle Flight and Fall Needle Drop
*Sneak Peak: October Wildfire Awareness Month Events
*Bark Beetle Surveying Tips
*Video: Colorado State Forest Service- Video #2
*Sort Yard: Closes for the Season Oct. 18

*Forestry Tip of the Day: End of Mountain Pine Beetle Flight & Fall Needle Drop
Aspens are changing and snow is falling. It must be fall in Colorado! A vast majority of mountain pine beetles have now finished their annual flight. To date we have not heard of big increases in beetle activity, so hopefully we are continuing to see declining beetle populations. Fall is the perfect time of year to get out on your land and cut!  Grab that chainsaw and get out there! 

This time of year we like to remind everyone about fall needle drop.  Each fall your conifers drop upwards of 1/3 of their needles. If your trees have browning needles on the interior of their branches, don’t freak out, it is probably normal. Just wait and watch and during the next wind events most of these brown needles will drop from the tree. 

*Sneak Peak: October Wildfire Awareness Month Events
October Wildfire Awareness Month is just around the corner. We have a great calendar of events lined up. We are planning community chipping events, forest ecology hikes, volunteer events and a keynote presentation by Brett Lacey, Fire Marshal from Colorado Springs Fire Department. Bret will speak about lessons learned during the Waldo Canyon Fire and their wildfire mitigation efforts around town. Stay tuned for additional details. 

Community Chipping Events: We are pleased to announce eight community chipping events taking place during October Wildfire Awareness Month. Events are being planned in Crestview Estates, Coal Creek Canyon, Fourmile Canyon, Gold Hill and Lower Sunshine (see separate post for our Gold Hill info), Magnolia Road, Sugarloaf FPD, Sunshine FPD and at the Nederland and Allenspark sort yards. See below for complete details for each event. Several events have geographic restrictions and deadlines to sign up. Make sure to contact the event coordinator to find out all the details about an event in your area. We hope many of you are able to take advantage of these discounted chipping opportunities! Thanks go out to all of our Partners who are making these events possible! 

*Bark Beetle Surveying Tips
Fall is by far the best time of year to survey for and remove currently infested mountain pine beetle trees. To identify infested trees use our Bark Beetle Field Guide http://www.bouldercounty.org/doc/forest/barkbeetlefieldguide.pdf

If you want to keep logs as firewood, take these steps:
*Step #1 – “Cut down infested tree” remove the limbs and haul them to a community forestry sort yard, community chipping event or chip on-site.
*Step #2 – “Score the logs” by cutting furrows lengthwise down the entire log every 3-4 inches. Cuts don’t need to be too deep, just cut through the outer bark to the “white fleshy” cambium layer. This step speeds up the drying of the logs.
*Step #3 – “Buck (cut) the logs” into firewood sized pieces
*Step #4 – “Split the logs” and stack firewood in single rows, facing southwest, in the sunniest spot possible, with bark facing the sun. Do not stack the firewood in large piles.
*Alternative: After step # 3, don’t split the bucked up logs. Instead, place them in single rows facing southwest in a very sunny location. Logs must be rotated every couple of months to optimize sun exposure.

The goal of this treatment is to rapidly dry the logs and kill the developing larva before they fly next summer. If you use this method, you should start treatments soon to take advantage of remaining warmer fall days.

*Video: Colorado State Forest Service- Video #2
As promised here is the second video from the Colorado State Forest Service’s, four-segment video series. Segment two is on “Forest Management as a Solution”. Link: http://vimeo.com/96730053

*Sort Yard: Closes for the Season Oct. 18
There is only one more month of operation at the Nederland and Allenspark sort yards. Make sure to haul all your logs, slash and yard waste to us before our closing day on Oct. 18. Fall is the perfect time to cut: the weather is cool, bark beetle risk is low and the aspens are lovely!  Our sort yard staff looks forward to seeing you!

Cheers,
Ryan

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