News that the spruce beetle infestation in the San Juans has crossed the Continental Divide with its sights on alpine forests north of Durango has sparked a host of reactions, with sadness a common denominator in most.
Frustration, too, both with the seeming inevitability of the plague, and with the announcement itself. Local forest aficianados claim the insect horde reached our side of the divide years ago.
Any argument about the estimated or actual time of arrival is moot; spruce beetles – like the related pine beetles that devastated thousands of acres of lodgepole pine in the state’s northern forests – have always been present, their numbers kept in check by a combination of natural factors.
But extended draught, warmer winters and crowded spruce stands allowed the insects to flourish on the east side of the divide, their numbers exploding in the late 1990s. To some extent, forest managers were hoping that the higher, treeless areas of the divide might keep the bugs at bay.
Since 1996, some 120,000 acres in the San Juan National Forest have been hit by the infestation. Wide areas of dead Englemann spruce remain in its wake, a scene all too familiar to travelers over Wolf Creek Pass. That the view from Coal Bank and Molas may soon look the same is a depressing prospect.
Is there hope that the outbreak may ease of its own accord, especially with a return of wetter winters? Not much, apparently. While a 2015 forest survey showed that pine beetle numbers had returned to pre-epidemic levels, effectively ending their killing spree of lodgepole pines, data showed that the outbreak ended because so few trees were left for the beetles to infect.
For now, it makes sense to plan for the worst, something already underway in the San Juan National Forest, where spruce cones were harvested last summer and are being stored for possible reforestation.
We should also heed the words of Kent Grant from the Colorado State Forest Service, regardless of the season: “You need to get up there before it starts to look different,” he warns. “It’s just around the corner.”
