Millions of dead trees in the Colorado Mountains

[COcheesehead]

Originally Posted by otowi

Plus there was a lot of death of trees around Glenwood Springs from the big fire that happened there in the past year....

Actually just in a handful of spots. The canyon was never overly forested to begin with.

[pikabike]

It’s not limited to only the stereotyped high mountain places.

You know things have already become drastically harmful for flora and fauna when first, the pinyons, and then, even the drought-adapted junipers die off.

Trying to get used to the notion of CO looking like southern AZ...

[COcheesehead]

My sister was just visiting us from Southern California. We drove her through the juniper forests in the Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction and then over into Palisade. She commented how green and healthy everything looked. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[Phil P]

The dead trees are really ugly and look like a giant scar, but essentially what's happening in the long run is monoculture lodgepole or spruce forests are getting replaced with aspen / mixed conifer forests after the old canopy falls down. Miraculously, the vast majority of beetle kill has not burned.

It is climate change. What's happening is it's now warmer so more species can grow higher up. If you go to Pagosa, the mixed conifer forests down lower look fine, it's the monoculuture forests higher up that got obliterated. Parasites like beetles are needed to clear out dominance so one species can't own the canopy. The Amazon has the most parasites out of any place on earth. The Mixed conifer forests that will replace some of this beetle kill are healthier, grow faster, and are sexier. The other thing that will result is more open grass/parkland which is good for animals. Even if it gets marginally drier, dry forests in Mexico are more interesting than dry forests in Wyoming, more growing days just allows better biology.

In the meantime though (like the next 20 years) these forests are a huge liability with falling logs and fire potential. The state of CO has done some decent work putting in clearings and such but there's a lot more to be done, especially in the SW part of the state.