Natural Resource Preservation Program: Impacts of Mountain Pine Beetle Infestation on Forested Ecosystem and Social Values in the Front Range, Colorado

Research Task: 8160DAT.3.6
Task Manager: Craig Allen

Faced with the potentially major disturbance of a mountain pine beetle (MPB) epidemic in ponderosa forests on Colorado’s Front Range, neither managers nor researchers have sufficient evidence from past studies or experience to predict its effects or plan appropriate responses. In this ecologically and economically important region, the consequences of large-scale forest mortality and potential associated hazards (such as fire and altered hydrologic regimes) are likely to be severe. This challenging situation presents a unique opportunity to conduct proactive, interdisciplinary, interagency research that will improve understanding of the ecosystem dynamics associated with MPB disturbance; allow prediction of future outbreak-related changes and possible adaptive management responses; and explore impacts on the people who live, work, and recreate in this environment and investigate their support for different management and mitigation actions. This project entails (1) evaluating and predicting the potential transition of MPB between lodgepole and ponderosa pine ecosystems; (2) assessing the effects of MPB on ponderosa pine forests with different management histories and predicting future changes in succession dynamics and fire hazard in this ecosystem; and (3) identifying public perceptions of potential changes in ponderosa pine ecosystems and public support for mitigation of MPB impacts on public and private lands.

 For more information contact Craig Allen