EDITOR’S NOTE: This editorial, published by the Colorado Springs Gazette on January 24, highlights how poor federal land management based on extreme environmentalist ideology is harming western communities and increasing the risk of wildfires even in heavily populated areas. Reprinted here with permission.
Our community is under attack by tree-killing bugs, and the U.S. Forest Service remains unconcerned. Agency officials prefer to let the trees die what they call a natural death. One federal forester told the Gazette how dead trees could somehow help butterflies, suggesting this problem is a good thing.
At stake is our famous forested backdrop on the city’s southwest quadrant. A patchwork of private, state, city, county and federal land, the area could become a hellscape of dead trees ready to go up in flames the first time lightning strikes. Mountainsides of conifer death will threaten homes and lives, lower property values and discourage tourism at an expense to the region’s economy.
Because of what’s at stake, state and local agencies are in high gear with expensive plans to kill the western spruce budworms and Douglas fir Tussock moths that are killing the trees. Gov. John Hickenlooper, Mayor John Suthers, businesses, neighborhood associations, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Colorado Springs Parks and Recreation, NORAD, Broadmoor Resort, El Pomar, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and El Paso County are among individuals and organizations cooperating to solve the problem. If the bugs are not killed early this spring, tens of thousands of trees will have no chance to survive.
All efforts to kill the bugs could prove futile if federal officials won’t allow eradication to save the 1,300 acres of infected U.S. Forest Service trees. The bugs won’t obey jurisdictional boundaries and will migrate into areas of the forest others tried to save.
Dan Prenzlow, southeast regional manager of Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told the Gazette that he discussed concerns about the tree-killing bugs two years ago with federal forest officials. They told him not to worry, as the bugs would die a natural death in time to save the trees. It did not happen.
“We were pro-tree two years ago, when we were told the bugs were on the down-hill slide;’ Prenzlow said. “And guess what happened? It expanded significantly. So, this year, at least for us, it is worth it to spray.”
Interested parties met with U.S. Forest Service officials Tuesday, including Erin Connelly, supervisor for the Pike and San Isabel National Forests, Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands. Forest officials did not return calls from the Gazette, but meeting attendees say federal officials exuded arrogant disregard for local concerns.
The US. Forest Service does not rely on the economies of Colorado, the Pikes Peak region or Colorado Springs to survive. Federal employees do not answer to leaders in our state. They have the luxury of indulging an ideological world view that justifies taking no action. Do nothing, because tree-killing bugs are no less valid than nearly 700,000 residents who need the region’s forests to survive.
Colorado and the Pikes Peak region cannot afford irresponsible, doctrinaire practices by feckless federal employees. Colorado’s congressional delegation should make this a priority. Somehow, some way, get federal employees to manage their trees.
