Thoughts about Beetle Control
A Short Essay by Ron Gosnell

When long-time Meeker Park resident Keith Dever asked me to help organize a beetle control effort, I did not hesitate. My goals about forest protection however go far beyond killing beetles.

That is why at the first beetle control organization meeting I confessed, I really am not so much interested in saving trees as I am in protecting the forest.

I understand how beetles capture peoples’ attention and, I reason, a beetle control effort will help people understand more about our forest’s condition, and what needs to be done. I have seen it before.

A community effort to control beetles is an excellent way to bring people together and care for the forest. The communication and organization necessary for beetle control can lead to other forest protection action.

I view a successful beetle control program as a holding action. It can only buy the community some time.

Instead of experiencing a rapid landscape scale change, with thousands and thousands of beetle-killed trees to deal with, time earned will enable people to gradually address the real problem, too many trees.

I envision a community with a forest thinned into health, a restored condition similar to what might have been here prior to settlement. That will be different than now, safer and still very beautiful.

A restored forest condition is one that will still have beetles. But fewer trees of suitable size and higher tree vigor will not feed an epidemic. There will be forest fires, and when they happen, even if wind-blown, some trees will die but a forest will remain. With proper planning, homes need not burn.

Many of the community-based components to achieve such a forest condition already exist. The new Allenspark Beetle Committee (ABC) shows that people are interested and willing to invest time to help one another.

The non-profit Forest Management Incorporated (FMI) organization is available to help solve marketing and slash disposal problems. FMI can encourage development of an economic engine to help make forest protection practices affordable.

Waiting for the call is a group of forestry professionals, trained and equipped to help private property owners protect their stands of trees that all together form our forest.

Beetle control will have its skeptics. "It’s inevitable," some may say seeing a growing number of beetle-killed trees here or witnessing the swaths of dead trees on Colorado’s West Slope.

An epidemic here is not inevitable if people control the beetle population now, while it is still manageable. It is possible again to reduce beetle numbers and revitalize the forest over time.

Beetle control is very simple. Cooperate. Take responsibility for your own property. Encourage by one’s own behavior a conservation ethic. Benefits will last for generations.