FORT COLLINS, Colo. (RFD News) — A growing threat is leaving lasting damage in western forests. The mountain pine beetle, a tiny insect, has wiped out millions of acres by cutting off water and nutrients to trees
Now, teams of Colorado State University students are coming together as “lumberjacks” to help, using hands-on forestry skills to remove dead and infested trees from affected areas. The goal is to reduce wildfire risk while giving the forest a chance to recover.
“It’s hard to put into words how many trees are dying,” CSU senior and logging team president Troy Ferguson told Rocky Mountain PBS. “You go anywhere on I-70, you go anywhere in Conifer, there’s beetle kill everywhere.”
Ferguson said he experienced this firsthand while growing up in Conifer and learning from his dad, who is an arborist.
“We had a lot of dying trees in our yard, and it was a constant kind of die off from beetle kill,” he said. “It was kind of slow and steady at first, and now it’s kind of picked up a little bit in recent years.”
Officials say the effort not only helps the land but also gives students real-world experience in forest management.
READ MORE: Could college lumberjacks help fight Colorado’s mountain pine beetle outbreak? - Rocky Mountain PBS
