Creekside Middle School seventh-graders stepped off their yellow school bus to gaze upon a forest devastated by a creature the size of a grain of rice.
The students took a field trip to the Church at Woodmoor, where about 700 trees have been killed by Mountain Pine Beetle Oct. 15. Led by volunteer guides from the Woodmoor Improvement Association, students experienced firsthand the damage the tiny beetles can do to a forest, primarily composed of ponderosa pine, and learned how the insects can be prevented from attacking more trees.
Jim Woodman, a retired forestry research scientist and research director, was among those teaching the kids about the beetle. He explained the beetles bore into a trees bark, leaving behind blue fungus, and lay their eggs. When the eggs hatch, the larva stay inside the inner part of the tree’s bark and feed until they are mature.
Once the beetles mature, they fly to other trees, usually leaving behind a functionally dead tree with bark that can no longer take moisture from the roots to the rest of the tree, he said. It can take several months for the tree to look dead.
“Trees are what makes Colorado Colorado,” said seventh-grader Andrew Allen, adding the beetles are devastating the state’s forests.
Prior to the field trip, Woodman visited CreeksideMiddle School and talked to the students about the beetles, including what they are doing to some of Colorado’s mountain areas, killing a large number of the lodgepole pine trees in areas like Gilpin County.
Forests are too dense since humans have prevented the natural cycle of forest fires, which is one of the main reasons the beetles are thriving in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
The densities of the forests result in trees that cannot get to enough water and sunlight to thrive, resulting in weakened trees that do not put up much of a fight against the beetles.
“It’s the most destructive insect we have in the United States,” Woodman said.
Had the church thinned the forest, the beetles probably would not have had the impact they did on the property and some neighboring properties, Woodman said. The association recommended the church space its trees out 10 feet apart.
“We’ve got to be diligent about cutting down these trees,” he said. If they are not cut down, the beetles will fly once the weather warms up again, infecting three trees for every one infected this year.
Trees work to keep the beetles out by creating pitch, a resin that travels through the tunnels beetles boar into the tree, Woodman explained. Humans can help prevent beetles from spreading by thinning out areas where the pine trees are growing in clumps, spraying a substance on trees that are important to the property owner and cutting down and destroying the beetle kill trees before the beetles fly, usually from early July through the end of September. The spray material, however, is expensive, $8-$10 per tree, so it is impractical to use on a large number of trees.
“[The hands-on experience] really teaches me how to clean up this earth and teaches me about pine beetles,” said seventh-grader Camilla Asklof of the experience. She added she was glad to have the opportunity to help by raking up pine needles on the church grounds.
The Woodmoor Improvement Association would like to continue the partnership with the school offering similar programs in the future, said director of forestry Amy Smith.