To Help Protect Forests, Take Action With Your Local Tree Farmer
It is enough to discourage the most dedicated Tree Farmer, and forest landowners who are not in the American Tree Farm System are particularly susceptible to insidious little remarks like “Nothing can be done about it“. That is pure bu…poppycock! But, too many people are willing to extrapolate that opinion into an excuse to do nothing to better manage their land.
Pine beetle epidemics and wildfire are no different than other natural phenomena like earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes. You may not be able to prevent them, but a great deal can and must be done to mitigate the damage that is caused by them. If you choose not to act, the problems may become much worse. People in earthquake zones learn how to build stronger buildings. In hurricanes areas one may build higher levees. These are ballgames with no home runs but plenty of chances for base hits. And so it is for Coloradans.
We can whine about the pitiful size of Colorado’s timber industry, lack of infrastructure, and nonexistent market for forest products, but those things will not be fixed before the pine beetle and ever more devastating wildfires take their toll. If we are going to reduce the amount of damage being caused, we will have to rely on the tools and resources available to us right now, namely active forest management and private landowners who will do what needs to be done. Enter your local Tree Farmers!
In order to reach more landowners, last year Colorado Tree Farmers initiated and led a partnership with four other organizations to create the Larimer County Beetle Busters. The Beetle Busters come from all walks of life. Some don’t own any trees at all but all have a love for our forests.
The Beetle Busters are trained to visit private landowners, tour their property, provide them with a report on the state of their forest, and give them suggestions on how to improve the health of their forest. Absentee landowners are finding a particularly valuable benefit from this service, and it proves that we all can and should take part in protecting our forests.
Colorado Tree Farmers also provide an informational and motivational video and PowerPoint presentation to help groups of forest landowners work together to achieve their goals.
We invite all Colorado citizens to join us, for the sake of what remains of our present forests and to avoid repeating mistakes in our future forests. Everyone can help improve the health of our forests; Tree Farmers are in a unique position to lead the way.
In Englewood last month, Wes Rutt received the 2010 National Field Leadership Award, presented by the American Tree Farm System. Rutt is the outreach and education chair for Colorado Tree Farmers. Visit www.treefarmer.com to learn more about what he does.
