U.S. Forest Service takes on Sudden Aspen Decline

SAD came into its own in the fall of 2007, when visitors to Colorado’s forests started noticing fewer yellow aspen displays. In their place, leaf lookers found more and more stands of dead and dying aspen. Since its recent origin, SAD has grown exponentially in size and severity, threatening current and future aspen forests as well as wildlife habitat and viewsheds.

Sudden Aspen Decline was first noted by land managers on the San Juan National Forest in 2006. At that time, an aerial flyover found that nearly 17,000 acres had been afflicted by the phenomenon. In the summer of 2007, the Forest Service conducted a second flyover, discovering that the number of dead and dying stands had more than doubled to a total of nearly 40,000 affected acres. With only 300,000 total acres of aspen stands on the San Juan National Forest, local land managers are definitely concerned.

“Sudden Aspen Decline is happening very rapidly. That’s part of what’s so alarming,” said Dave Dallison, timber program leader for the San Juan National Forest.

The cause of Sudden Aspen Decline remains somewhat mysterious. Researchers believe that widespread and severe drought conditions earlier this decade caused stress in the trees. That stress weakened mature and low-elevation stands of aspen in particular, making them more susceptible to infection and infestation.

The San Juan National Forest is now proposing significant steps to counter the epidemic and improve forest health. The Dolores Public Lands Office has targeted a large area northeast of Mancos to treat with a variety of tools. The forest has proposed logging a patchwork of 10 to 100-acre plots for a total of 1,550 acres of timber harvest. The agency has also proposed treating at least that much acreage with a prescribed burn.

Aspen is a pioneer species and thrives on disturbances such as fire and harvest. The primary objective is to remove the stands of dead and dying aspen to stimulate regeneration of the aspen suckers, or roots. More information on the proposal is available at: www.fs.fed.us/r2/sanjuan/projects/projects.shtml.  

Business forum offers local forecast

Durangoans got good and bad news during last Friday’s 17th annual Southwest Business Forum. More than 200 people took part in the event at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College and listened as economic experts discussed the financial state of Southwest Colorado.

Among the speakers was Dr. Richard Wobbekind, associate dean of external relations at the CU-Boulder. For his talk, Wobbekind took a close look at the Colorado economy, including an industry-by-industry breakdown. While most industries are facing a slow down, some look to remain stable and others, like private education and health care, are even projected to grow.

Wobbekind noted that tourism, an important part of the economy for the region and state, will most likely have a tough year, which has led to some extraordinary deals for those traveling.

“There are things I saw this year that I’ve never seen in my lifetime (in Colorado) in terms of discounts going on,” he said.

At the same time, Wobbekind pointed out a number of encouraging signs for Colorado tourism, such as the good press the state received after the Democratic National Convention, the drop in gas prices and recent record snowfall. “Good snow trumps a bad economy,” he said, citing the economic maxim.

Luke Miller, assistant professor of law and Finance at FLC focused his remarks on the local economy.

Among the many factors he examined was the impact of the college on Durango. Fort Lewis pumps millions of dollars into the local economy while providing thousands of students as a workforce and business patrons. Miller stated that the college helps insulate Durango from economic hits by dampening the “economic shocks to the system.”

Durango bucks housing downturn

Durango is continuing to defy national housing market trends. The Durango Area Association of Realtors announced final numbers for 2008 this week. While the volume of sales has fallen significantly, transactions have shifted to the high end of the market and homes in Durango and Bayfield are holding their values.

In the last year, the number of in-town Durango home sales fell by 23 percent as compared with 2007. Sales of Durango homes outside city limits fell by 26 percent, and Bayfield sales were down 23 percent.

However, all three markets saw increases in median home values. In Durango, the median price of a home climbed by 1 percent. Bayfield home prices increased by 8 percent, and the median price of Durango country homes climbed by 2 percent.

The Purgatory resort area saw a similar drop in volume coupled with an astounding jump in prices. The median price of Condo/Townhomes at Durango Mountain Resort shot up by 45 percent.

One glaring exception to the local rule was the Bayfield country home market. Sales of those units dropped by 44 percent, and median home prices fell by 10 percent.

Mark Donahue, president of DAAR, noted that the local numbers indicate that the Durango area is not trending with the national housing market. He noted that feeder market woes have contributed to significant drops in local sales volume. However, local property values have remained steady relative to other parts of the country, he said.

Local mustang to march in D.C.

An unusual Southwest Colorado resident will be taking part in the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Parade on Jan. 20, in Washington, D.C. “Justice,” a 6-year-old wild mustang who used to call Disappointment Valley home, will march along with nine other wild horses adopted by the U.S. Border Patrol.   Justice was removed from the BLM Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area north of Dove Creek in 2007. Before being adopted by the U.S. Border Patrol, the mustang received training through an inmate rehabilitative program at the Cañon City Correctional Institution.

The Border Patrol’s Mustang Unit was formed in 2007 when the agency began adopting BLM wild horses through the Project Noble Mustang Initiative. The horses are used to patrol a stretch of the U.S. and Canada border that boasts some of North America’s most rugged and remote terrain. In all, the Border Patrol has adopted 18 horses for patrol on the northern border and four for work on the southern border.

The BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program manages 33,000 wild horses and burros in 10 Western states. The goal of the program is to ensure healthy, free-roaming herd populations at levels consistent with the land’s capacity to support them.

– Will Sands