CSU Broadsheet 021714

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U e t a t S o d a r o l o C @

February 2014, Volume 1, Issue 5

February 2014

Special Advertising Section created by Coloradoan Media Group Custom Publishing

CSU researchers studying historic impacts of floods and fires on Front Range rivers

BY BRYONY WARDELL E-CAMP participants study the ecosystem and organisms in the Poudre River at the Environmental Learning Center’s outdoor classroom.

Environmental Learning Center launches E-CAMP middle school program

BY BRETT BRUYERE

In the past six months they have helped wildland firefighters put out a mock fire, taught elementary students about local wildlife, and conducted an ecological tour of Rocky Mountain National Park via snowshoe.

They are only in middle school, but participants in the pilot year of the new E-CAMP program have a lot of experience.

The Environmental Career Awareness for Middle School Program, or E-CAMP, is the newest program from Colorado State University’s Environmental Learning Ccenter. Funded by the Bohemian Foundation, the goal of E-CAMP is to expose sixth through eighth graders to careers in conservation fields and to teach participants the skills needed to become effective conservation leaders in their community.

The program is filling an important need as research indicates that youth rule science “in” or “out” by the end of middle school. Meanwhile, job growth in the U.S. for environment-related STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers is expected to surpass growth in other sectors.

“We realized there weren’t a lot of informal science education opportunities out there for middle schoolers,”. said Program Director Nicole Stafford. “And, given the research, we decided to try to get this age group excited about the environment and increase their confidence in their abilities to positively influence the environment in their community now and into the future.” said Program Director Nicole Stafford.

Stafford said E-CAMP aims high.

“We do this by introducing participants to leaders in the field of con-

servation, giving give participants control over their learning, offering adventure-filled opportunities to explore their leadership abilities, and giving give them responsibilities that may put them just a bit out of their comfort zones. And, we have fun!”

Three sections available In this pilot year, E-CAMP is divided into three sections: summer, fall, and spring. Each section focuses on different aspects of conservation and leadership. During the summer, participants met local conservation leaders and designed and implemented small research projects. This past fall, the focus shifted to environmental education and its role in conservation.

Participants planned and led programs for elementary students. This spring, leadership will be the focus and E-

Camp continued on page 2.

WARNER COLLEGE OF NATURAL RESOURCES The most comprehensive natural resource college in the nation, Warner College of Natural Resources has more than 500 researchers and faculty working on diverse issues and ecosystems in 75 countries around the world. It offers eight undergraduate degrees and a range of graduate programs across five academic departments: Ecosystem Science and Sustainability

Geosciences

Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology

Human Dimensions of Natural Resources

Forest and Rangeland Stewardship

STARBUCKS VICE PRESIDENT TO SPEAK ON FEB. 27

STUDENTS HELP SCENIC BYWAY

Mary Wagner, the senior vice president of global research & development, quality and regulatory and concept innovation at Starbucks will speak at the first Innovation Leadership Series lecture, sponsored by CSU’s Office of the Vice President for Research, Feb. 27 at 5 p.m. in the Bob Davis Hall of Fame Room in Moby Arena on campus. This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required vpr.colostate.edu/pages/Events/ InnovationSeries.html

Natural resource recreation and tourism students have helped make one of Colorado’s scenic byways a little easier to navigate.

Students helped analyze the Cache la Poudre/ North Park Scenic and Historic Byway between Fort Collins and Walden and recommended better signage, improved emergency communications, and a visitor center in Walden, among other things. CDOT included their information in its new Corridor Management Plan for the byway

After seasons of devastating fires and floods, the raging, soot-rich waters of Front Range rivers have transformed into buckled, white courses of frozen water. While the stoic scenery seems a reprieve from the imagery of disaster that flowed through Colorado last year, clues from fires and floods past lie beneath the frozen surface.

On a mission to find those clues, Colorado State University Professors Sara Rathburn and Ellen Wohl and their students will brave the winter weather to assess and collect samples of flood sedimentation within Front Range watersheds this semester. Understanding how fast Front Range landscapes erode provides insight into how disturbances such as fire or flood influence river processes and terrain. It can also indicate how rivers will respond to increased cycles of fire and floods in a changing climate.

Preliminary results indicate that the Poudre watershed has experienced large fires and floods for a long time.

Erosion from the September floods revealed a deep, burned layer, below the High Park Fire surface, with flood deposits on top. These cycles of wildfires and floods are expected to continue in the future, with rainstorms eroding sediment from burned areas, causing debris flows and floods.

Rathburn and Wohl are fluvial geomorphologists in the Department of Geosciences at CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources. Their current research within Front Range watersheds is focused on channel development and sediment movement after the High Park Fire in 2012, and flood sedimentation following the September 2013 torrential rains and flooding.

Their work is part of an interdisciplinary research initiative between researchers at CSU and multiple agencies and municipalities to study the history of Front Range floods and fires, and to better understand and forecast future events and their long-term impacts on the landscape. The research has received funding from U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, Cities of Fort Collins and Greeley, National Science Foundation, CSU Water Center, and CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources.

“Continued post-fire and post-flood research will help us manage the watershed to allow for change along the river and maintain a river that is robust enough to recover from fires and floods over time,” said Rathburn.

CSU HELPS PROPEL COLORADO LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY

“LIVE ON” EMPHASIZES RETENTION, ACADEMIC SUCCESS

Agriculture contributes an estimated $40 billion each year to the Colorado economy and employs nearly 175,000 people. As home to the state’s programs in agriculture and veterinary medicine, CSU focuses research on problemsolving and innovation in the livestock industry.

The University is home to leading-edge research in genetics and reproduction, food safety, infectious disease, and biosecurity. CSU is also a world leader in animal welfare.

With the new Laurel Village and fourth floor additions to Parmelee and Braiden halls, there will be 1,200 beds on campus earmarked for returning and transfer students next fall. The “Live On” campaign encourages current students to return to the halls for Fall 2014. A 2012 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) documents that students who live on campus have higher GPAs than students who live off campus.

RIPPLE EFFECT PRESENTS LEILA JANAH Leila Janah, an internationally-known social entrepreneur, will speak at Colorado State University as part of the university’s celebration of International Women’s Day. The event is the first keynote speech sponsored by the Ripple Effect. Janah, featured on the January 2014 cover of Entrepreneur Magazine, will speak at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 6 in the Behavioral Sciences Building, Room 131. Tickets to this free event will be required and tickets are at the CSU iBox ticket office and online at CSUtix.com.

Seating will be limited.

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From the mountains to the prairies: Conserving Colorado’s natural heritage

BY DAVID ANDERSON, DIRECTOR OF COLORADO NATURAL HERITAGE PROGRAM

As development continues to boom along the Front Range, Northern Colorado is fortunate to have a natural area that is now one of the few places where wildlife can roam freely from the mountains to the plains.

Red Mountain Ranch Open Space and Soapstone Prairie Natural Area provide an opportunity for the public to visit and recreate in a pristine landscape rich with natural heritage.

Red Mountain Ranch Open Space and Soapstone Prairie Natural Area offer Pam Smith, left, botanist at CNHP, trains a group of volunteer guides at Soapstone Prairie for the City of Fort Collins. visitor facilities, summer Photo courtesy CNHP programs, and a 50-mile trail Red Mountain Ranch Open Space and Soapstone Prairie network to explore. The Colorado Natural Heritage Program (CNHP) has conducted two biological inventories Natural Area are part of a vast landscape north of Fort to guide conservation in the Laramie Foothills area where Collins that has been conserved though the visionary the parks are located, and found a wide variety of rare na- work of Larimer County, City of Fort Collins, The Nature tive plants and animals.

Conservancy, Legacy Land Trust, and many other partSome of the rare species that inhabit the region include ners. The combined effort relied heavily on the ecologithe Swift Fox, prairie birds such as McCown’s Longspur cal data and expertise of CNHP to guide conservation and Mountain Plover, and a variety of uncommon decisions and has created a region of over 140,000 acres of owls, hawks, bats, butterflies, and plants. It is also the nearly contiguous protected lands. world’s largest and best example of mountain mahogany The conservation of this major wildlife corridor has proshrubland, which are of great importance to wildlife and vided the back drop for one of the last places in the state provide critical overwintering grounds for pronghorn. that can offer such a diverse array of plants and animals CNHP is a nonprofit organization part of Colorado State not found anywhere else.

University’s Warner College of Natural Resources, and Red Mountain Open Space and Soapstone Prairie Natuits mission is to support the conservation of Colorado’s ral Area will both re-open to visitors in March, so be sure biodiversity. It maintains a detailed map and database to head north this spring and enjoy this amazing area.

For more information, visit: fcgov.com/naturalareas/finder/ containing over 30,000 locations of Colorado’s rarest soapstone, larimer.org/naturalresources/red_mountain.cfm, animals, plants, and high quality ecosystems to provide cnhp.colostate.edu land managers, conservationists, and developers with information to ensure a sustainable and healthy future for Video highlighting the partnership to conserve this area: col.st/1auJ11d the State.

WARNER COLLEGE OF

Natural Resources

Inspired education.

Innovative research.

Collaborative outreach.

February 2014

Researchers seeking to mitigate potential impacts of natural gas production on wildlife

BY BRYONY WARDELL

Can Colorado’s native plants and animals live in harmony with expanding energy production in the state?

Colorado State University and Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) are working on a comprehensive study of potential impacts of natural gas development on wildlife and their habitats, and are working to enhance mitigation measures to reduce any identified impacts.

XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, contributed nearly $5 million to support the ongoing research, which is being conducted on both private and public land in the Piceance Creek Basin in Western Colorado.

The impacts of energy production have been found to be typically species-specific and system-specific, creating an important need for customized investigations and greater collaboration between researchers, regulators and industry. The research is at the epicenter of wildlife issues in the state, and was the focus of a half-day plenary symposium at The Colorado Chapter of The Wildlife Society’s 2014 Annual Winter Meeting in Fort Collins earlier this month.

The studies are led by the Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology and Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship in CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources and in collaboration with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. XTO Energy’s funding has supported more than 20 researchers working on 12 projects, all aimed at improving natural resource management practices for wildlife and habitat in areas alongside natural gas production.

The partnered research focuses on improving natural resource management strategies for native mule deer and greater sage-grouse populations in particular as well as their habitats.

Preliminary results Preliminary results from a mule deer behavior study utilizing GPS collars indicates that deer avoid well pads during drilling, the most active phase of development.

Ongoing analyses will compare movements in different phases of natural gas development as well as habitat modifications to identify potential changes in mule deer behavior, and aid in development of mitigation measures.

Researchers also recorded 3,300 hours of acoustical data from microphone collars attached to mule deer, which provided detailed insight into the animals’ movement, feeding, and communication. The findings may impact land and noise management strategies to ensure deer can move swiftly and safely across the landscape.

Studies are also underway to test different habitat restoration methods to increase abundance of native shrubs.

Preliminary results from this study suggest that mechanical removal of Pinyon-Juniper overstory in combination with seeding can increase forage productivity for deer.

The optimal method for improving habitat for deer, small mammals, and song birds will become clearer over the next few years.

“CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources and Colorado Parks and Wildlife have worked collaboratively on energy development issues related to wildlife and their habitat since the early 1980s,” said Ken Wilson, head of CSU’s Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology. “Having science-based answers to these questions will help to improve sustainable management practices that benefit wildlife communities, and XTO Energy’s partnership is an incredible opportunity to collaborate on complex management challenges and ensure that wildlife always has a place at the table.”

Researchers and managers are continuing to collect and analyze data from their studies, and results will be finalized and incorporated into management practices over the next one to five years.

Environmental leadership that’s making a global impact on today’s toughest natural resource challenges.

Vice President of External Relations Tom Milligan Content Editor Kathy Phifer Division of External Relations Copy Editor Kate Jeracki Creative Services Barbara Dennis, Lisa Scmitz, CSU Photography

Contributing Writers/Warner College of Natural Resources Tony Phifer, Bryony Wardell, Brett Bruyere, David Anderson Dean, Warner College of Natural Resources Joyce Berry

colostate.edu

warnercnr.colostate.edu • (970) 491-4994 WCNR_Deans_Office@Mail.ColoState.EDU

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Colorado State University student Andrew Carlson does a snow stability test while on a field trip for Steven Fassnacht’s Seasonal Snow Environments class on Cameron Pass. William A. Cotton/CSU

Snow Pack: CSU students studying snow and avalanche conditions

BY EMILY CUBBAGE

After two dry winters, this year’s snowfall in Colorado is finally shaping up to be in line with historical averages.

Watershed science students in CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources are heading to the backcountry by ski and snowshoe this semester to survey the snow and measure snowpack properties along the Continental Divide.

The students are part of the Snow Hydrology Field Measurements course which teaches topics such as snow formation in the atmosphere, distribution on the land surface, avalanche dynamics, water supply issues, and streamflow generation.

“The course takes students into the mountains to study snow hydrology first-hand,” said Steven Fassnacht, associate professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability. “In addition to digging snow pits and touring ski area management locations, they conduct snow surveys that provide valuable data to research projects and organizations like the Natural Resource Conservation Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.”

While exploring the snowy mountains sounds like powder-filled fun, it is also serious science.

“It is important to study the snowpack in this region because it is essentially the lifeline for many desert cities,” said CSU sophomore Amanda Weber, who has been conducting undergraduate research analyzing snow data to examine warming trends at high elevations.

Measuring avalanche conditions Avalanches kill more people than any other natural disaster, and 2014 has already been a deadly year.

“Some research has shown that an increase in global average temperature will bring warmer temperatures to Colorado,” said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center and CSU alumnus. “This could create more wet avalanches and wet avalanches sooner in the spring.”

After heavy snowfall events in January and February, avalanche conditions were reported as dangerous and even “scary” in some areas.

“Researchers are continuing to improve methods and technologies to measure snowpacks and understand the future implications of those measurements,” said Fassnacht. “The knowledge our students are learning will be critical as they go on to manage ever-changing natural disasters and watersheds.”

@ColoradoStateU / coloradoan.com/colostateu

February 2014

Pingree Park celebrates 100 years as mountain campus

BY TONY PHIFER

At the end of a 16-mile dirt road, some 50 miles northwest of Fort Collins, lies one of Colorado’s iconic jewels: Pingree Park.

Marked by lush forests, pristine meadows and the rushing waters of the South Fork of the Cache la Poudre River, and framed by the snow-capped Mummy Range, Pingree Park is a place of awe-inspiring beauty and almost unlimited potential. And it’s one of Colorado State University’s prized possessions.

Pingree Park, which is cel- Photo illustration by CSU Creative Services ebrating its 100th birthday this year, is home to a 1,200-acre campus and conference Hands-on learning facility that serves as a unique setting for CSU’s rigorous Warner College of Natural Resources’s field courses pronatural resources field courses. Each year, Pingree welvide hands-on learning experiences in a broad spectrum of comes more than 5,000 visitors attending conferences, natural resources topics, including environmental field skills, events and educational programs like CSU’s EcoWeek. fish and wildlife biology, forestry, recreation and tourism, At 9,000 feet elevation and within sight of Rocky Mounrangeland ecology, and watershed science. tain National Park, the Comanche Peak Wilderness Area In the early days, summer sessions focused on forestry and Roosevelt National Forest, Pingree Park provides and lasted 10 weeks. Students studied at night using access to diverse ecosystems that make it an ideal living candles in a large communal classroom where they also laboratory for environmental education.The park is home ate and slept. to numerous wildlife species, including moose, deer, elk Today, Rodriguez is one of the more than 200 students each year from CSU’s Warner College who spend four weeks of their summer immersed in diverse ecological education at Pingree Park.

“The thing I love about Pingree is that it sort of encompasses you. It’s so breathtakingly beautiful,” said Joyce Berry, dean of Warner College. “Pingree is central to our comprehensive education programs, but what’s so special is that it leaves an imprint on students’ experience that they can then take into their professional lives.”

Four students share a rustic cabin room and have to live, work and study together throughout the session. There are plenty of laughs and tears as the students learn to cope in an environment where cell phones, TV and wireless connections do not exist.

Alpenglow lights the Mummy Range above the Colorado State University Pingree Park Campus. William A. Cotton/CSU It is a place to disconnect with the outside world and reconnect with yourself. and black bear, and endangered/threatened species like “It’s a very intense experience, with a full day of classes and the boreal toad and greenback cutthroat trout. lots of studying,” said Paul Doherty, associate professor in the “I had read about Pingree when I was looking at schools, Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology and but it was better than I ever imagined,” said Marina Rodridirector of field courses at Pingree. “The really cool thing is guez, a junior from San Antonio studying wildlife biology at watching these students become friends. When you talk to CSU. She has spent parts of the past two summers at Pingree. our alumni, they may not remember all of their courses but “I had never been any place like that before, and now I wish I they all remember Pingree.” could stay up there all the time. It’s an amazing place.”

WARNER COLLEGE OF

Natural Resources

Find Your Path!

Graduate from the most comprehensive natural resources college in the nation.

Offering 8 majors and 18 areas of concentration.

Camp continued from page 1.

CAMPers will lead a group of peers in a conservation project that they design.

The cost is for the program is $50 for all three sections.

Interested sixth through eighth graders can fill out an application to start the program in the upcoming school year on the ELC’s website at www.csuelc.org. There may also be spots available in the current semester for students who are interested in joining now. Parents can visit the E-CAMP webpage www.csuelc.org/e-camp , call (970) 491-1661, or email elc@csuelc.org for more information.

The CSU ELC is an outreach program of the Warner College of Natural Resources. The mission of the ELC is to connect people with nature by facilitating educational, inclusive, and safe experiences in the natural environment and to advance the field of environmental education through sound research and practice. The ELC offers programs for school groups, scout groups, church groups, families, and more. In addition, visitors to the ELC can walk its nature trails, located at 2400 S. County Road 9, from dawn until dusk seven days a week. Get outside and enjoy nature!

• Ecosystem Science and Sustainability • Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology • Forestry • Geology • Natural Resources Management • Natural Resources Recreation and Tourism • Rangeland Ecology • Watershed Science

warnercnr.colostate.edu/FindYourPath • (970) 491-4994 • WCNR_FindYourPath@mail.colostate.edu

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Howard Coopersmith’s hunt for buried treasure

BY BRYONY WARDELL

Not everyone can have a job that sounds like it was pulled from an Indiana Jones movie. But Fort Collins resident Howard Coopersmith has spent his career traveling the globe on a quest for the rarest and most amazing mineral in the world: diamonds.

Renowned as one of the world’s most respected diamond mining experts, Coopersmith is a Registered Professional Geologist who consults with explorers, miners, global engineering consultancies and the financial industry on diamond deposits and the diamond market.

An alumnus of Colorado State University’s Geology program in the Warner College of Natural ResourcHoward Coopersmith es, Coopersmith didn’t always know his passion for science would turn in to a career hunting for diamonds.

“I always read treasure hunting books as a child, and vividly remember Superman squeezing a piece of coal to make a diamond,” said Coopersmith. “It doesn’t really work that way in nature, but exploring for diamonds is like a treasure hunt.”

But treasure hunts are hard work. There are only a handful of advanced diamond projects worldwide, and only about 30 major diamond mines in all of history – making it a very challenging industry.

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KEEP HEAD TO TWO DECKS: Tiny Emerald Ash Borer big threat to state’s urban forests

BY RYAN LOCKWOOD

Emerald ash borer, an invasive insect responsible for the death of millions of ash trees in 21 states, now poses a serious threat to Colorado’s urban forests.

Fort Collins – where ash trees comprise approximately 15 percent to 20 percent of all shade trees – also is at risk.

EAB already has cost communities in the eastern U.S. billions of dollars to treat, remove and replace ash trees. EAB attacks only ash trees, but ash trees of all species and sizes are at risk.

What is EAB? EAB adults are small, metallic-green beetles that emerge in the spring and fly up to a half-mile or more to infest new trees. While the adults only nibble on ash foliage, the larvae feed on the inner bark, disrupting a tree’s ability to transport water and nutrients, eventually killing it.

Map courtesy Colorado Department of Agriculture

Right time, right place Originally from California, Coopersmith says his career path was just about being in the right time and place. In 1971, right out of high school, he wound up working in a biochemistry lab on the CSU campus. He started reading through the course catalog and thought a degree in geology would satisfy his cravings, not only for science, but also for being in the mountains and travel.

He was accepted and started his studies; the first local diamonds were discovered just north of Fort Collins by a fellow graduate student as Coopersmith was choosing his master’s thesis project in 1975.

No relationship to the CooperSmith Pub and Brewing establishment – he gets that question all the time Coppersmith’s proudest achievement is here in Colorado.

He is part of the CSU research team responsible for the discovery of Colorado Diamonds. He then went on to lead the commercial development of the Colorado Diamond deposits.

“This was the first time in the world that diamonds were branded by origin,” said Coopersmith. “People were so happy to buy a diamond from their beloved state of Colorado; I still have people come up to me to show off their Colorado Diamond. They are as proud as I am.”

Connecting conservation collaborators across the state of Colorado

BY BRYONY WARDELL

In communities across the state of Colorado, there are passionate people working across boundaries to confront environmental challenges that affect their livelihoods, the well-being of their communities and the landscapes they depend upon. In an effort to empower and amplify these efforts, Colorado State University’s Center for Collaborative Conservation is launching a new initiative to inventory, map, and engage different collaborative conservation organizations and resources.

The CCC is a center of CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources that bridges conservation research and partnerships at Colorado State University with people who do collaborative conservation in communities and local landscapes across Colorado, the American West and around the world.

CCC researchers identified more than 90 organizations in Colorado that are working collaboratively to balance conservation goals while supporting local economies.

Research teams are traveling across the state to meet with these organizations in their backyards and determine what their needs are, specific challenges they are facing, and who they are collaborating with.

The information gathered will be part of a multi-phased effort to produce integrated information maps that identify the biggest issues being addressed in the state, connect groups facing similar challenges, and foster partnerships where appropriate. The initiative is also aimed at better understanding the phenomenon of collaborative conservation as a form of environmental governance and providing new tools to enhance citizen science and inform policy makers, educators and students, researchers, and land managers.

“The CCC is working to shine a light on the incredible community of conservation innovators in our state,” said renowned conservation scientist Robin Reid, who serves as CCC director. “In surveying these communities, we have the benefit of hearing some of the most hopeful stories on the planet – and so it is exciting to build a network of organizations from different sectors but similar missions to strengthen the great work they already do, and accelerate the collective learning of how we can all do conservation better.”

The CCC hopes to complete its initial interviews by spring 2014 and conduct statewide surveys over the summer before launching an interactive resource site in 2015.

For more information, visit collaborativeconservation.org

February 2014

EAB presence, quarantine the regulated area and expand detection and education efforts.

The City of Fort Collins Forestry Division is preparing for EAB by updating the tree inventory, mapping the location of ash trees on city property and creating a response plan.

What can I do about EAB?

An Emerald Ash Borer in larva stage. Photo by Colorado State Forest Service

Native to Asia, EAB was first detected in the U.S. in 2002, most likely arriving in wood-packing materials. EAB was confirmed for the first time in Colorado last September, in Boulder. As a non-native insect, it has no natural predators to keep populations in check, and North American ash trees have no natural defenses against attack.

Infestations are difficult to detect, as the larvae reside under the bark, and ash trees may be infested for up to four years before signs of decline are visible.

What’s being done about EAB? An interagency EAB response plan already is in place to help protect Colorado’s ash trees. The Colorado Department of Agriculture, Colorado State Forest Service, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Colorado State University Extension, City of Boulder and other partners are taking actions to determine the extent of the

Distribution of EAB over long distances is only possible when people transport untreated ash. Never transport firewood or other untreated products from ash trees.

Some landowners may decide to seek preemptive treatment options for trees, such as removal, replacement or chemical treatments. Chemical treatments currently are not recommended for properties more than five miles from areas where EAB has been detected.

Signs of EAB infestation Homeowners are responsible for monitoring and treating ash trees on their properties, so it is important that they know the symptoms of EAB. These include: • Sparse leaves or upper branches • D-shaped exit holes 1/8-inch wide • New sprouts on the lower trunk or branches • Vertical splits in the bark • Winding, S-shaped tunnels under the bark • Increased woodpecker activity More information about EAB in Colorado can be obtained at www.eabcolorado.com. Information about insects and diseases that threaten Colorado trees is available on the Colorado State Forest Service website at csfs.colostate.edu.

Caring for Colorado’s Forests

The Colorado State Forest Service provides forestry assistance, education and outreach to Colorado landowners and communities to achieve stewardship of our diverse forest environments.

csfs.colostate.edu