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The spruce beetle outbreak has torn through nearly 1 million acres of the Rio Grande and San Juan national forests, which, combined, total about 3.6 million acres. However, not all of that land is spruce forest.
Drought in recent years has weakened trees’ ability to fight off the invasive spruce beetle. On top of that, cold snaps in winter are less frequent, allowing more of the insects to survive.
It takes about a year to see the effects of a bark beetle infestation, local foresters say, so they won’t know how bad the spread was in summer 2020 until next year.
A fire west of Silverton last month has foresters concerned that persistent drought has created conditions for wildfires in high elevations at late times in the year.
Gretchen Fitzgerald, a forester with the San Juan National Forest, said a late frost in June killed nearly every tree species’ cone crop this year, which could affect natural regeneration in the forest.
Mitsch Bush
Republican Lauren Boebert, who stopped at the Wild Horse Saloon during her campaign, defeated Diane Mitsch Bush, a Democrat, in the race for the 3rd Congressional District.
People vote by dropping off their ballots Monday on the final day before Election Day in Denver.
Teresa Leger Fernandez won her bid to represent the 3rd Congressional District in New Mexico in Tuesday’s election.
Cortez City Hall is at 123 Roger Smith Ave.
