Colorado
Colorado mountain pine beetle task force getting to work as another outbreak looms
Members of Colorado’s task force on the Front Range pine beetle infestation met at Chief Hosa Lodge on Wednesday morning amid worries about the expected wide-ranging damage that hangs over hundreds of thousands of acres of Colorado forests.
“This is a wicked problem,” said John Sanderson, director of the Center for Collaborative Conservation.
He outlined some of the goals for local and state leaders: “Who’s going to do what by when?”
Colorado has about 4.2 million acres of pine forest. Approximately 3.4 million acres were affected by the last pine beetle outbreak, which began in the 1990s and faded in 2013. That was primarily in lodgepole pine.
There are 800,000 acres along the Front Range at risk this time, said the Colorado Forest Service’s state entomologist, Dan West. And this time, the pine beetle is showing up in ponderosa pine.
“If you were along the Front Range in 2013, we had the 100-year rain event, or the huge rain event, along the Front Range. And that kind of stopped the beetle in its tracks and allowed these trees to be able to draw up enough resources and start to defend themselves,” said West.
That’s not the case this time, he explained. Climate change has led to warmer temperatures, and Colorado experienced a warm, dry winter.
“Given the alignment with the precipitation, temperature, everything we’re sitting at right now, we will for sure see an increase in intensity and the footprint of the mountain pine beetle moving forward,” he explained.
While the acreage at risk may seem smaller, there is potential for very costly damage from the current outbreak. Forests along the Front Range have faced firefighting efforts for 100 years or more, but the affected area may be at greater risk, experts say.
“We’ve got property, life, egress, all the utilities, everything we’ve got along the Front Range that we’ve been protecting. But most of the ponderosa pine in these lower elevation forests are really at-risk because they’ve been there with not much disturbance, and of course, the lack of fire, which creates the mosaic of species and age diversity. And so what we’ve really seen is this kind of ever-increasing larger fuel load and or trees that are along the Front Range, so that’s in large part why I’m more worried about this one than I was in the past,” said West.
“There’s a couple real bad infestations, one along I-70. There’s more in Pine and Conifer and a little bit in between,” explained Brad Huddleston, owner and certified arborist with Splintered Forest Tree Service of Evergreen. On Wednesday, they were working to protect trees in the Ruby Ranch area.
Injecting pesticide into trees helps it uptake into the tree’s vascular system, which can save some trees and protect them longer than an external application, Huddleston explained. He pointed out a goopy pitch on the tree’s exterior as evidence of an attempted invasion. When a tree is stronger, he says it will be better able to resist the infestation. A tree with only a few visible pitch tubes still has a chance to survive.
“That’s what the grant program is trying to address, is trying to get the currently infested trees,” he explained.
That program in Jefferson County is the Mountain Pine Beetle Landowner Assistance Program. It started only a month ago, with $500,000 set aside for homeowners who contract work to fight the pine beetle. Homeowners can apply for reimbursement of 50% of the cost of contracted mitigation services, with priority going to properties of less than 40 acres.
After one month, the program is already planning to pay out $183,000 of that money after receiving 47 applications.
Evergreen resident Scott Porter has been doing work himself after pine beetles wiped out dozens of trees on his property.
“We started having trees die this summer,” he said. “When a tree died, we’d cut it down, and we probably felled close to about 70 trees.”
He bought pheromone packs and a tree injection system for pesticides.
“We have ten acres, and I’ve probably treated over a hundred trees that have not yet been killed by the beetles,” said Porter.
There could be some rough years ahead. Porter said he hopes he’s winning the battle.
A year after being diagnosed with bladder cancer, Deion Sanders insists he’s in good health.
Sanders was very hands-on during Colorado’s spring scrimmage on Saturday, being seen all over the gridiron at Folsom Field.
“Everybody inside these doors can tell you, it’s different when I’m here,” Sanders told reporters, according to the Associated Press. “I’m going to take my breaks, like every other coach, but I love to be here.”
Sanders, who recently departed from the team while dealing with blood clots, repeatedly told reporters “I’m good, I’m good,” when asked about his health.
The main task on Sanders’ mind for the Buffaloes is to have a rebound season this fall, after posting a disappointing 3-9 record in 2025.
“We’re going to make it better,” Sanders said. “We already have with the staff as well as the players that are inside the locker room. I love it. I love that everyday grind of it.
“Things definitely are, I’m not going to say 100%, but things are tremendously better on the field as well with the staff.”
Sanders revamped his coaching staff going into next season, adding offensive coordinator Brennan Marion and Chris Marve to lead the defense.
“We’ve got some good things going on,” Sanders said. “You can see the fruit thereof.”
Going forward this spring, Sanders said he was open to scrimmaging another team, but admitted teams do not value offseason games as much anymore.
“No one’s valuing spring anymore,” he said. “You’ve got several major colleges not even having spring games. The only thing that will bring that back is we compete against another school. I’ve been saying that for the last several years.
“Glad I didn’t say what I was thinking. But I can’t be the first one to say it. That’s what’s needed. … People get tired of the same old, same old, at a certain point. You want more.”
This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
Hundreds of Republican Party faithful are gathering in Pueblo starting today to help pick the party’s primary candidates.
There are two routes to the primary ballot. One is by submitting signatures, which a number of Republican candidates have done, including state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, who’s running for governor, as well as incumbent GOP congressional Reps. Jeff Crank, Gabe Evans and Jeff Hurd.
The second is by making a pitch to the delegates assembled in an auditorium at Colorado State University and winning the support of at least 30% of them. GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert is going through this route for her place on the ballot.
Republicans gather on Friday to pick congressional candidates, and at least one nomination from the floor is expected. Former state Rep. Ron Hanks, will try to make a last-minute play for the primary ballot in the 3rd Congressional District, hoping to set up a rematch against Hurd, who defeated him in the primary two years ago. Hurd was originally facing a challenge from Republican Hope Scheppelman, but she dropped out of the primary last month, in a surprise move originally announced by President Donald Trump.
On Saturday, GOP delegates will select primary candidates for statewide races. This year all major state-wide offices are open and there is a race for U.S. Senate.
More than a dozen Republicans have filed paperwork to run for governor, including state Rep. Scott Bottoms, combat veteran Joshua Griffin, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell, Air Force veteran Maria Orms and financial coach Jason Clark. Republican Victor Marx, founder of the All Things Possible ministry, submitted petitions and is also expected at the Assembly, where he’ll need to get 10% of the vote to make it onto the ballot.
There are four candidates running for Secretary of State: JJ McKinzie, Ross Taraborelli, James Wiley and Cory Parella.
Two Republicans are running to be eventual nominee for Attorney General: Shawn Bennett and Conner Pennington.
Only Fremont County Commissioner Kevin Grantham has filed to run for State Treasurer.
The other statewide race delegates will get to weigh in on is the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate. Among the candidates looking for at least 30% of delegate support are Janak Joshi, George Markert, Dathan Jones, Mark Baisley, and Sean Pond.
This gathering will also mark the end of Brita Horn’s rocky tenure as party chair. After facing a no-confidence vote in early-March, she said she would step down after the state assembly.
Republicans held their last state assembly in Pueblo. It was also the site of this year’s Democratic state assembly, two weeks earlier.
The Colorado primary will be held on June 30.
On Friday, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 announced that it has reached a tentative agreement with the JBS meat processing plant in Northern Colorado.
The union held a three-week strike beginning in March over what it called unfair labor practices and low wages. The company and the labor union, which represents approximately 3,800 workers, announced that workers would return to work on Tuesday without a new agreement or change to JBS’s offer.
The new agreement comes after UFCW Local 7 says parties returned to the bargaining table for two days of negotiations.
In a statement to CBS Colorado, JBS confirmed it has reached a tentative agreement with the union.
The agreement will be presented to the membership for a ratification vote on Sunday.
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