Colorado Statewide Forest Resource Assessment

Windbreaks, shelterbelts and their renovation are identifi ed as priorityresource concerns by several local work groups that help determinedistribution of Environmental Quality Incentives Program funds on the plains.Most of the trees and shrubs planted for conservation purposes on theColorado plains have come from the Colorado State Forest Service Nurseryin Fort Collins. The CSFS Nursery was established in 1957 to meet thetree/shrub seedling needs of the Soil Bank Program. While distributingapproximately 2 million seedlings each year, this nursery has capacity toproduce 4.5 million seedlings annually. Roughly 5,000 landowners who owntwo or more acres purchase these seedlings on an annual basis. Privatenurseries also provide seedlings for conservation purposes.Threats to these small forests include the very weather extremes from whichmany were designed to provide protection. High winds, heavy snows andextreme temperature shifts often damage the trees. Invasive pests suchas the gypsy moth and emerald ash borer have the potential to impactthese plantings just as they do in community forests. Wildfi re often burnsconservation plantings. Sustaining these forests requires constant vigilance,maintenance and renovation so that they will continue to provide theenvironmental services needed by plains dwellers.Data is needed to: assess opportunities for conservation tree and shrubplanting; determine where aging conservation plantings require renovation;develop an inventory of existing plantings at a scale fi ner than the statewidelevel.Ownership of Colorado’s ForestsDecisions regarding the management, use and condition of Colorado’sforests are complicated by a mosaic of public and private ownerships rangingin size from a single acre to several million acres. Each entity brings with it aunique set of philosophies, directives and regulations that further infl uence thedecisions made about their particular part of the forest, as well as the optionsavail able to surrounding landowners.Nearly 68 percent of Colorado’s forests are in federal ownership; the primaryland manager is the USFS with 47 percent or 11.3 million acres. Nearly threequartersof the state’s high-elevation species such as spruce-fi r, lodgepolepine and aspen are located on USFS lands. The BLM oversees an additional17 percent or 4.2 million acres, primarily in the state’s lower elevationpiñon-juniper and oak shrubland forests. The National Park Service hasresponsibility for 380,925 acres or 2 percent of Colorado’s forests; the majorityof these lands are within the borders of Rocky Mountain National Park.Despite this signifi cant federal presence, private landowners also playan important role in the stewardship of Colorado’s forest resources.Approximately 186,000 private landowners control 30 percent or 7.1 millionacres of the state’s forested landscapes. Although the majority of these landsare in lower elevations, private landowners are represented in all of Colorado’sforest types, including a notable portion of aspen and mixed-conifer forests.14