Forest Health & Fire Mitigation

Our forests are a valuable resource for Mountain Village. The Town's Planning & Forestry Department is responsible for reviewing all proposed development within town limits to ensure compliance with all fire mitigation and forest health requirements.

Wildfire Mitigation

Property owners should be aware of the following three perspectives when it comes to fire mitigation on their property:

New construction development is required to have a wildfire mitigation plan as outlined by the Community Development Code. (This activity is not eligible for Defensive Space Incentive Program funding.)
Mountain Village encourages property owners to voluntarily implement the CDC wildfire mitigation standards (zone 1, 2 and 3 standards - of the CDC). Implementation of these standards may help property owners to reduce their insurance costs.
For existing properties, please visit our defensible space incentive webpage to learn about financial incentives for creating defensible space around your home.
To view the latest standards for defensive space wildfire mitigation, please click here.

Our forester is available for a free consultation on forest health, defensible space, hazard trees and forest management. Contact our staff forester Rodney Walters at or call (970) 369-8603.

To learn about our work in 2024, please watch this video below:

Forest Health Initiatives

Aspen Sapling Protection

To protect the aspen saplings, five-foot-tall, light blue grow tubes and protective wire cages are being installed over small aspen trees to protect them until they become tall enough not to be browsed by the elk herd.

Aspen stands can be killed by deer and elk browsing. Protecting the saplings from browse can ensure that aspen stands will be able to regenerate and continue to provide tree benefits in the future.

Please leave them be if you see them throughout Mountain Village.

MCH Packets

If you see a little green packet attached to a tree or stump, this is an MCH packet to repel Douglas fir beetles, and it is supposed to be there. A Douglas fir beetle outbreak occurring down the valley and near Mountain Village has begun affecting Douglas fir trees in Mountain Village.

Douglas fir beetles are a native insect to the Colorado Rocky Mountains and, under normal conditions, generally attack only stressed trees. Under outbreak conditions, however, Douglas fir beetles can indiscriminately attack and kill entire stands of Douglas fir trees. Mountain Village installs MCH packets (an anti-aggregating pheromone) to dissuade beetles from attacking or at least slow the attack rate and preserve the younger Douglas fir trees in Mountain Village. Although MCH packets will not protect all the Douglas fir trees in Mountain Village, the pheromones will help reduce the beetle pressure. The goal is to retain Douglas fir trees on the landscape by keeping enough Douglas fir trees around to reproduce and regenerate once the outbreak has passed.

Although a bit smelly, the MCH packets are a non-toxic way to prevent tree deaths. These packets are like hanging a no vacancy sign on the trees, which tells the beetles that the tree is already occupied and to move on. This confuses the beetles and causes them to fly around, exhaust their energy, and become more vulnerable to predation and mortalities. In this way, MCH packets help to protect Douglas fir trees, especially the smaller Douglas fir trees that are more resilient and less likely to be attacked.

North Boundary, Community-Scale Shaded Fuel Break

North Boundary, Community Scale Shaded Fuel Break project area consists of approximately 100 acres along the top of the steep slope from the Telluride Valley Floor. This shaded fuel break project aims to reduce wildfire intensity, slow the rate of wildfire spread and help protect egress routes, homes, and businesses. The lighter-colored orange areas represent the initial stages of the shaded fuel break area, where work will occur between 2025 and 2028.

The San Miguel County Community Wildfire Protection Plan listed the steep slope between the Telluride Valley Floor and the Town of Mountain Village as a high-risk area that needs to be treated to promote wildfire mitigation. After analyses on the Colorado Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal (COWRAP), approximately 100 acres were strategically selected as a shaded fuel break area. Removal of standing dead and down fuels in conjunction with selective thinning of saplings and budworm-damaged understory ladder fuels with the goals of:

Goals

Reduce potential fire intensity and severity to make fire more controllable in the treatment area.
Promote regeneration and continuance of aspen cover.
Reduce potential fire intensity and severity to make fire more controllable in the treatment area.
Improve forest health conditions at the individual tree and stand scales.

This fuels reduction and forest health work will make these forest stands more resilient, reduce potential fire intensity and severity, encourage aspen recruitment, and improve forest stand health and vigor. The project will improve the recreational experience along the Meadows, Jurassic and Stegosaurus trails, improve forest health and reduce wildfire risks.

San Miguel County 2019 Forest Assessment

Dr. Jason Sibold has been monitoring and pondering the forest ecology of the Upper San Miguel River Watershed for a decade. Watch Dr. Sibold's 35-minute 2019 update presentation to learn more about the forests and climate of our upper watershed.

Helpful Websites

Trees & Insects

In the dropdown boxes below, you can learn about common tree and insect issues affecting forests in and around Mountain Village.

Sudden Aspen Decline

A number of areas, especially along Mountain Village Boulevard, are showing signs of sudden aspen decline. No one knows for sure what causes this, but the main culprit seems to be the droughts of 2000-2005 and 2017-2018. Severe droughts appear to predispose aspens to secondary agents such as insects and diseases.

Secondary agents, such as various insects and diseases that normally do not kill aspen trees, may now be causing tree mortality. To combat this problem, we have removed dead and dying aspens on Mountain Village's open space in the hope that we can stimulate regeneration before the root systems die.

Western Spruce Budworm

Classified as the most widely distributed and destructive forest defoliator in the West, the western spruce budworm prefers to infest Douglas fir and white fir and occasionally will attack different species of spruce if their other food sources are depleted. We first detected budworms in Mountain Village during the summer of 2008. Since then, the infestation has spread throughout the region. Budworms can eat all the new growth produced by host trees, and in turn, this defoliation immediately affects the trees’ growth. This may mean a loss of aesthetic value as the branch tips turn brown and die. Additionally, twigs, branches or entire tops of trees may be killed by this insect. Although trees may survive a few years of an outbreak without mortality, they become more susceptible to disease and insect infestation, especially bark beetle.

Complete control of western spruce budworm is not possible, desirable or necessary. This insect has many natural enemies that help control populations, including parasitic wasps and flies as well as predators like birds and spiders. Outbreak severity can be reduced over the long term by forest management practices that favor young, vigorous, even-aged stands. Thinning to reduce stand density can also help reduce outbreak severity.

For the homeowner who has high-value trees on their property, there are a few things that can be done. Decreasing competition around prized trees, fertilizing and watering around the drip line (out at the edge of the canopy), and the use of insecticides can all help maintain tree vigor. Registered insecticides for control of western spruce budworm are Bacillus thuringiensis, Sevin, Dursban and Tempo 2. Insecticides should be applied in the spring just as buds begin to open; exact timing depends on temperature and elevation.

Douglas Fir Beetle

Douglas fir beetle epidemics are usually short-lived. The outbreaks are triggered by disturbances such as avalanches, wind throw, and defoliation (such as spruce budworm defoliation). The beetle populations expand rapidly in the disturbance of weakened trees and can kill trees in groups of 100 or more. Outbreaks typically last 2-4 years but can be prolonged during times of drought. Attacked trees will turn yellow, then orange, then reddish brown. Once a tree has begun changing color, it is too late to save the tree. Stand susceptibility is reduced by the thinning of highly susceptible trees (damaged large mature and over-mature Douglas fir trees) and promoting growing conditions that encourage young and sapling Douglas fir tree growth.

NWCG Standards for Mitigation in the Wildland Urban Interface Download PDF Sudden Aspen Decline SAD FAQs Download PDF Western Spruce Budworm Management Factsheet Download PDF Douglas Fir Beetle Quick Guide Download PDF Relative Tolerance of Selected Species to Development Impacts Download PDF