Mountainous forests in the western United States have faced a growing epidemic of beetle kill since the 1990s, including the forests in the Sierra Madre mountain range in California and Wyoming’s own Medicine Bow National Forest.
The Landscape and Vegetation Analysis project, LaVa, is aiming to manage and study the altered land and vegetation to help protect Medicine Bow National Forest for future generations, especially those who live in Laramie. Beetle kill is the term used to refer to all of the trees that have died due to beetle activity.
“The [proposed action] basically entails 95,000 acres of what we call standard initiation treatment, which essentially is the equivalent of a clear-cut where you remove all vegetation from an area,” Project leader of the LaVa project Melissa Martin said. “Then we have 165,000 of intermediate treatment and that is where you would go in and remove the dead overstory, but leave the remaining vegetation underneath to replace the forest. Then we have another category where we have 100,000 acres of areas where we would do prescribed burning, use hand tools in more sensitive areas, or do mastication of vegetation to enhance wildlife habitat.”
The project has been conferring with the Albany County Board of Commissioners as a partner of the LaVa project and announces information to the people of Laramie. Albany County Commissioner Tim Chesnut recognizes the importance of managing the land that the beetle kill has ravaged.
“The forest is in bad shape,” Chesnut said. “We have to take some measures to make it healthy again.”
The LaVa project was proposed in 2017 in order to help create a stronger ecosystem in Medicine Bow National Forest and the forests in the Sierra Madres in California. One of the purposes of this project is to better the forest’s resiliency in face of another ecological disaster, whether that be another pine beetle emergence or a random out-of-control wildfire. To do this, however, approximately 360,000 total acres of forest space would have to be treated. Treating the acres includes options of prescribed burning and clearing.
It is speculated that the LaVa project will also positively impact the overall ecosystem of the forest, especially for preventing possible mishaps and disasters in the forest.
Maggie Ericson, an animal science major at UW, believes that the suggested actions of prescribed burning and clearing will be beneficial for the areas affected by beetle kill.
“Dead trees become a serious hazard with their likelihood of falling,” Ericson said. “Cutting the dead trees is very important as it reduces the falling hazards of the trees and it lowers the amount of fuel for wildfires.”
Aside from the environmental impacts that the project is expected to have, the LaVa project may also help stimulate other parts of Wyoming life, such as the economy. According to Chesnut, Laramie District Ranger Frank Romero came in and clarified certain aspects of the project. One of the topics mentioned was how much of the wood was going to be clear-cut and how much of the wood was going to be used in lumber sales.
“Hopefully, the timber sales can help with the taxes and some of it helps with jobs,” Chesnut said.
