From his seat in a small plane, Dan West can spot what most people miss as he surveys the trees across Colorado’s 24 million forested acres. Every summer for the past 11 years, the entomologist for Colorado State Forest Service has traced the patchwork of colors looking for clues of stress, like drought and beetle kill.
And this year, the view in some places is a little brown around the edges, even as some pockets of the state are rendered in vibrant yellow and orange.
A dismal snowpack followed by a warm spring with short bursts of precipitation put the aspens and other trees in distress, dimming the glow of Colorado’s seasonal color show in many parts of the state.
“It’s no different than your house plant. If you didn’t water your house plant, the edges of the leaves will start to turn brown and eventually the interior of that leaf will kind of turn a little bit yellow and that’s because it doesn’t have enough resources to keep that chlorophyll getting back into the leaf,” West said. “The same thing happens in aspens when we’re in these drought conditions.”
The aerial surveys offer a clearer picture of how Colorado’s trees are faring, plus a data-driven forecast for one of the state’s most beloved seasons.
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