Do outbreaks of mountain pine beetles and other forest insects increase the risk of severe wildfires?
No. The assumed link between insect outbreaks and forest fires is not well supported, “and may in fact be incorrect or so small an effect as to be inconsequential for many or most of the forests in Colorado,” the report states. When dense forests burn, they usually succumb to “crown fires,” which devour the limbs and needles of standing trees with such rapidity and ferocity that they can be nearly impossible to control. Crown fires are not finicky; they consume fuel, dead or alive. “Tree-killing insects do not really increase the amount of fuels in a forest stand; what they do is shift some of the live fuels into the dead-fuel category,” the synthesis report states. “Both live and dead fuels can carry fire under very dry weather conditions.” • Do large swaths of insect infestation and dead trees mean that a forest is “unhealthy”? No. The term “forest health” is ambiguous, the authors note. “From a purely ecological standpoint, dead and dying trees do not necessarily represent poor ‘for
