Scenic areas near La Veta face massive cleanup, tourism impacts from windblown trees

HUERFANO COUNTY, Colorado (KRDO) -- Access to several popular campgrounds, lakes and trails are limited or closed for the season because of a significant number of trees blown down by strong winds this spring.

The timing of this situation isn't good for the Cuchara area on the county's southwestern side where the local economy relies heavily on summer tourism.

Steven Sanchez, of the U.S. Forest Service, said that trees have blown down on roads and trails across a 12-mile area on forest land and private property; another USFS spokesman, Alex Rudney, said that the affected area could be as large as 1,000 square miles.

The danger he said, is that many more trees have blown against each other and could fall at any time.

"That's why we're restricting access," he said. "Tourists may not be aware that a tree could fall on them, or on their cars, while they're camping or hiking."

Sanchez said that the Forest Service is still trying to determine the scope of the problem before developing a plan to remove as many of the trees as possible, and as quickly as possible -- and finding the money to pay for it.

"I haven't seen this degree of (tree) blowdown in the 11 years I've been here," he said. "We're not going to be able to remove them all. We're going to have to work with the state and the county on this."

Most of the fallen trees, Sanchez said, are spruce trees that have shallow root systems.

"Spruce forests protect each other from wind," he explained. "And you never know for sure which way the strongest gusts are blowing until they actually come. So when you get the string winds like we've had, it becomes sort of a domino effect -- or it's like taking half of your offense off your football team. It becomes more vulnerable and over time, you eventually lose the forest."

Sanchez said that thousands of blown trees also increases the wildfire risk, in this area east of the June 2018 Spring Creek Fire that destroyed around 140 homes.

"We also have to figure out what to do with these trees and if there's a market for them," he added. "Many of them already had beetle infestations."

Sanchez said that the Forest Service became aware of the situation several weeks ago, as it was reopening roads and trails for the season and inspecting trees for beetle infestations.

"We also were getting reports from search and rescue teams that there's a significant tree blowdown in the area," he said.

The situation has forced the closure of Blue Lake and Bear Lake campgrounds for the rest of the year; but the road to Blue Lake remains open.

According to a recent Facebook post, one trail had at least 50 fallen trees removed from it -- and that's just one of many trails in the area.