While driving between Laramie and Cheyenne on I-80 there sprouts a tree defiant of Wyoming's high winds and often times lack of rain.  Lone Tree, appearing to grow with out need for soil, emerges out of a split rock.  I ask, is this somekind of Superman/Wonderwomen tree?  No, it's just a little Wyoming attitude.

A few weeks ago Firewise Forest Management and Z4 Energy Systems, a renewable energy R&D company also of Laramie, WY, teamed up with WYDOT and USDA to protect Lone Tree.  The tree was sprayed to protect it from the Mountain Pine Beetle.  The area around Vedauvoo has been less hard hit by the beetle than some parts of Wyoming such as the Medicine Bow National Forest but red needles are becoming apparent in the recreation area.  

Check out the article from www.wheaterville.com at:

http://www.wheaterville.com/ViewStory.aspx?g=f395a03a-7849-46b4-9974-a5587d96dbe4

Or from the Casper Star-Tribune at: 

http://www.trib.com/articles/2008/07/12/news/wyoming/6401c2aa62c6aba88725748300809809.txt

The Colorado State Legislation has passed several bills to help lessen the effects of the Mountain Pine Beetle. 

House Bill 08-1110 will prove to be helpful to many landowners.  It is described by the digest of bills focusing on taxation for 2008 as follows "...income tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2009, but prior to January 1, 2014, allows an income tax deduction for a landowner who owns private land as a natural person and not an entity and who performs wildfire mitigation measures on the land in a wild land-urban interface area. Specifies that the amount of the deduction allowed is 50% of the amount of the landowner's costs incurred in performing the wildfire mitigation measures subject to a maximum limit of the lesser of $2,500 or the amount of the landowner's taxable income." (http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/olls/digest2008a/TAXATION.htm)

Defensible space creation and fire mitigation work performed by Firewise Forest Management in Colorado will be a deduction for landowners during next years state income tax cycle.  A basic receipt for wildfire mitigation services from us will suffice for the deduction.   

What a day.  Hail, wind, snow, thunder, lighting, and even a tornado.  We had driven down to Glacier View Meadows in Colorado to mark some trees and complete several consultations when we heard about the tornado.  So we drove back to Wyoming incase people needed help.  We only saw one person with a tree on their roof and most others only had uprooted trees, which is far better than a tree in the bathroom.  Yikes.  I hope Winsor in Colorado is holding up okay as we heard in the reports they were hit pretty hard.  One gal in Laramie that we spray for called us to remove a huge Douglas Fir that had uprooted and had landed close to her porch, kind of like it was asking to come inside away from the hail, lightening and wind.  So here are a couple of pictures of Firewise removing the Douglas Fir and having some good fun teasing the tractor driver, Jeff the owner of the company.  Give us a shout if you need trees removed after the tornado.

Around here in Southern Wyoming and Northern Colorado it feels like we just now are crawling out of the cave some like to call winter.  I know all of you are busy planting gardens, mowing the lawn and shipping the kids away to summer camp...but wait!  July 1st is coming faster than you think!  The flight of the Mountain Pine Beetles (that sounds like the title to a horror movie...) happens during the early part of July so if you were thinking about spraying your trees now is a good time to contact us.

Depending on the elevation the beetles hatch - leave the trees they infected last year and infect new trees - around July 1st so all trees that are going to be protected by pesticide this summer must be done prior to that date.  Lower elevations must spray their trees for protection earlier than July 1st but in our elevations July 1st is a safe estimate to be able to spray trees and protect them.  Definitely some elevations can spray after July 1st but at least by July 15th if you live in higher elevations.  In epidemic levels of Mountain Pine Beetle infestations some experts toss around the number of one infested tree of beetles can produce enough new beetles to infest 10 new trees the next year. 

It is also spring cleaning time too.  Time to cut and remove those dead trees!  In the local hiking trail around Laramie there was a big beetle infested tree that had blown over during the winter.  I put a picture of it at the beginning of this post.  Those dead trees can come down because after they die they begin to rot and are not structurally sound.  Better yet, let us cut most of the tree down so it isn't dangerous and then carve a chainsaw bear into the stump!  

Happy Spring and Memorial Day!