After the bark beetle epidemic: Forest Service and UW Ruckelhaus Institute offer open house on forest recovery

The public is invited to attend a local informal meeting offered this month by the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests and University of Wyoming’s Ruckelshaus Institute.

The open house highlights ecological dynamics as local forest service employees respond to and move beyond the bark beetle epidemic. Forest managers and their UW colleagues will provide insight on the past, present and future of the forests.

The meeting will run from 6 to 8 p.m., May 30 at the Platte Valley Community Center in Saratoga. The meeting with a presentation from UW researchers and U.S. Forest Service managers explaining the bark beetle outbreak. Presentations are followed by an informal open house, where the public is encouraged to meet Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest managers to learn more and ask questions about the local response to the outbreak and opportunities for future forest restoration.

Presenters include Dr. Dan Tinker and Dr. Brent Ewers, both from the University of Wyoming Botany Department. Tinker specializes in fire ecology and Ewers in plant physical ecology. They will speak on how the forests are responding to the bark beetle outbreak. In addition, officials from the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Region and Medicine Bow-Routt will speak about management strategies and how the agency fosters recovery of the forests.

This meetings provides an opportunity to meet forest managers in person and ask questions about the recovering forests. The meeting is free and open to the public.

For more information visit uwyo.edu/haub or call the Ruckelshaus Institute at 307-766-5080.

 

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