We hope you’ll consider taking 3 minutes to please contact Colorado Governor Jared Polis at (303) 866-2471 or Governorpolis@state.co.us to ask that he appoint independent scientists (without financial conflicts of interest) and conservationists (who don’t promote public lands extraction) to the “Ponderosa Mountain Pine Beetle Task Force.”

The Colorado Department of Natural Resources’ and Gov. Jared Polis’ “Ponderosa Mountain Pine Beetle Task Force”—created in December in reaction to the latest natural wave of native mountain pine beetles in Front Range forests—consists almost entirely of representatives from governments, agencies, industries, and NGOs that carry out and/or promote scientifically-contested “wildfire fuel reduction” logging on public lands.

Department of Natural Resources’ claim that the latest natural wave of native mountain pine beetle in Front Range forests will increase wildfire threats to communities and forests has long been disproven by the consensus of peer-reviewed—and even government agency—science. 

This includes landmark studies from CU Boulder and Colorado State University scientists who emerged as some of the world’s leading experts on the interplay between beetles, forests, and wildfire after Colorado’s last mountain pine beetle wave peaked in 2010. 

What’s more, native insects play an essential role in western forest ecosystems. The mountain pine beetle kills some trees to create dead snags crucial for wildlife habitat and long-term carbon storage, eventually returning nutrients to the soil while opening the forest canopy to new tree growth.

Please contact Colorado Governor Jared Polis today at (303) 866-2471 or Governorpolis@state.co.us with your own message or simply: “Please appoint independent scientists without financial conflicts of interest and conservationists who don’t promote public lands extraction to the ‘Ponderosa Mountain Pine Beetle Task Force.’”