The Mountain Bark Beetle has killed over 1.5 million acres of Lodgepole pine trees in Colorado and is continuing in a rapid pace. While at a small scale this is a natural process it has been made into a disaster due in large part to global warming.
This loss of trees is a major problem because there are millions fewer trees we have to soak up Carbon Dioxide, and the rotting dead trees give off Methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more destructive than CO2.
My plan is to use any prize money to buy 20,000 lodgepole pine saplings for planting around the city of Steamboat Springs. The next step is to organize a citywide tree-planting day, bringing together not only members of the community but schoolchildren as well. The City of Steamboat Springs has offered to provide free bus shuttles to and from the planting zones and the Forest service will clear the land of potential hazards. Through this program we would be able to eliminate 13 tons of carbon per year, but hopefully this tree planting can garner enough publicity to inspire other towns around Colorado to begin their own planting programs.
Bark beetle devastation is an everyday thought of many Coloradoans but by empowering people to take a small step and plant a tree we are showing them that not only can we beautify the areas around us but also we can make a real difference in the fight against global warming.