Colorado Statewide Forest Resource Assessment

NATIONAL THEME: Conserve Working Forest LandsWorking forest lands conservation refers to the many ways landowners mightuse and manage their land to serve economic, environmental and socialgoals. All forests “work” by providing wildlife habitat, clean air, clean water,beautiful surroundings, etc., but a “working forest” is one that is activelymanaged using a forest stewardship/management plan as the roadmap orguide to provide sustainable outputs of forest products and revenue to theforest owner, while securing the health and integrity of wildlife habitat, waterresources, recreation opportunities, aesthetic and other intrinsic values acrossthe landscape. Working forest lands provide benefi ts to the public and theenvironment with a sustainable supply of forest products and jobs for ruralcommunities, while conserving and enhancing other values.One-third of Colorado’s forests are owned and managed by private citizens.Although they are not part of the public domain, these forests providetremendous benefi ts to people and the environment alike. Despite theirrecognized value, private forests in Colorado and across the nation areunder tremendous pressure from housing development and conversion tonon-forest uses. The USFS estimates that 1 million acres of private forestlandare converted to developed uses every year (Stein 2005). That means by2030, an estimated 22 million acres of the nation’s productive forestlandcould be lost. This increased development in forested landscapes not onlyreduces the environmental and public benefi ts they provide; it also increasesthe number of communities at risk from wildfi re and the related public cost ofwildfi re protection.Colorado has an estimated 186,000 private forest landowners, all of whom areconsidered non-industrial. Although some landowners manage their forestlands to produce timber and other wood products, the majority of privateforest owners emphasize recreation, wildlife and scenery in their managementplans. The CSFS offers a number of technical and fi nancial assistanceprograms, including conservation easements and management incentives,to encourage these landowners to retain and sustainably manage their landsas working forests. Public policymakers likely will need to continue seekinginnovative ways, such as markets for ecosystem services and increasedavailability of federal conservation incentive programs, to make it botheconomically viable and attractive for private landowners to retain their land asforests.Change in Degree of Human Modification 2000 – 2030To conduct the overlay analysis, we converted the estimated housingdensity at each location into two measures of impact on wildlife habitat thatcapture the estimated amount of human modifi cation of habitat by humandevelopment. The fi rst is the amount of land cover that is modifi ed byhumans, or human modifi cation of cover (HMc). This is an estimate of thevisible “footprint” or spatial impact of development that causes modifi cationto land-cover types, including the areas in and around structures and roads.This measure quantifi es modifi cations associated with the housing unit andthe general transportation and utility infrastructure necessary for residentialdevelopment. As such, it provides a general estimate of the effects of housingdensity and roads (and utility corridors, etc.).21