Kevin Duda of the Rio Grande National Forest named CSFS Partner of the Year

Although spruce beetle salvage operations are winding down, Duda faces new challenges in managing the RGNF’s remaining timber resources.

Much of the forest’s remaining commercially viable timber is found in aspen and mixed-conifer stands. But these forests are also under pressure. Duda is seeing significant mortality among Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine, with Douglas-fir beetle and mountain pine beetle outbreaks threatening additional mature trees.

Rather than viewing these challenges as insurmountable, Duda sees opportunities to rethink how forests are managed.

“For every challenge, there is an equal opportunity to do something meaningful, improve forest health and support our communities’ livelihoods,” Duda said.

Insects, disease, wildfire and changing environmental conditions create different management challenges across the forest. Duda believes responding effectively requires greater flexibility.

“If we start to see beetle activity in part of the forest, we need to salvage and sanitize the area more quickly to reduce the potential for bark beetle spread,” Duda said.

To help forest managers respond more quickly to changing conditions, Duda is pursuing a conditions-based environmental assessment. Under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the USFS must evaluate the potential environmental effects of proposed major federal actions before making land management decisions. Traditionally, these analyses often focus on specific treatments within defined project areas. The conditions-based approach would evaluate potential treatments based on defined environmental conditions, giving managers more flexibility while maintaining environmental review requirements.

Through GNA, CSFS is helping develop the Rio Grande Mixed-Conifer Active Forest Management project in collaboration with the USFS and CSU’s Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands.

Duda recognizes that forest management decisions involve tradeoffs and uncertainty. But he believes the risks of inaction must also be considered.

“We might not get things perfect, but that’s better than having tried nothing at all,” Duda said. “From my perspective, not taking action is a riskier decision, especially when we consider the health of our forest today.”

As forest conditions continue to change, Duda’s commitment to finding solutions and working across agency boundaries helps the CSFS and USFS prepare for what comes next.

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