GNA Spotlight - Colorado, February 2026
Submitted by Everitt Merritt, Manager of Program Delivery, Colorado State Forest Service
Widespread mortality from spruce beetles and sudden aspen decline affects roughly 40% of spruce and aspen stands on the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests (GMUG) in western Colorado. Faced with rapidly changing forest conditions, the Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS) has partnered with the USDA Forest Service (Forest Service) to implement large-scale forest treatments on the GMUG to enhance forest health, reduce fuels, and protect critical watersheds that drain into the Colorado River, which supplies water to 40 million downstream users.
Under the Good Neighbor Authority (GNA), the CSFS and Forest Service are implementing the Bald GNA Timber Sale on the Paonia Ranger District of the GMUG near the town of Crawford. The project, covering 1,284 acres of high-elevation spruce-fir forests, exemplifies Shared Stewardship on federal lands where state and federal priorities overlap, while advancing the Forest Service National Active Management Strategy.
Close coordination between the CSFS Montrose Field Office and Forest Service staff at the district and forest levels enables efficient implementation, reinforcing a strong working relationship and providing a repeatable model for future GNA projects in Colorado. Using state contracting and project management capacity, as well as efficiencies such as virtual boundaries, the project is increasing the pace of implementation, supporting the local forest products industry, and promoting resilient spruce-fir forests.
The Bald GNA Timber Sale sold approximately 50,000 tons of spruce-fir sawlogs to Montrose Forest Products. Sale revenue will be used for reforestation, slash management, road maintenance, and the development of future resilience projects on the GMUG.
In federal fiscal year 2025, CSFS GNA sales accounted for approximately 65% of all timber volume sold across the GMUG, and nearly 1/3 of Forest Service volume sold across Colorado, demonstrating how state-federal coordination expands accomplishment levels and accomplishes mutual priorities.
Research for Adaptive Management
The Bald GNA Timber Sale is occurring under the Spruce Beetle Epidemic & Aspen Decline Management Response (SBEADMR) EIS, a large-scale NEPA project designed to enable a more nimble adaptive management response to rapidly changing forest conditions associated with insect and disease outbreaks. To evaluate treatment effectiveness and inform future prescriptions in similar forest types, the Rocky Mountain Research Station installed pre-treatment plots within the Bald treatment boundaries. These plots will be re-measured post-harvest to assess the effectiveness of two different prescriptions in meeting regeneration, forest health, and wildlife habitat goals. This research will provide critical insight into current silvicultural practices in the Rocky Mountain spruce-fir forest type.
To learn more, contact Everitt Merritt.
