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Community members are invited to join the Bark Beetle Information Task Force in planting seedlings to replace trees killed by the mountain pine beetle.

"We encourage people to bring their kids and grandkids so they can watch the trees grow throughout their lives," said Lyn Halliday, a member of the task force.

The tree-planting event is today at Steamboat Lake State Park. Go Alpine and the city of Steamboat Springs are providing transportation to North Routt. The buses will depart from the U.S. Forest Service office, 925 Weiss Drive, at 9:30 a.m. and return at about 3:30 p.m. Call Halliday at 879-6232 to reserve a seat. People also can drive their own vehicles. Volunteers won't be charged the park entrance fee, and they're asked to park at the marina.

Central Park Management, a gold-certified member of the Steamboat Sustainable Business Program, is providing soft drinks and free pizza, prepared at a discount by Glen Eden Restaurant. Lunch will be at 1:30 p.m. at Glen Eden Restaurant's picnic area. Smokey Bear plans to stop by and visit children during lunch.

The tree-planting event commemorates the Routt County Bark Beetle Information Task Force's 10th anniversary. The group has worked to provide beetle education and information to the community following the Routt Divide Blowdown.

Since the Routt Divide Blowdown in 1997, more than 700,000 seedlings have been planted in Routt National Forest, some of which are now 5 feet tall. A few thousand seedlings were burned during the Mount Zirkel forest fires in 2002, so seedlings were replanted in those areas. The seedlings are grown at the Forest Service's Bessie Nursery in Nebraska, using seeds from pine cones collected on the Routt National Forest.

More than 1.5 million acres of forest in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming have been affected by the mountain pine beetle epidemic, which was triggered by an extended drought in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

By about 2012, beetles will have killed nearly all of the mature lodgepole trees in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming. However, there are healthy populations of young vigorous trees among the dead ones. These young trees, along with those planted by the Forest Service, represent the next forest.

Task Force members include representatives of the city of Steamboat Springs, Routt County Extension Service, Community Agriculture Alliance, Routt County, Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp., Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort Association, Colorado State Forest Service, Routt National Forest, Steamboat Lake State Park, Northwest Colorado Emergency Management, and Environmental Solutions.