INVESTIGATION OF INCREASED EROSION AND AVALANCHES DUE TO BARK-BEETLE INFESTATION, HENSON CREEK, COLORADO

In the past 15-20 years southwestern Colorado has had consistent droughts from climate change, weakening trees to make them more susceptible to infestation and making subalpine environments an ideal habitat for bark-beetles. This change in climate and increased in bark-beetles infestation have led to higher tree mortality rates and reduced land coverage, causing an increase in surface runoff and erosion. Using the RUSLE model, we can estimate annual surface runoff from sheet and rill erosion. We hypothesize that the amount of erosion calculated from the RUSLE model is an underestimation, because the model doesn’t take into account soil erosion from avalanches. There is reasonable cause that the increase in tree mortality from bark-beetle infestation weakens avalanche chutes stability causing frequent mass wasting events that further increase the sediment loss in this watershed. Despite the decline in annual snowpack yields these avalanches have maintained a persistent level of activity. With climate change being a natural cycle on earth there is no way to prevent it but rather only adjust for it. By quantitatively estimating the amount of erosion we can understand the severity of this degradation and work towards possible mitigations and investigate ecological imbalances.