Join us for a field trip up Bear Creek on Dr. Jason Sibold's long-standing forest health work in Bear Creek, and the upper San Miguel Watershed.

Widespread tree mortality is transforming the upper San Miguel landscape.

In 2024, Dr. Jason Sibold used remote sensing and aerial imagery to map forest die-off beyond Bear Creek, where over a decade of monitoring has shown severe loss in conifer and aspen due to warming and drought.

His model, trained on Bear Creek data, revealed high mortality-especially in spruce-fir and aspen forests on Wilson Mesa and between Pole Creek and Last Dollar Mountain.

The findings highlight a shift from dense forests to degraded, open stands with little natural regrowth-raising serious concerns about the future of these ecosystems under ongoing climate stress.