Tuesday, February 12th | 12:00 – 1:30pm | Registration

On December 15th, 2025, in response to a new pine beetle outbreak along the Colorado front range, Governor Jared Polis signed an Executive Order, “Protecting Front Range Forests and Communities through Creation of the Ponderosa Mountain Pine Beetle Task Force.”

The task force – which will consist of up to 20 members representing federal, state, and local governments, utilities, nonprofits, philanthropies, the private sector, and more – is tasked with 15 actions “to advance adaptation outcomes, resilient communities, and enhanced fire preparedness and response, as well as develop tools and solutions, in response to the spread of mountain pine beetles in ponderosa pine on the Front Range.” The task force will be co-chaired by the Directors of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Colorado State Forest Service, and Division of Fire Prevention and Control.

In this Branching Out session, agency Directors Dan Gibbs (Department of Natural Resources), Matt McCombs (Colorado State Forest Service), and Mike Morgan (Division of Fire Prevention and Control) will give us an overview of the legislation and its progress so far, and then we will move into a listening session / discussion portion to understand what members of place-based collaboratives in Colorado want the task force to know as they begin their work. Upon conclusion of the session, we will summarize findings from the listening portion of the session and share them with the task force.

Read about the Executive Order here | Read the Executive Order text here

Click here to register for “Branching Out: The Ponderosa Mountain Pine Beetle Task Force”