Colorado’s forests store a massive amount of carbon, but dying trees – mostly due to insects and disease – have caused the state’s forests to emit more carbon than they absorbed in recent years, according to a Colorado State Forest Service report. …“People are looking to our natural ecosystems to mitigate climate change,” said Tony Vorster, lead author of the report and a research scientist with the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory. “We shouldn’t necessarily look to our forests to offset emissions because they’re currently a net carbon source across the state as a whole, and that trend is probably going to continue with ongoing droughts and wildfires.” …“It’s natural for forests to cycle through times where they are carbon sinks and then carbon sources. We’re interested in long-term trends,” Vorster said. …Insects and disease were responsible for 85% of the total area impacted by disturbances and 64% of disturbance-related carbon losses.