…a relatively wet 2023 for much of the state bolstered many trees against the spread of the mountain pine beetle, the separate spruce beetle and the spruce budworm. But a dry 2024 set the pests marching again by sapping forests of the water they need to stay healthy and fight off infestations, said Dan West, entomologist with Colorado State Forest Service. Colorado’s higher-altitude forests need several normal to wet seasons in a row to build up true resiliency, he said. One dry season meant Western spruce budworm affected 217,000 acres of state forests in 2024, up from 202,000 acres in 2023… Mountain pine beetle… grew to 5,600 acres of impact. The Douglas-fir beetle impacted 21,000 acres in 2024, its largest total damage in almost 10 years… Western balsam bark beetle …is still the … most widespread by acreage. The acres affected by the balsam bark beetle held steady at 27,000, but more of those trees die.