Colorado — Mountain pine and roundheaded pine beetles are responsible for a section of felled logs being removed from a ranch at Wrights Mesa and log-hauling truck traffic on county roads near the Dan Noble State Wildlife Area may continue until the first snow this year. The San Miguel Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) considered and approved an ordinance regarding New Beginnings Ranch at its recent meeting on July 24 to provide an extension for a special permit for log hauling. Thousands of ponderosa pine trees have been felled on the 1,050-acre ranch’s project area of a 96-acre site monitored by the Colorado State Forest Service for forest health, New Beginnings Ranch Manager DuWayne Carlson told the county in a letter in 2023. The state forest service said, “Mountain pine beetle pockets have expanded exponentially” since 2020 at New Beginnings Ranch.