MAY 30, 2014 BY
Web Site is Live for Bark Beetle Video Series
(LARAMIE, Wyo.) May 30, 2014 – Capping a successful month of public showings and presentations, the video series, Our Future Forests: Beyond Bark Beetles is now available online for public viewing and sharing at BeyondBarkBeetles.org.
Our Future Forests: Beyond Bark Beetles, presented by the U.S. Forest Service and University of Wyoming Ruckelshaus Institute, is a series of 10 short videos exploring effects of and responses to the recent mountain pine beetle outbreak in our local forests.
The films, all of which take place in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests, highlight impacted user groups and areas, as well as share actions the U.S. Forest Service and others are taking to respond to the outbreak.
Viewers will meet hunters, rock climbers, fire lookouts, city water managers, foresters, volunteers, and many other diverse characters who are dealing with effects of bark beetles. Locations include the Bear River Corridor, Sierra Madre, Hahns Peak Lake, Rob Roy Reservoir, Vedauwoo, Laramie Peak and others.
Acclaimed videographer Morgan Heim shot and produced the videos.
A closed-caption option for the hearing impaired is provided online, however the accuracy will be improved in the coming days.
Over the last month, hundreds of people viewed the films at public showings in Laramie, Saratoga and Steamboat Springs. Now, for the first time, the videos are publicly available online for anyone to watch and share.
The project is a unique partnership between the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests and the University of Wyoming Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources. The collaboration between the two organizations was nurtured in order to pool resources and provide public information and education that would have been more difficult for either group to do individually.
This video series is one piece of a multi-pronged project to help people better understand the bark beetle epidemic that has included a public speaker series, publication of an annotated bibliography for forest managers, and creating a library of forest photos for various uses.
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Aaron Voos
Public Affairs Specialist
Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests
& Thunder Basin National Grassland
(o) 307-745-2323
