An intern’s perspective from Melanie Matthews, a 2024 summer intern with the CSFS Communications and Communities Division.
Yuma, Colorado is a quiet agricultural town on Colorado’s eastern plains. The residents of this community are no strangers to intense rainstorms, but on May 20, 2024, a storm of baseball-sized hail shredded hundreds of trees and homes, leaving a community in need of help. A month later, a group of CSFS interns and staff travelled to Yuma and helped the town begin its road to recovery.
Historic Storm Leaves Behind Intense Damage
In May 2024, residents of Yuma experienced approximately 45 minutes of golf-ball to baseball-sized hail that caused severe damage to their trees. Although the eastern plains often face intense storms, the residents of Yuma had never encountered a storm of that size and strength, leaving residents wondering about the next steps to recovery.
Carrie Tomlinson, the CSFS Urban & Community Forestry manager, received a phone call about the storm damage and went to assess the situation. What she saw was heartbreaking – trees with no leaves, needles stripped away from branches of pine trees, shredded bark and severe damage to the infrastructure in town.
With extensive tree removal and replanting on the horizon, Carrie suggested a storm damage inventory to help the Yuma community gather information on the condition of their trees and what management actions will need to be taken. Through removal, pruning and replanting, Yuma will be able to restore its green spaces. CSFS staff and interns, equipped with measurement tools and COTreeView technology, responded a few weeks later to complete the inventory and help the City of Yuma continue its recovery.
Urban and Community Forestry in Action
This summer, the CSFS welcomed 21 interns across the state for a summer of experiential learning. In July, interns from the Timber Strike Team and Communications & Communities Division joined a team of CSFS staff to travel to Yuma, Colorado, a small community of approximately 3,000 people, to assess the post-storm conditions of their trees.
Over a 12-hour day, the CSFS team inventoried approximately 700 trees in the community, surveying trees at local schools, neighborhoods and other locations throughout the city. The data collected from the storm inventory captures the current conditions of the trees and will help Yuma make management decisions about its urban trees.
An Intern’s Perspective
As a CSFS summer intern, I assisted with the tree inventory in Yuma and witnessed firsthand the impact Colorado storms can have on trees and urban green spaces. Our task was simple – assess as many trees as possible. We split up into teams to cover different parts of town. The section assigned to my team was in the center of town, which received the most damage from the storm. As my team began walking, the damage to the community was obvious. Cars had shattered windshields, boarded up windows littered houses and siding was torn to shreds. Unfortunately, many of the trees faced a similar fate. Many of the cottonwood trees had little to no leaves left and many of the pine species needed to be removed.
At each tree we visited, we assessed the condition of the tree using various criteria:
- Amount of remaining leaves or foliage
- Amount of living tissue on the tree
- Condition of tree and whether it was dead, dying or in recovery
- Amount of broken or damaged limbs
Trees as Storytellers
As we continued through the neighborhood, residents stepped outside to tell us stories about their trees, showing us pictures of them over the years and sharing with us the pain of watching them be damaged from the storm. It quickly became evident that the trees in Yuma are loved and valued parts of the community. Not only do the trees provide shade and beauty, but they also tell the history of Yuma and its residents. The storm damage inventory highlights the importance of urban and community forestry and the personal impact trees can have on communities.
It’s a common misconception that forestry work only occurs in heavily forested areas, but working as a CSFS intern opened my eyes to the impacts urban and community forestry has in all green spaces around Colorado. The Yuma storm inventory was a hands-on learning opportunity for the other interns and I to practice forestry skills and make a positive difference in a Colorado community. I am grateful for the opportunity to have participated in this inventory and to help a community take their first steps to recovering from a heartbreaking storm.
On the Road to Recovery
This effort provided the City of Yuma with a comprehensive view of management needs for their trees. The results of the inventory showed approximately 93 trees needing removal, 144 severely damaged trees and 267 trees in recovery that need management support. The inventory gives the community the information it needs to begin planning future management actions, such as removals, pruning, replanting and applying for grant assistance programs.
The removal and replanting of hundreds of trees is a large undertaking. Fortunately, the Colorado State Forest Service is here to help communities like Yuma restore their tree populations and urban forests to healthy, resilient conditions. With 18 field offices across Colorado, communities are encouraged to connect with their local field office for help and more information. From recommending tree species for planting to providing educational opportunities, there are a variety of CSFS programs available to help Colorado communities promote forest health, recover from natural disasters and mitigate wildfire risk.