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I'm not sure how reliable Google Earth sat views are now that I've played with it some. One sat photo merges with another right down the street I live on. My side is green the other side is brown toned. But apart from that two houses on the other side of the road don't appear in the photo. One is only seven years old but the other was here before our house which was built 23 years ago. The lot to the north of us shows recent improvements but the new concrete bike path that was finished about one year ago isn't there at all. So even the sat photo of my side of the road is at least two years old.

I'm not trying to say there isn't a problem but I think we need better evidence. When I scan over large tracts of CO I see mostly deep green forests. But if the sat photos are old that doesn't mean much. I do know from first hand observation that the hills east of the Sandia Mtns in NM lost almost all the pinon pine to some beetle leaving hillsides virtually covered with standing fuel for fires. Given all the homes that are built throughout those hills it looked like a scary situation to me.

As for Rcky Mtn Nat Park it has had a high fuel load for years, long before this latest beetle infestation. The Nat Park Service ignored it for years but has tried to do some mitigation in the last ten or so. Problem is most of it is too rugged to cover with ground crews and I think they are leary of doing intentional burns in rugged areas with lots of fuel.