Frisco – Facing a pine-beetle epidemic that could kill up to 90 percent of the forest around them, Summit County real estate agents will begin taking the unprecedented step of including the potential for dead trees in their disclosure reports to property buyers.
“I don’t care what it is you’re selling, whether it’s real estate or cars, a buyer is hoping that they’re going to be getting what they see and that the seller is being honest with them,” said Ken Deshaies, past president of the Summit County Board of Realtors.
In Colorado, the best estimates are that beetles have destroyed more than 7 million trees in the past 10 years. And seemingly healthy forests in many places around the state are, in fact, dying as still-green trees exhibit the up-close signs of pine-beetle infestation – the defensive, popcornlike sap around bore holes and sawdust on the ground.
“We’re told for every brown tree you see on the hillside, there’s anywhere from four to seven dead ones. If you start picturing the hillside with that many trees cut down or not green, it’s going to be an entirely different look,” Deshaies said.
State law requires sellers to disclose any conditions that may adversely affect property values, which Deshaies believes could be extended to include how radically the forest die-off could change the views in the mountains.
The real estate organization, which represents about 650 agents in Summit County, is currently drafting disclosure reports detailing the extent of the pine-beetle outbreak. They will be included in the standard disclosure paperwork after review by lawyers and the association’s members, Deshaies said.
The voluntary group effort would be unique in Colorado, although individual agents increasingly have been alerting property buyers, at least informally.
Countywide figures weren’t available Monday, but there’s no question that real estate is big business in recreation-rich Summit County – where one brokerage wrote more than $200 million in contracts last year.
“My feeling is that we’re going to see some litigation over this in the future,” Deshaies said. “You’re going to have some people who have bought homes partly because of the great mountain views and find that the mountains are almost denuded, and within a fairly short period of time. … Obviously, as a Realtor, I don’t want to be on the defense side of a lawsuit like that. I want to make sure that I cover my own risk of liability, but also that my sellers do that as well.”
Beetles have devoured millions of acres of Western forests, from Arizona to British Columbia, attacking lodgepole pine and spruce weakened by a decade of drought and uniformly aged after a century of fire suppression. In Colorado, the outbreak has been the most pronounced in the high-value resort areas of Grand, Routt, Summit and Eagle counties.
Gail McDonald, president of the Summit County group, said most buyers are aware of the problem – or they at least ask about the prevalence of brown trees as they look at property.
“Truthfully, I don’t think there’s a time you go out where you do not talk about it,” she said. “I think the biggest reaction would probably be fear of fire, more than the aesthetics, because I think they realize it will be beautiful again someday.”
Sandy Briggs, leader of the Summit Mountain Pine Beetle Task Force, lauded the effort as ethical and just part of being good neighbors. “Most people, particularly people who are new to the area …, look around, and it looks great right now. It’s not going to look great in a couple of years,” he said.
Observers note that real estate values in the mountains continue to remain high.
And in places such as Grand Lake, agents are focusing on the positive: Some formerly forested lots now are being marketed as having “great views.”
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
This story has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, the leader of the Summit Mountain Pine Beetle Task Force was misidentified. Her name is Sandy Briggs.
