The feds have finally gotten around to studying how the mountain pine beetle infestation has affected Colorado — all the fires ignited by the dead trees, destroying property, threatening lives and … oh wait …

It’s not us people or property they care about, it’s the freaking lynx.

PeakNation™ remembers the Canadian lynx ever so not fondly, reintroduced in Colorado back in 1999 because we apparently didn’t have enough local wildlife inhabiting our forests. The reintroduction also gave animal activists the excuse they needed to torch Vail Mountain in a vain attempt to block the expansion of skiing operations.

Good times.

Well, it’s all about the lynx once more, but this time it’s to determine how the cats feel about the removal of dead trees because of the beetle infestation that is killing said trees in the Rio Grande National Forest.

The Forest Service has hired science folks to track several cats in order to learn if they prefer the live green trees, or the brown dead trees. Here’s how research biologist John Squires described the work.

“That way you could, if you’re a manager, try to say, ‘OK, these areas are more important for lynx, these areas are more important for salvage’ and try to balance the multiple use in a way that serves conservation and serves forest management, too,” Squires said.

As a bonus, they stabbed us in the heart with a poisonous, flaming, sword of death by redefining the phrase “multiple use.”

For generations of Coloradans, that term has meant that public lands are to be used for ranching and livestock grazing, developing energy, harvesting timber and recreation.

Now it means our national forests are just a big ole’ kitty litter box.