Posted on 07/23/2006 9:16:17 PM PDT by george76
This ski town has stepped up its campaign to battle pine beetles, which have killed countless trees and threatened others in the surrounding valley and nearby counties.
Everyone including residents, local government and giant resort operator Intrawest Corp. has been footing the bill to blunt the bugs’ impact on a swath of the state whose economy depends heavily on its scenic lands.
“The situation will get worse. It’s one of those things that grows exponentially each year,”...
During a Front Range outbreak in the 1970s, the government launched a $20 million program to control the beetles.
But now, perhaps more than ever, property owners and municipalities have been shelling out the money required to thwart the beetles and deal with the damage they cause.
The U.S. Forest Service is more likely to be providing training and advice on managing beetle kill areas.
“This infestation is breaking all the records,” said Mike Ricketts, winter sports administrator from the Sulphur Ranger District of the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest. ``It's unprecedented.''
``All of our property tax and then some for the last three years has gone to the pine beetle mitigation,'' ...
(Excerpt) Read more at grandcountynews.com ...
This is good.
"Fire, bugs, or logging, pick your favorite."
No, it is both. but monoculture is the biggest cause of epidemics like this, too many plants of the same kind. You could also consider watering, occasionally.
An article in the local paper in Grand County indicated that Ponderosa Pines are rarely affected by the beetles. They seem to prefer Lodgepole Pines, which abound in Colorado.
Agreed, defensible space is key. We have plenty at my place, but the view may suck if we get a big fire.
There are dozens of species of ips beetles and pine borers, each with its own habits and favored host speicies. The ones around here are usually ips beetles and do favor the Ponderosas and also the piñons.
-ccm
It seems that the radicals will tolerate only bugs or fire. They'd rather see millions of acres of forest (and private homes) go up in smoke and REALLY destroy animal habitat than to see even one log taken by a bastard capitalist timber company.
Of course when the fires begin near the lefty enclave of Vail, they will all be screaming about George Bush's interior department not doing more to stop beetle infestation, and not carrying out proper thinning.
That's awful.
So true. And even after a fire, they oppose salvage lumbering to reduce downfall and the certainity of another fire to consume the remains.
When I was a young lad - in the early 70s - I camped in the mountains west of Boulder - just before Nederland. In the mid 90s I returned to find all the trees were dead - what were once green mountains were now ugly gray - dead - as far as the eye could see. It broke my heart.
The trees you see in the ariel photo are located in a wilderness area, I think it's the Indian Peaks Wilderness. No roads or cutting is allowed. The town of Grand Lake is located at the bottom of the picture and has many diseased trees in town. When this baby goes up in flames, it will not be easy to stop. I fear the town will be destroyed.
I live in Tennessee and we went thorugh this about four years ago. I live on a wooded acre and had more than 20 handsome pines before the beetles got to work. After the did their thing one or two pinese were left. Eight went down in my front yard. Another four or five went down in my bakk yard, with a couple landing in the swimming pool. You folks out west have my strongest sympathy.
If those dead trees don't burn, they'll all fall, creating a horrible, jumbled mess. The only thing to do with beetle-killed trees is to remove them, not that the greenies will allow it.
There was a big blown down near Steamboat some years ago.
The predicted happened.
The huge pile of dead trees caught on fire, polluted the air with smoke, then polluted the water supply with ash, then killed the fish and other wildlife, the fire got so hot it killed the organic soil...
The harvested value of the good trees could have paid for any clean up. Instead the taxpayers got stuck with a big fire fighting bill.
We know, but some lurkers may not, that the town is full of wooden structures and lots of trees.
If a massive fire heads that way, only the lake will stop it.
IMHO.
Getting harder and harder to cut them down to keep up with the infestation.
Worked southwest of Steamboat in 1985 on the Routt NF, back then it was the spruce beatle. That picture looks like the Targhee NF did right before it burned in 1988. (The Targhee NF is located on the western boundry of Yellowstone).
It is sad in that forest policy has gridlocked to the point that it will take a large catostrophic fire with loss of life to change the way things currently are.
From my own direct, personal experiences with what those beetles do--there WILL be a big blowdown if there isn't a fire before.
Sorry for your trees. Having bugs come in from the government lands is frustrating.
It is sad that the left will not allow the foresters and other scientists to make the final decisions on how to keep our forests healthy.
Good luck in creating a defensible space for the fire fighters.
No, it doesn't. Carbon dioxide enrichment has accelerated growth by over 50%. It makes seedlings more drought tolerant and packs up the forest with more young trees. The trees hold the snow so that more of it sublimates and doesn't go into the ground. Increased competition for water and the reduced supply combine to dry up the system in late season.
You've probably seen these pictures I took after the Rodeo/Chedisiki fire.
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