Posted on 09/21/2007 8:09:42 AM PDT by george76
Almost half of Colorado’s lodgepole forests are infested.
Amid mountains covered by ailing, rust-colored pines, about 100 people pored over maps and discussed priorities Thursday in the battle to slow the spread of forest-killing beetles and clean up the destruction already wreaked.
The Colorado Bark Beetle Cooperative is helping shape the U.S. Forest Service’s strategy for dealing with more than 1,000 square miles of trees infested by the bugs that burrow beneath a tree’s bark and sap its life.
The result has been huge swaths and, in some cases, entire mountainsides of brown trees.
The Forest Service, state agencies and private landowners have sprayed trees and felled others to prevent a buildup of dry timber that could fuel more severe wildfires.
The bark beetle cooperative, which includes federal, state and local agencies, business and civic leaders and residents of western and central Colorado, is helping shape how the Forest Service responds to the epidemic.
“This gives us community buy-in” when treatment plans are drafted, said Forest Service spokeswoman MaryAnn Chambers.
Logging infected trees and other preventive measures at the camp were credited with minimizing the damage from a wildfire earlier this summer.
Granby Mayor Ted Wang took notes on a big sheet of paper taped to a column. Under the heading “Values” was list of things the participants wanted to protect, including watersheds, views, recreation opportunities and homes.
(Excerpt) Read more at vaildaily.com ...
A good, God-ordained fire would solve this.
DDT.....a wonder of science....
SAFE and Desperately needed
Isn’t Dutch Elm disease caused by beetles too?
The Midwest is getting slaughtered by the Ash Boar beetle.
We really need DDT or something like it.
I thought dutch elm was a fungus ?
( could be wrong )
I know Dutch door disease is caused by bad architects.
Per Wikipedia:
Dutch elm disease is a fungal disease of elm trees which is spread by the elm bark beetle.
Let’s have a little talk about beetle-battle straetgies....
When tweetle beetles fight,
it’s called a tweetle beetle battle.
And when they battle in a puddle,
it’s a tweetle beetle puddle battle.
AND when tweetle beetles battle with paddles in a puddle,
they call it a tweetle beetle puddle paddle battle.
AND
When beetles battle beetles in a puddle paddle battle
and the beetle battle puddle is a puddle in a bottle...
...they call this a tweetle beetle bottle puddle paddle battle muddle.
AND
When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles
and the bottle’s on a poodle and the poodle’s eating noodles...
...they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle.
THIS is what they call...
...a tweetle beetle noodle poodle bottled paddled
muddled duddled fuddled wuddled fox in socks!
I don't know if DDT would have helped. I think (don't recall) that the period of Dutch Elm Disease overlapped the period where DDT was widely used. Of course, Dutch Elm Disease is not longer "rampant" because most of the elms are gone. But resistant species are being planted in many places.
Now, when Tweetle Beetles fight, it's called a Tweetle Beetle Battle. And when they battle in a puddle, it's a Tweetle Beetle Puddle Battle.
AND when Tweetle Beetles battle with paddles in a puddle, they call it a Tweetle Beetle Puddle Paddle Battle.
AND when Beetles battle Beetles in a Puddle Paddle Battle, and the beetle battle's puddle is a puddle in a bottle, they call this a Tweetle Beetle Bottle Puddle Paddle Battle Muddle.
AND when Tweetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles, and the bottle's on a poodle, and the poodle's eating noodles, they call this a Muddle Puddle Tweetle Poodle Beetle Noodle Bottle Paddle Battle. AND--"
Dang it!!!!! I thought I’d be firstest!
Totally agree here. DDT is the answer.....if you can get past the environmentalists that killed its use. They were wrong. Colorado should just go ahead and spray with it............if they can get past the tree huggers. OR...they can just sit back and loose their forests, like California.
Drove through there this summer and up into Wyoming. The ugliest, worst devastation I’ve ever seen.
Years of drought and marginal rainfall weaken the moisture barriers the trees maintain against infestation. Then the bark beetles move in with apocalyptic results. The hundreds of miles and thousands of acres of dead brown trees set up conditions for monstrous fires.
The forests desperately need to be thinned, the dead timber removed and destroyed, fire barriers and access roads built for emergency equipment. This is not going to be cheap or easy and the radical enviros will be screaming before its over.
Pray for rains and a wet winter.
::grins!::
booosshh !!
Indeed. That’s what’ll happen. A fire storm and utter destruction. Envirobots are gleeful when good timber becomes useless. I think they’d like every stick of timber to burn-up or rot rather than have even one stick of it harvested.
Only one creature on this earth that I can say I hate and that is the envirobot.
you know, before we showed up here, fire was fixing the beetle problems for us...
And here I thought this was going to be a zot thread about Beetle Bailey.
Yes to both of you. It is a fungus, and it is spread by the elm bark beetle.
The big black bug bled black bug’s blood.
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