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Report: Beetles on track to kill lodgepole forests in 3-5 years
Denver Post ^ | 14 jan 08

Posted on 01/14/2008 10:08:55 AM PST by rellimpank

GOLDEN — Federal and state forestry officials say at current rates, mountain pine beetles will kill the majority of Colorado's large-diameter lodgepole pine forests within three to five years.

In a news conference this morning, Regional Forester Rick Cables and Jeff Jahnke, the Colorado State Forester, announced the results of the 2007 aerial survey of the state's forests.

The survey concluded that the beetle infestation in 2007 claimed 500,000 new acres of trees, bringing the total number acres of up to 1.5 million since the first signs of the outbreak 1996.

Officials described the infestation as a "catastrophic event" that has now crossed into Front Range areas.

"Dead and dying trees that were isolated to 5 northern

Colorado counties last year can now be seen in some Front Range areas as well as southern Wyoming," Cables said in a statement released at the U.S. Forest Service regional office in Golden. "The bark infestation has spread dramatically," he said. "This is an unprecedented event."

(Excerpt) Read more at denverpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: beetles; co; environment; pinebeetles
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To: girlangler

Thought you might be interested in this.

Is this the same beetle that is killing the trees in the Smokies?


41 posted on 01/14/2008 11:08:04 AM PST by Grammy
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To: Hot Tabasco

have you heard what their doing with the ash tree logs, etc...

burning them?

Just wondering if there’s any commercial use for them or if they have to be destroyed completely to stop the spread.


42 posted on 01/14/2008 11:11:40 AM PST by 1curiousmind (Romney/Thompson 08 (prefer that order but reversed order is good too))
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To: rellimpank

Kinda makes the Gypsy moth liike like a pushover!


43 posted on 01/14/2008 11:12:30 AM PST by Danae (Anail nathrach, orth' bhais's bethad, do chel denmha (Smoke clears and Fred Thompson is President))
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To: rellimpank

There was a nasty outbreak of pine beetle blight in northern Georgia, eastern Tennessee and southern North Carolina a few years back. It petered out before it got south to the area between Macon and Savannah — which was a lucky break, because losing trees around there would have led to a sharp rise in the price of all kinds of paper products.


44 posted on 01/14/2008 11:12:38 AM PST by ReignOfError
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To: rellimpank

I live in the mountains NW of Golden. This year I had 15 lodgepole pines on my property killed by beetles. The beetles cause grayish staining that causes vertical streaks in the wood so you can spot the evidence that the trees were killed by beetles as soon as you cut the tree down. I cut the trees up for fire wood :)


45 posted on 01/14/2008 11:14:41 AM PST by MtnClimber (http://www.fred08.com/)
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To: blackdog

I’ve used the Bayer product on my Weeping Willow in our back yard to protect from the beetles that took our neighbors Willow. It’s pretty expensive, but this tree was planted the day that someone dear to us was lost, so in this instance the price isn’t a consideration. Thus far, over three years, it’s worked beautifully. What was once a skinny twig that fit into my SUV 3 years ago, is now thicker than my thigh and 20”x20”.


46 posted on 01/14/2008 11:19:06 AM PST by MarineBrat (My wife and I took an AIDS vaccination that the Church offers.)
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To: TChris
Wikipedia remains, on the whole, a good and useful site.

I wouldn't claim that Wiki is not useful, but i've never considered it to be a source of facts because the owners of the site take no responsibility of content. Just looking up for yourself is fine, and I do that myself, but if I were writing a scientific paper to be published, Wiki is the last place I'd admit to using as a source.

47 posted on 01/14/2008 11:25:49 AM PST by MarineBrat (My wife and I took an AIDS vaccination that the Church offers.)
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To: mrmargaritaville
I always knew Ringo and McCartney were trouble!

I blame Yoko.

48 posted on 01/14/2008 11:26:55 AM PST by dfwgator (11+7+15=3 Heismans)
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To: dfwgator

49 posted on 01/14/2008 11:29:47 AM PST by shineon
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To: shineon

It looks like they are on a track. But I think that’s abbey road.


50 posted on 01/14/2008 11:31:48 AM PST by shineon
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To: Bear_Slayer
"Kinda creepy to me, knowing they're still at it, only insects are the new enemy."

Insects were the old enemy as well...Zyklon-B was originally developed and tested as an insecticide.

51 posted on 01/14/2008 11:36:19 AM PST by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: MarineBrat

From what I’ve read up on the bayer product, it works only when others fail. IOW, when larvae try to feed on the tree, they get poisoned. Normal insecticides can’t get inside the tree to kill the larvae. The down side to this is that it needs to be poured around the drip line every 12 weeks during active growing season.


52 posted on 01/14/2008 11:37:55 AM PST by blackdog
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To: MarineBrat
...if I were writing a scientific paper to be published, Wiki is the last place I'd admit to using as a source.

That's fine. Scientific papers are supposed to be original or first-source research. That's not what Wiki is for.

For finding out if pine beetles kill trees, it's more than adequate.

53 posted on 01/14/2008 11:46:10 AM PST by TChris ("if somebody agrees with me 70% of the time, rather than 100%, that doesn’t make him my enemy." -RR)
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To: TChris

I think wiki is more reliable than you local newspaper.


54 posted on 01/14/2008 11:50:48 AM PST by shineon
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To: shineon

excuse me. ...your local newspaper


55 posted on 01/14/2008 11:51:44 AM PST by shineon
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To: rellimpank
DAMN YOU PAUL MCCARTNEY!!!

Whoops, Beetles, NOT Beatles.

56 posted on 01/14/2008 11:53:12 AM PST by Clemenza (Ronald Reagan was a "Free Traitor", Like Me ;-))
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To: 1curiousmind
have you heard what their doing with the ash tree logs, etc...

Thats a good question, I really haven't heard. The independent tree guys are taking them down and just grinding them up into sawdust.

The state is telling people who have places in northern Michigan and the upper peninsula to NOT take the logs up there for burning in their fireplaces. Evidently there is a new outbreak in the U.P. which they figure was caused by infected logs taken up there........

57 posted on 01/14/2008 12:09:13 PM PST by Hot Tabasco
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To: Nathan Zachary
"How about discounting log cabin homes to use up the die off?"

"Because the logs become unusable after they die off. They rot from the inside out."

Only if they're left standing for years. They die from under-bark damage, and prompt harvesting would yield good poles.

58 posted on 01/14/2008 12:09:13 PM PST by polymuser (Don't vote for Kennedy Wing of the GOP)
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To: TChris
The word that caused contention was “fact.” The editors at Wiki are hobbyists. Anyone can edit or create an entry, including people who desire to disseminate false information about a subject.

From their disclamer page...

The structure of the project allows anyone with an Internet connection to alter its content. Please be advised that nothing found here has necessarily been reviewed by people with the expertise required to provide you with complete, accurate or reliable information.

59 posted on 01/14/2008 12:14:25 PM PST by MarineBrat (My wife and I took an AIDS vaccination that the Church offers.)
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To: MarineBrat
The word that caused contention was “fact.” The editors at Wiki are hobbyists. Anyone can edit or create an entry, including people who desire to disseminate false information about a subject.

Essentially the same could be said of any publisher of any kind. Even "non-hobbyist", paper-media writers and publishers frequently err and/or publish false information for a variety of reasons. Scientific papers are not inherently more accurate either.

Printing something in black ink on white paper doesn't give it any more nor less inherent credibility than publishing it on the Internet.

60 posted on 01/14/2008 12:18:09 PM PST by TChris ("if somebody agrees with me 70% of the time, rather than 100%, that doesn’t make him my enemy." -RR)
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