[BIGLOOK]

Seems the area of infestation is climax forest and as such is susceptible to predation by the beetles as well as fire from the deadwood the beetles create. Warmer than average winters can be blamed for the beetle problem but old growth is also a factor.
The climax forest denies its successors space and light and unless there's a fire or weather event (or a logging company) to reduce the old growth population, it will go on its own with time. Doesn't matter if it Lodgepole pines in the west or White oaks in the east.....or Ohias in Hawaii; they all go through the cycle.

[george76]

There is so much false information that it is hard to keep up with it all.

Mountain pine beetles have killed large numbers of lodgepole pine trees.

Spruce bark beetles have killed spruce trees.

Fir engraver beetles have been killing fir trees.

It’s unusual to have all three epidemics going on at once, but that does happen.

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Not just in Colorado.

Many areas areas DDT will not work because 90 percent of the lodgepole pine trees are already dead now. The Mountain pine beetles have moved on to kill live trees.

Foresters are denied their graduate degrees of knowledge and decades of experience as clever lawyers find weak judges to make unscientific decisions. Private land owners who hire private foresters are usually making good scientific decisions.

Federal foresters generally know what to do and when, but those Sierra Club lawyers stop them.

Too many trees per acre is a match book waiting for a spark. Thinning most small, weak trees under the guidance of a real forester will create a health forest resistant to beetles and more.