90%+ Of Colorado's Lodgepole Pines May Be Destroyed By Bark Beetle Epidemic - Guardian

[hatrack]

Colorado's distinctive lodgepole pine trees are under attack from a beetle infestation described by scientists as a "perfect storm" which could destroy 90% of the western American state's pine forests. The bark beetle outbreak was responsible for the death of 4.8m lodgepole pines in Colorado last year, up from 1m in 2005. The infestation has spread across 1,000 square miles of forest - nearly half the total in the state. Forty three per cent of the state's lodgepole pines have died as a result of the infestation. But it is not limited to Colorado: the beetles have munched their way through the western US and Canada, affecting 36,000 square miles of forest.

"I knew we would have an infestation," says Jan Burke, a silviculturist for Colorado's White River national forest, "but I never remotely imagined this. Nobody predicted this." She looks up at the mountains behind the ski resort of Vail, sweeping hillsides of pine pockmarked with the orange stain of dead trees and the delicate feathery grey of aspens. "I guess we're the lucky ones because in our lifetime we got to see these forests. Our children won't. For many that's a bitter pill to swallow."

The results of the infestation in Colorado appear catastrophic for the pine forests that are familiar to thousands of visitors each year, many of them Britons heading for ski resorts including Aspen, Breckenridge and Beaver Creek, as well as Vail. If the image of Colorado in the holidaymaker's mind is of snowcapped peaks and pine-covered slopes, those notions will have to change. As the lodgepole pines die, the dominant tree species will be aspen, its grey bark and light foliage replacing the dark green of the pine.

For now, the hillsides look familiar, with snow covering the dramatic slopes west of the Rockies. But even a cursory inspection reveals the devastation caused by the beetle. Among the green of the pines, the orange patches indicate beetle infestation and dead trees, what Burke calls "microsites of mortality". Forestry officials calculate that for every orange-brown pine that can be seen by the naked eye, another five to 10 are infected.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2037146,00.html

[donco6]

1. This is very real and it's quite terrible.

Up near Granby, CO near Grand Lake, entire mountainsides have turned a rust brown from dead lodgepoles. The bugs are spreading quickly south and are approaching Breckenridge. Everywhere they go, ALL the trees die. I don't know what's going to happen . . . a terrible fire perhaps. I dunno.

[phantom power]

2. I'll tell you one thing that won't be happening: CO2 sequestration.

[donco6]

3. True. Nothing else grows on those slopes.

Rocky. Arid. Very very little topsoil or organic material. We're talking the denuding of thousands of square miles of mountain slopes.