Day 29: The Mountain Pine Beetle

Today I went into Denver to meet with a client (Visa; thanks to IBM mainframes, they can authorize your credit request from anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds, and then process the payment with the banks and vendors, all while preventing most fraudulent claims in real-time.  Amazing!).  As I drove to Denver, I was reminded by the view of entire mountainsides of brown forests that I had promised myself I would post a blog about the deforestation of the Colorado Rockies before my visit was over.  We only have 3 more days, so now is the time.  I will keep it short;  I don't want to depress anyone, but the facts are scary.

Many tourists come here and marvel at the beautiful red trees!  Then someone has to tell them the news:  they are all dead trees.   \When I lived here in the 80's,  there was some noticeable disease and death of pine trees caused by the Mountain (or Western)  Pine Beetle.  A lot was written.  Nothing was done.   During the last decade, warmer temperatures have decreased the normal winter mortality rate of these little critters.  The result is rampant death of huge swaths of mature lodgepole pine forests.  Entire mountainsides are dead or dying,  in part because these forests were seeded after gold and silver  miners were followed by the loggers in the late 19th century; the trees are all the same (vulnerable) age, and there is little biodiversity to create natural barriers to the spread of an infestation.

What can be done?   Not much, really.   Thinning the forest can help protect healthy trees, but that takes a lot of money.  And we are talking about millions of trees.  There are some treatments but the costs are  also prohibitive or unsafe.  Application of Verbenone,  a natural pheromone, costs $17 PER TREE.

This view from our deck is typical for Summit County.

The green trees will be brown in 1-2 years, except for fir and spruce in higher elevations (~ >10,000 feet).

Where will it end?  Sadly, Scientist are forecasting the complete annihilation of mature stands of Lodgepole Pine in places like Summit, Grand, and Eagle Counties in Colorado. And the beetle is starting to infect other species, such as the Ponderosa Pine along the Front Range.

According to Wikipedia,  "The current outbreak of mountain pine beetles is ten times larger than previous outbreaks.^[15] In Wyoming and Colorado in 2006 there were 1 million acres (4,000 km²) of dead trees. In 2007 it was 1,500,000 acres (6,100 km²). In 2008 it is expected to total over 2 million acres (8,100 km²).^[16] It may be the largest forest insect blight ever seen in North America.^[17] Climate change has contributed to the size and severity of the outbreak , and the outbreak itself may, with similar infestations, have significant effects on the capability of northern forests to remove greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.^[18]  And from the Rocky Mountain News, 2008: "Every large, mature lodgepole pine forest in Colorado and southern Wyoming will be dead within three to five years, killed in a mountain pine beetle infestation unprecedented in the state."

"Every Large, Mature Forest will be Dead"

OK, have I scared you yet?  But Wait! There's more!  What happens to an entire forest of dead trees?  It  burns.  What happens when an entire state forest burns?  Colorado doesn't want tourists or potential real estate investors to know,  but it is entirely possible, if not likely, that massive fires will consume millions of acres of these dead forests in the coming decade.
In fact, a fire is the only way the forest will regenerate;  Pine cone seeds do not germinate until subjected to at least 130 degree heat.
Ok, I have fulfilled my promise to pass on the word of this terrible situation.
Tomorrow, I will go back to enjoying the beauty of these mountains, and what is left of their forests.   The spruce,  firs and aspen trees will eventually reforest the slopes.  But not in my lifetime.  Perhaps in generation or two.

So, let's not debate whether global warming is man-made.  Let's take responsible action to reverse the trend.