Has the Pine Beetle Spared any of the Forests of Wyoming? (Jackson: schools, college)

[SCentralNEGuy]

From what I've heard on the Colorado room, the pine beetle has absolutely ravaged many of the forests of Colorado. I was wondering if this was also the case in Wyoming. What about the Yellowstone/Jackson area?

[jody_wy]

lot of red to brown trees in western Wyoming

[SCentralNEGuy]

Originally Posted by jody_wy

lot of red to brown trees in western Wyoming

What a sad situation, I read it had to do with global warming and winters not harsh enough to kill the pine beetles.

[jody_wy]

Originally Posted by SCentralNEGuy

What a sad situation, I read it had to do with global warming and winters not harsh enough to kill the pine beetles.

30 or more years ago there was bug camps lot of college age kids sprayed trees in bad areas with goop, lot of guys older then me worked bug camp a few summers.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by SCentralNEGuy

What a sad situation, I read it had to do with global warming and winters not harsh enough to kill the pine beetles.

The winters here have been still been cold enough to kill larvae ...

The problem has been the drier years where the forests have been stressed and become less healthy, not able to repel the beetles. When the trees have plenty of moisture, they can drown the invaders with sap flows. The pine beetles have been around for many years, they're not a new arrival.

But many folk do miss the point that the forest stands should have been allowed to be burned and cleared in natural cycles to promote vigorous new growth, or harvested to allow regrowth. The "no-burn" and anti-logging "no-cut" policies of the Fed over recent decades has been unnatural for the health of the forests.

Even when we've had regional blow-downs of dead/dying timber stands, the Fed has prevented logging of the downed timber so it goes from salvageable to kindling and a huge mass of fuel. One lightning strike and we then have subsequent watershed problems. Controlled thinning/logging of the hillsides would have yielded a managed re-growth of the forests and sustained wood products.

You have but to look up how many timber mills throughout the region have been closed in recent years due to Fed policies of not allowing harvesting of the resource. The trees have natural life cycles and don't live indefinitely; they need to be harvested at maturity and the forest allowed to renew with younger growth, wildlife habitat, and watershed protection. For some varieties of pine in the area, a forest fire is needed to open the pine cones and allow the seeds to be planted, which is a natural cycle that has been interrupted by Fed polices. This has been a far more significant factor in the ill health/stress of the forests than any "global warming" climate cycles.

[moose13]

Sun is right!
As sad as it sounds, the best thing for many of these areas would be a wildfire. It is the natural cycle.

[ElkHunter]

In the Big Horns, we have beetle kill trees. But Thursday, I drove down to the Black Hills and was shocked to see what the trees looked like. We don't have anything close to this kind of a problem.

[Cloudfish]

Wow--how sad.

Last year I was in the Snowies and saw the same thing--the forest was more red than green. I'd not been there in about 10 years, and while it had certainly been infested then, the difference was amazing. Not only that, but all of the fire roads that I used to use to access some pretty secret spots were blocked off with trees or rocks. Those mountains are one huge tinderbox.

My good friend was with me--he knows those mountains like the back of his hand (his dad pretty much built all of the roads that exist up there). We were thwarted at almost every road to get to our one time good fishing spots. A...certain...administration in the past kowtowing to the environmentalists certainly did not help the situation. I think there was a time that foresting would have helped curtail the beetle spread, but at this point it's too late.

[jody_wy]

if you ever bought lumber from a local thick and thin , the blue in the pine boards are from trees that had beetles

[R_Cowgirl]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

The winters here have been still been cold enough to kill larvae ...

The problem has been the drier years where the forests have been stressed and become less healthy, not able to repel the beetles. When the trees have plenty of moisture, they can drown the invaders with sap flows. The pine beetles have been around for many years, they're not a new arrival.

But many folk do miss the point that the forest stands should have been allowed to be burned and cleared in natural cycles to promote vigorous new growth, or harvested to allow regrowth. The "no-burn" and anti-logging "no-cut" policies of the Fed over recent decades has been unnatural for the health of the forests.

Even when we've had regional blow-downs of dead/dying timber stands, the Fed has prevented logging of the downed timber so it goes from salvageable to kindling and a huge mass of fuel. One lightning strike and we then have subsequent watershed problems. Controlled thinning/logging of the hillsides would have yielded a managed re-growth of the forests and sustained wood products.

You have but to look up how many timber mills throughout the region have been closed in recent years due to Fed policies of not allowing harvesting of the resource. The trees have natural life cycles and don't live indefinitely; they need to be harvested at maturity and the forest allowed to renew with younger growth, wildlife habitat, and watershed protection. For some varieties of pine in the area, a forest fire is needed to open the pine cones and allow the seeds to be planted, which is a natural cycle that has been interrupted by Fed polices. This has been a far more significant factor in the ill health/stress of the forests than any "global warming" climate cycles.

Sun - thanks for saying this. Single-issue, well-intended but misguided and poorly informed "do-gooders" have created massive problems not just in forestry but also in fish and game management. In some spurt of feel-good "hold hands and sing kumbaya" motivation, they cause common sense and nature to be overridden.

In California these folks caused the guvmint to protect Mountain Lions (someone must have seen how cute the babies are.) As a result, rare Bighorn Sheep are being killed by Mountain Lions at an alarming rate and the lions are showing up at schools and downtown areas.

Whether it's trees or predators, there needs to be a balanced approach and these single-issue people need to take a deep breath and step back. I know a lot of the Forestry people and they are frustrated with the rules that have been handed down by political operatives sitting in tiny windowless offices on the other side of the beltway. Same goes for Game and Fish experts who are suddenly at the mercy of the latest whim of the latest cause du jour by the crowd that loves to go out in nature but never really seems to "get it." It's a wild and dangerous world, folks! Watch the Discover channel!