Millions of dead trees in the Colorado Mountains (Grand Junction, Glenwood Springs: health, rated)

[CosmicWizard]

Your comment is old news too jazz. The NY Times is ALWAYS digging for news! 90% of what I read in the NY Times is old news. I just take that for granted.

[80skeys]

Originally Posted by CosmicWizard

Quote from a recent article in The New York Times concerning the pine beetle infestation:

The evolution of mountain pine beetles to produce two generations of beetle per year instead of one has probably been a factor in the unparralled damage that insects have caused in pine forests in the western United States and Canada over the last decade, according to a new study.

I honestly think that if we didn't control forest fires we wouldn't have this problem of pine beetles.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by 80skeys

I honestly think that if we didn't control forest fires we wouldn't have this problem of pine beetles.

True, but the trustifarians living in their trophy houses nested in the forest would never stand for letting that happen--especially when the US taxpayers can get stuck with the bill when the US Forest Service defends their PRIVATE property from fire. Nothing like having the taxpayers pay for privite individuals' stupid behavior.

[CosmicWizard]

jazzlover wrote:

Nothing like having the taxpayers pay for privite individuals' stupid behavior.

Agreed AND I will add this....Nothing like having the taxpayers pay for a corporate entities stupid behavior. Usually, that it FAR more costly than the relatively low cost of protecting the trustafarians homes. It'a all a matter of perspective, so remember that corporate welfare is costing us alot more.

[jazzlover]

Since I made a comment about the pine beetle infestation on another thread, I might as well go out on a limb (excuse the pun) and make a prediction about this summer on the pine beetle front. Sadly, my prediction is that we will see another big run of pine beetle infestation this summer, probably worse than we have seen for several years. There are several reasons for this: this winter was abnormally warm all across Colorado, with virtually no cold spells long enough to kill pine beetle larvae. Add to the mix the early warming this spring and it is very possible that we will have two pine beetle hatches this season--a phenomena that has not regularly occurred in nature up until the last few years. In addition, the very dry winter in many areas is already putting trees under severe moisture stress, which makes them even more susceptible to a pine beetle infestation.

My prediction is that the infestation will probably extend its southern range into some relatively uninfested areas of lodgepole pine, probably reaching the southern extension of lodgepole forest in Colorado around Cochetopa Pass this summer or next. A lot of areas in Summit County that have only been lightly to moderately infested up until now will probably be heavily infested, as well. Unfortunately, the pine beetle does not limit its appetite to lodgepoles. I suspect, again thanks to moisture stress, that a lot of overcrowded ponderosa forests on both sides of the Continental Divide will be getting infested this year, or within a year or two. Ponderosa infestations are especially tragic since, unlike lodgepole forests that are "designed" by nature to burn and regrow relatively quickly, a "crown" fire in an overcrowded Ponderosa forest may leave a landscape that will take many decades to a century or more to regenerate.

Despite swamry stories to the contrary, there is little that can be done to prevent all of this. There simply are not enough fiscal resources to extensively treat forests for pine beetle infestations. Sadly, what limited resources for fire-fighting the Federal government have--supposedly for fighting fires on public lands--are increasingly squandered for use in protecting private structures on private land--most of them structures that should never have been built in their fire-prone locations in the first place.

The simple fact is that most lodgepole forests in the Rocky Mountain West are going to be dead in a few years. Oddly enough, because of lodgepole's natural cycle of reseeding itself when it burns (the heat of the fire causes the cones to open and spread their seed and the fire releases nutrients to the soil from the burned trees), from a forest regeneration standpoint, the best thing that can happen to a dead and dying lodgepole forest is for it to burn. Of course, you won't hear the developers of mountain property, their real estate lackeys, or the politicians they own utter such truths.

[brightdoglover]

When I looked at Elk Meadows up above Ridgway, there's that one county road to the one road that winds through the houses' area. Plenty of vegetation of all kinds, some dead stuff. All I could think of is what a firetrap, despite the subdivision having its own firetruck. Can only imagine the fire going right up to that area.
I went horseback riding above Vallecito Lake a couple of years ago. Dead burned trees as far as you could see from the fire in, I think, 2005. Lots of "flash flood" warnings on the one road to Vallecito Lake due to the lack of roots and all to maintain the watershed (if that's the correct terminology). It was quite a sight. Very sobering.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

... US taxpayers can get stuck with the bill when the US Forest Service defends their PRIVATE property from fire. Nothing like having the taxpayers pay for privite individuals' stupid behavior.

DNR (in PNW) responded to a local cabin fire, and the owner was a bit 'put-out' that DNR protected THEIR FOREST from the burning cabin, but refused to try & save the cabin. DNR boys would have been in BIG trouble if they used all their water on the Cabin, and the forest lit up!!

[Garri Ausmus]

5/15/2022 I just got home to Denver from a trip to Glenwood Springs on the western slope. the death of the trees on the front range saddened me more than the funeral i just went to of my sister in law. The fires this summer will be the worst ever and i pray for those who have chosen the mountains as their home.

[COcheesehead]

Originally Posted by Garri Ausmus

5/15/2022 I just got home to Denver from a trip to Glenwood Springs on the western slope. the death of the trees on the front range saddened me more than the funeral i just went to of my sister in law. The fires this summer will be the worst ever and i pray for those who have chosen the mountains as their home.

I made that drive likely 50 times over the last few years. Having seen the start of the beetle issue now almost 20 years ago when entire mountain sides were rusty brown in color, I thought the forests were doing a nice job of repairing themselves. There are still pockets of gray around Vail and Loveland Pass, but to my eye I thought the old saying of Mother Nature always bats last was holding true. Keep in mind the Aspens in the high country likely haven’t leafed yet.

[otowi]

Plus there was a lot of death of trees around Glenwood Springs from the big fire that happened there in the past year....