While massive forest fires grab headlines across the globe, the more widespread and insidious destruction of trees by beetle infestation is relatively unknown to the public at large. But foresters, tourism officials, resort owners, utility workers and anyone who drives through the mountains of Colorado are keenly aware of the extensive destruction wrought by the mountain pine beetle.
These beetles are natural residents of pine forests, generally feeding on and reproducing in aging and stressed trees, thereby helping to maintain the health of the ecosystem. However, over the past decade, the population of these voracious insects has exploded, thanks to extensive stands of mature lodgepole pine, partly created by wildfire suppression. Arising in north-central Colorado and spreading southward into the heart of ski-country, the epidemic has turned magnificent green forests into an ugly patchwork of dead and dying trees, broken only by stands of aspen and spruce. Adding fuel to the devastation, a spruce beetle outbreak in southwest Colorado, spawned by wind-fall from powerful storms, threatens to spread northward through the State.
Though the current mountain pine beetle outbreak is the worst in recorded history, such events have occurred on a regular basis (perhaps every 200 year or so) and likely play an important role in producing diversified forest by clearing out extensive stands of mature, lodgepole pine. Some foresters believe that global warming may have played a role in the current blight, stressing trees with periodic drought and eliminating severe winter cold that helps to reduce the beetle population. Whatever the reason for these natural epidemics, there is little we can do to stop them once they take hold; quick containment and preventive spraying may be possible near towns and resorts but the wholesale destruction of pine forests by a prolific beetle has forced humans to concentrate on dealing with the aftermath.
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