Mountain Pine Beetle

[Adam Adkins]

What affect has weather had on the horrible Mountain Pine Beetle outbreak? How will it influence the climate locally (areas with pine beetle kill)? Apparently within 5 years 95% of forests from CO to MT to AK will be dead. TONS of CO2 into atmosphere as result and MASSIVE fires. For reference I added pictures taken recently of Colorado. It is shocking if you haven't been here recently. This is very sad. Even Rocky Mountain National Park is being hit. In the mountains you can look and as far as the eye can see there will be dead trees. And this IS IN FACT the fate of the west.

 

[Steve Miller]

Adam - we have a place at Sol Vista near Granby, CO and each time I visit I'm amazed by the changing landscape. I was there earlier this week and my wife and I made our normal trip to Grand Lake for shopping and photography. That west entrance of RMNP is in real bad shape. I hate to see this. The SE side of Berthoud Pass is also a mess. Seems the Frasier Valley is still in good shape but at this rate, not for long.

Is there no work in progress to save these forests? Seems a natural insecticide that everyone can agree on would could at least be used as a barrier. I can't imagine this won't greatly affect the the tourism industry should the state or feds not step up and work toward a fix. Surly it's worth the $.

 

[Adam Adkins]

You'd think it's worth the money. Colorado just got $30 million for this problem. BUT, 100% of it is going to public safety such as removing already dead trees from campgrounds. NOTHING is going towards stopping the thing. They said that the only way to stop it is for it to be -30 degrees F or colder for an entire week. But that hasn't happened for a while. Since like 1990 its been WAY warmer around here in the winter.

 

[Charles Kuster]

I am glad you brought this up Adam. This has become a huge problem in Colorado and it is very sad to see entire forests essentially destroyed by the pine beetle infestation. Summit, Grand, Eagle, etc. counties have been hit very hard. Thousands upon thousands of trees are dead or dying and I am afraid it is too late to do much. In Lake County, we do have small insecticide packets that can be nailed to the trees and it will protect them from the beetle. The only problem is there are way too many trees for this to be effective. I am not sure why no other method has been created, but as of now the packet is the only preventative measure I am aware of.

I do feel that weather has played a major role in the infestation. Climate change has lead to changes in Colorado. Extreme cold simply does not happen that frequently anymore. Very low temperatures are needed to naturally keep the beetle in check and without extreme cold, the beetle can spread freely (Other factors do play a role, but the lack of extreme cold is a major contributor to the infestation, in my opinion). So far, Lake County has been essentially untouched by the pine beetle and that has been due to hard late spring freezes which can also kill the beetle when it is in its pupal stage. For the past two Aprils, we have hit -8 degrees. However, that will not happen every year and the pine beetle infestation will eventually hit most of the state.

Below is a picture I took on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park in January. It does not show the beetle kill very well, but I was trying to avoid taking pictures with a lot of brown trees (which was very difficult ).

 

[MatthewCarman]

Natural controls of the mountain pine beetle include woodpeckers and insects such as clerid beetles that feed on adults and larvae under the bark. However, during outbreaks these natural controls often fail to prevent additional attacks. The beetles may also be killed if the temperature reaches 110 degrees or if the bark is peeled off exposing them to the weather but the best way is for the temperature to reach -30 degrees for at least 5 days. Fall and late Spring is when the beetles are weakest to freezing temperatures.

How long will it take the Forrest's to grow back once the beetles are back under control? How will this many dead trees affect the animals living in the area?

 

[Adam Adkins]

How long will it take the Forrest's to grow back once the beetles are back under control? How will this many dead trees affect the animals living in the area?

The trees will never return. They only release their seeds in the event of extreme temperatures (such as a fire). The Pine Beetle won't do that and therefore there will be little or no regeneration.

 

[Mike Deep]

Jeez. Compare those photos to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Forest

 

[Mike Ridgeway]

The same thing has happened in the central Idaho mountains the past five years. I've walked through some of the infested areas and have noticed many younger trees throughout, most less than 2 feet tall. My guess is they will grow quickly and won't have to compete for light, since the surrounding trees are dead. However, the dead trees will be a big fire hazard unless they are removed.

 

[Zac Flamig]

Whats interesting to me is that New Mexico has been dealing with this problem since at least 2000 and its starting to spread. After the fire in Los Alamos in May of 2000 the beetles moved in a devastated all of the remaining trees in the area; it is a sad sight today.

The thing is though that you say -30F and the area around Los Alamos never really got the cold, so I don't believe it was what prevented the beetle before. It seemed to be associated much more with the decadal drought that was affecting the area. For example, people who regularly water the pine trees in their yards were able to save them from the beetle but those who didn't lost their trees.

Its also easy to point fingers and say global warming/global climate change/whatever is the cause, but while a change is surely underway in the climate in the mountain west I believe it is hard to pinpoint if it is a shift away from what has been the "normal" or if the previous decades have been abnormal and a shift back to "normal" is now underway.