Sunday, June 6, 2010

Devastation

One thing we saw that was and is not so good is the utter devastation caused by the Pine Bark Beetle. This is the mountainside across the valley from the folks place. As the FIL explains it, the reason their trees are still mostly green is they are young. The beetles attack the trees and the younger trees are able to produce enough sap to push the beetles back out before they do much damage. They had a fire run up their side of the mountain. Kinda ironic that the fire wiped out their side of the mountain and now the new growth from it is what is surviving the infestation.

2 comments:

  1. One typical thing you'll hear out here where the pine beetles have been doing their work, if you listen closely, is that the forests need to burn.

    We don't log these forests any more and we try to put out any fires before they can do their much needed work.

    ReplyDelete