A new report says pine beetles will likely kill every mature lodgepole pine in Colorado in the next five years. That will likely leave millions of acres of forest standing dead. The dead forest will then eventually fall over, probably during storms and high winds. The blowdown can be a big danger for hikers because, if a tree falls in the woods, and you're under it, you may not ever make a sound again.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Practice dodging blowdown
A new report says pine beetles will likely kill every mature lodgepole pine in Colorado in the next five years. That will likely leave millions of acres of forest standing dead. The dead forest will then eventually fall over, probably during storms and high winds. The blowdown can be a big danger for hikers because, if a tree falls in the woods, and you're under it, you may not ever make a sound again.
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8 comments:
If I remember correctly, the pine beetles greatly increased the devastating forest fires in So Cal about 4 years ago. The zapped trees were so dry and exploded.
The dark days have just begun. I suspect there will be many trees falling over trails for the next decade. We will have to pack a small saw along on rides.
Pine Marten....Pine Beetle...me and my brother don't take names...we just scope em up. You need that Pine Beetle problem taken care of you call us.
Actually the article says "Every large, mature lodgepole pine FOREST ... will be dead in the next 3-5 years." Note that word "forest". It's now estimated that 80-90% of the mature lodgepoles will succumb, but not all. Still its a big suck ain't it?
One also wonders if when they get done with the lodgepoles, will they then migrate enmasse to the ponderosa pine forests (their less favorite tree)?
Oh well, cest la vie. The wildflowers will riot on the newly opened slopes I am sure. The Rockies are not dead, just evolving. I suspect a fair amount of the land will take on more of the look of the Swiss / French / Italian Alps - lots of fields and meadows of grasses and wildflowers, far less forest. It will be interesting to see what the aspens do too. They're colonizing the Hayman burn. One would suspect we'll see that in the lodgepole forests too.
I don't know -- it sounds a lot like all the other things that will stop us in our tracks. Hurricanes will ravage Florida every year. Bird flu will strike us dead. A couple cans of Raid and the pine beetle will be gone.
The reports of the death of the Aspens are much exaggerated it would seem. Nature tends to balance itself out. We see this regularly with animals, how prey and predators stay roughly balanced (short of man's intervention of course) With trees it just takes a lot longer to make the change.
In another 40 years the mountains will be ablaze in the fall with the aspens. Another hundred years will see many areas of pine taking over the areas of aspen.
But it doesn't make for good ratings. Crises are much better for that and increasing advertising for newspapers and funding for agencies.
Do crises increase advertising in newspapers? If so, that puts me in a sad spot, eh?
Anything that increases readership increases the profit from advertising. A crisis will do the trick, sensational journalism too. Even the lifestyle section, which obviously isnt "news" but reaches out to certain demographics.
Its just the nature of the beast if you will.
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