In Colo they are, definitely. Other places too.

Best,

D

The paper is:
Vulnerability of Permafrost Carbon to Climate Change: Implications for the Global Carbon Cycle.
http://www.bioone.org/ archive/ 0006-3568/ 58/ 8/ pdf/ i0006-3568-58-8-701.pdf
The estimate the carbon to be 1672 Gt. Fortunately, so far they are still talking about only 0.5 to 1.0 Gt/year.

Say it ain’t so Joe.

Just from the comments it’s far worse than I thought, and I read too much about it.

And is it happening in Russia? According to http://www.borealforest.org
2/3 of the boreal forest is in Eurasia.

The experts here say almost all the lodgepoles could be gone in a decade, Wyoming a few years after that, Utah around then too. Engelmann spruce are being attacked as well.

One of the GF’s major contributors just announced they are going to open a plant that creates cellulosic ethanol from beetle-killed trees. Let us hope there are other major markets for beetle-killed trees so the wildfire damage can be lessened. The wood is quite attractive, BTW.

Best,

D

The extent of lodgepole forest death in the Rockies (especially on the west side) is just stunning. Whole mountainsides were turning rust-red — in some cases, the dead/dying trees went on for miles and miles. I’m used to seeing patchy outbreaks of bark beetles, but this is different. What I saw was wholesale forest death in the making.

Then add me to the list of those that praise that work.

Joe,

Good deal, and I’m glad you plan to ask questions of the authors. One more reason that certain sources (you, realclimate, etc) are so much more reliable than most of what the MSM is throwing out these days…

Zen

And I’m watching less valuable tan oak and valueless poison oak creeping up higher and higher on the mountain.

At least here in the “outside” we’re probably loosing productive timber land. Mountains do get smaller as they get taller.

I was working Red Rocks Amphitheater last week for an urban forestry non-profit booth. I was struck by how many folks stopped by and praised our work because so many trees in ___ County were red or dead, and how the state will look so different for their children.

If you want an idea of what the Colo-UT-Wyo high country will look like, look to southern British Columbia. Went hiking in Cathedral a couple of years ago and was stunned by how many hundreds of thousands of acres were bare. We’re starting to get people organized to replace with aspen as an interim successional species – there will be less recreational and aesthetic and watershed value, but at least there will be less soil erosion…

Best,

D