In 5 to 10 years all of the sycamores, maples, hickory trees, walnuts, ash, plus all pines, will be skeletons. We will have wildfires, and the decay will contribute to climate change. The birds will have nowhere to live.

It’s breaking my heart.

A forest of mostly lodge pole pines might be desirable to the logging industry but maybe the beetles aren’t killing the forest as much as just changing it. Beetles like fire could be part of a beneficial natural cycle.

In the Intermountain West, this is not true for the MPB (in addition to them eating Engelmann spruce).

Lodgepole are naturally mainly single-spp stands. That’s how it works.

Best,

D

Single species stands, I suspect, would allow for a greater amplitude of infection, and faster rate of expansion. That said, many of these god-forsaken critters are non-native and invasive. Additionally, each species has a freeze tolerance that results in limits to its habitats. What were once sporadic incursions into more northern areas, fewer deep freezes allow for sustained infestations. So, trade gives you non-natives, and global warming allows them to thrive, and homogeneity allows them to explode. Yeah for trifectas!

Reports of increasing cases of passive doubters, more voices of the uncommitted, more declarations of ignorance, and the most distressing of all – more paid professional skeptics.

And we see the beginnings of a Magical Wizard of Oz group –”pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” This group thinks that clean coal will be the solution, that nuclear will rescue us, and that there is no pressing problem – we can just wait and fix it later.

Delusional denialism is our biggest problem

A forest of mostly lodge pole pines might be desirable to the logging industry but maybe the beetles aren’t killing the forest as much as just changing it. Beetles like fire could be part of a beneficial natural cycle.

In some respects, the San Diego Union-Tribune is like a low-rent Wall Street Journal — first-rate reporters and nutcase editorial writers.