2-day conference attacks pine beetle epidemic

Experts say the beetles are now spreading to the Western and Eastern slopes. In the town of Granby, Fire Chief Dave Boyes says they've lost the majority of the forest to the pine beetle.

[Deborah Sherman]

Is there any effort to try and get Federal Funding to help log, or cut up the trees already aaffected.

Donald Dobson

[James]

How about this? Quit living in the mountains so we can let nature take it's course, including forest fires that keep the forest healthy, instead of stopping fire at all costs so people can move up there and turn large areas of our mountains into high altitude Arvadas. Super Target in Summit county? Are you kidding? Good job all you mountain dwellers! Thanks for destroying our forests. I'm real proud of you.

[fix em up]

The beetle epidemic will run it's course, fires will clear it out, the forest will rejuvinate, all at mother natures own speed. Just because it isn't at the speed of some bozo with his private piece of the wilderness around his cozy 500,000 cabin bothers me not in the least. We have "managed" the forest for 100 years, badly it seems, so we really have no one to blame but ourselves. Mother nature has done a great job for millions of years, and why all of a sudden do we now have to do it "better" ??

[needledick]

They have successfully talked about it long enough to avoid doing anything.

[denver resident]

i wish i was a pine beetle. they sure do have the life

[Jeremy]

Is the fungus native to Colorado? Can't the wood be harvested for burning as biomass. Can't at risk areas where trees are not yet infested be harvested commercially?

[Artillery]

The solution is one no one wants to consider...Fire.
Unless a suitable predator of the beetle can be introduced, fire seems the only distasteful solution.
Fire is not exactly a guarantee either.
PS.I love Lucy.

[Artillery]

Hosama Squinladen wrote:

There is also a serious epidemic of illegal aliens infesting the entire country, not just a couple forests.

Very good point!

[Aurora Resident]

denver resident wrote:

i wish i was a pine beetle. they sure do have the life

Living under bark and eating cambium sure sounds better than living in Aurora!

[Shooter]

James wrote:

How about this? Quit living in the mountains so we can let nature take it's course, including forest fires that keep the forest healthy, instead of stopping fire at all costs so people can move up there and turn large areas of our mountains into high altitude Arvadas. Super Target in Summit county? Are you kidding? Good job all you mountain dwellers! Thanks for destroying our forests. I'm real proud of you.

How about ths - you just stay in Denver and leave the mountain people alone. I bet you don't even go to the mountains. The people up in the mountains who own the 5,000 sq ft homes can deal with possibly losing thier property in a fire. Just because people live in the mountains isn't the sole cause of the pine beetle. I'm sure they would be there regardless - maybe just not in as high of concentrations.

[Pecos Bill]

Pine beetles have been a problem for as long as I've been alive and I'm sure much longer than that. It's the combination of draught stress and the beetles. Doesn't have much to do with us mis-managing forests. The last big beetle kill that I recall was in the late 70s when there was another less severe draught.

'Tis correct that we are mis-managing our forests. We can build homes that are more fire resistant and properly manage the land around them. THAT is where we are failing.

Bill
Centennial & 4th Gen native.

[Little ole me]

Shooter wrote:

<quoted text>
How about ths - you just stay in Denver and leave the mountain people alone. I bet you don't even go to the mountains. The people up in the mountains who own the 5,000 sq ft homes can deal with possibly losing thier property in a fire. Just because people live in the mountains isn't the sole cause of the pine beetle. I'm sure they would be there regardless - maybe just not in as high of concentrations.

Hey Shooter how about we just set his house on fire so we can burn out all the Roaches!

[Little ole me]

fix em up wrote:

The beetle epidemic will run it's course, fires will clear it out, the forest will rejuvinate, all at mother natures own speed. Just because it isn't at the speed of some bozo with his private piece of the wilderness around his cozy 500,000 cabin bothers me not in the least. We have "managed" the forest for 100 years, badly it seems, so we really have no one to blame but ourselves. Mother nature has done a great job for millions of years, and why all of a sudden do we now have to do it "better" ??

What areas should we let burn? All of it ?

[Little ole me]

To everyone out there who think it is a waste of money to cut down the trees and let them burn if they catch fire does this apply to lets say city park we just let the trees burn? I know you are going say it is different? Tell me how it is?

[Face It]

They've done way too little, way too late. IF they really wanted to stop the spread of the beetles, they should've started cutting down the trees BEFORE it got this out of control.

"State Rep. Gibbs said the mountain pine beetle problem is out of control." Um, gee you think? Has he been to Granby lately? There's more dead trees than live ones.

Newsflash: At this rate, we're going to have to let nature take it's course. The trees that may look healthy this year are likely to be dead next summer(it takes about a year from the time of infestation for a tree to die). You know the trees in Rocky Mountain National park are over 100 years old. What do you suppose happened that 130 years ago or whatever that all the oldest trees are approximately the same age? The forest burned down and it will do so again in our lifetime. If you've seen the amount of dead trees from last year compared to the same time this year, it has more than doubled.

Like Yellowstone, which suffered a nasty beetle infestation in the 80s, Rocky Mountain National Park (and likely many surrounding forest areas) will burn. Look at Yellowstone, the trees re-seeded themselves and fire was just a part of a natural cycle. It will be sad to see the forest as we know it go, but it's going to happen. All those dead, dry trees will get struck by lightning eventually (or perhaps some careless camper will leave a fire...either way the forests will burn and soon).

[Shooter]

Little ole me wrote:

<quoted text>Hey Shooter how about we just set his house on fire so we can burn out all the Roaches!

Let's just release some termites in it.