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Ron & Dee · 08-02-2009, 03:14 PM

I couldn't believe my eyes at the devastation done by the pine beetles in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

We stayed here at Timber Creek Campground in 2002

and now it looks like this in 2009

It's hard to believe this is the same campground and same campsite

What a shame, very, very sad

I tried to remember how we were parked in 2002 so I could get the same angle on the picture I took back then. Our rig is parked on the other side of the restooms to the right

It so sad to see what is happening to our forrest, if the fires don't get em the pine beetle will.

Ron

Explorer2 · 08-02-2009, 03:49 PM

That is awful!

sknight · 08-02-2009, 05:54 PM

I've been a regular visiter since 1992, been really bad to watch.

TXiceman · 08-02-2009, 08:08 PM

We have the problems with the beatles or bores in the pines. A few years back my F-I-L had to have about 40 pine trees taken down after the beatles killed them. really thinned the woods on his 3 acres.

They can really ruin an area.

Ken

Chickadee · 08-03-2009, 07:09 AM

Just the harmonics of nature continuing on as normal,..... and......we should kinda keep pine beetle thing quiet or low key since this goofy goverment admin. will otherwise likely jump on it as a terrible crisis needing correction and undoubtedly caused by humans which will require loading, at minimum, another trillion or two debtload onto the backs of our children, grandchildren future generations!!! Shhhhhhhhh!

Steve

Doug Sage · 08-03-2009, 08:09 AM

We were just up in Banff and Jasper National Parks and the same thing was there. Acres and acres of dead pine trees because of the pine beetle. It is a shame to see. In some areas the kill ratio is about 50%.

Explorer2 · 08-03-2009, 08:46 AM

Too late Chickadee.....http://rockymountainnationalpark.com/comments/2800.html

H. Miller · 08-03-2009, 09:50 AM

Having lived in N. Georgia for a few years, we can empathize with the problem. NOW, if we could only train them to eat/bore cedars it would certainly "clean up" the Texas Hill Country.

DonavonP · 08-03-2009, 09:57 AM

The government is working diligently to shut down entrepreneurs trying to use the lodge poll pines for practical purposes.

Log home people, loggers, saw mills, saw dust pelletizers, and on and on are being inundated with government red tape and mountains of paperwork to complete before they put one of "mother earths" outcroppings towards the betterment of mankind.

Meanwhile, Smokey The Bear is kicking back at the Trustafarian Bar saying -"Dude!!! they ain't never gonna' get it" !!!!

doc · 08-03-2009, 05:40 PM

The Black Hills National Forest is being eaten alive by the beetle. Huge areas and around the Iron Mountain Road up toward Rushmore are being killed. No longer black, the area looks brown at a distance. The area around Pactola Lake (above Deadwood and Lead) is in the same shape.
Now we could kill entire jungles in Nam with Agent Orange. So the ability to spray huge areas is available. Not wanting to kill the trees, but the bugs in the trees. Should be a bug killer to do the job it seems. Now all the tree huggers will be torn between saving the bugs and saving the trees.

Explorer2 · 08-03-2009, 06:56 PM

Click image for larger version

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Here are the Hemlocks that NC is losing to a beetle introduce from Europe.

Ron & Dee · 08-04-2009, 03:10 AM

Another picture comparison, this took only 7 years, the beetles are working hard and fast

What would you call a Forest without trees!?

What will the animals do, and where will they go?

Ron

Houkie · 08-05-2009, 09:28 AM

There is a 3 part series starting in our local Jackson, WY paper about the beetles. Seems this is a natural occurance and will run a 100 year cycle. Kill rates are expected to hit 90%. There are a few ways to prevent the damage. But nothing that will work on a large scale. The article blames the problem on draught and years of fire suppression. Still, very difficult to watch it happen. Things will not recover in my lifetime.