The beetle has now claimed 1.5 million acres of lodgepole pine forest in the state, with the damage now spreading to the Front Range forests and into southern Wyoming.
This epidemic has increased dramatically in the last year, and it’s now estimated that all of Colorado’s mature lodgepole pines will be killed within five years. The dramatic effect on the ecology of the mountain forests brings some sobering thoughts. Obviously, fire will play a role in the cleanup. Watersheds will see repercussions, and so will wildlife.
Some are predicting a landscape similar to Yellowstone National Park after the fires that burned those forests in 1988. Many are blaming conservation efforts for the scope of the epidemic, since a natural cycle of fires hasn’t been allowed to bring diversity to the forests. The beetle likes mature trees, and there are uniformly older trees covering roughly 1.7 million acres in the state.
The U.S. Forest service has a good website that outlines the scope of problem, complete with detailed maps and videos.
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