FantasySharks.com

Federal and state forestry officials say that at current rates, mountain pine beetles will kill the majority of Colorado's large-diameter lodgepole pine forests within three to five years.

In a news conference this morning, Regional Forester Rick Cables and Jeff Jahnke, the Colorado State Forester, announced the results of the 2007 aerial survey of the state's forests.

The survey concluded that the beetle infestation claimed 500,000 new acres of trees last year, bringing the total number of acres up to 1.5 million since the first sign of the outbreak in 1996.

Officials described the infestation as a "catastrophic event" that has now crossed into Front Range areas.

"Dead and dying trees that were isolated to five northern Colorado counties last year can now be seen in some Front Range areas, as well as southern Wyoming," Cables said in a statement released at the U.S. Forest Service regional office in Golden.
"The bark infestation has spread dramatically," he said. "This is an unprecedented event."

Mountain pine beetles have reached epidemic levels in Boulder, Chaffee, Clear Creek, Gilpin, Lake and Larimer counties, the report found.

For example, both Boulder and Larimer counties have seen more than a 1,500 percent increase in beetle activity in the past year.

The report said that places such as the Williams Fork and areas in Grand County, which had previously been hard hit by the epidemic, had not shown any new activity, but in many other areas, generally north of Leadville, the epidemic has expanded and intensified.

"Working with our many partners to mitigate impacts to high-value areas from the bark-beetle epidemic is a top priority for the Forest Service," Cables said.

He said that although bark beetles are a natural part of the lodgepole pine ecosystem, warm winters and the drought of recent years have intensified the problem.

He said the combination has produced "an ideal environment" for the beetles to multiply and spread.

Cables said mitigation work in hard-hit areas is focused on protecting watersheds.

But there is no way to stop the beetles, and he anticipated that the forests would soon mirror those of Yellowstone National Park after fires swept through in 1988.

He said that areas full of dead trees would be susceptible to fires for the next 15 or 20 years.

Get that sprinkler system back up yet?

That sucks to hear. Stumps me that I hadn't heard/read more about it in industry journals I get.

so is it possible that these fires may have at least knocked down some of the pine beetle population?