Thursday May 7, 2009

GROUP PROPOSES SMUGGLER TREE REMOVAL IN JUNE

By Scott Condon

The Aspen Times | 5/7/2009

For the Forests wants beetle-infested lodgepoles removed from open space

ASPEN'S SMUGGLER FACES CHANGE FROM BEETLE INFESTATION
By Scott Condon
The Aspen Time | 5/1/2009
Oneof Aspen's favorite backcountry playgrounds will dramatically changeover the next decade because of an infestation of mountain pine beetle,according to experts.
Read article>>

GROUP PROPOSES SMUGGLER TREE REMOVAL IN JUNE

For the Forest wants beetle-infested lodgepoles removed from city and county open space.

5/7/09

By Scott Condon

ASPEN'S SMUGGLER FACES CHANGE FROM BEETLE INFESTATION
Forestry expert: '10 years from now that mountain won't look that way'
The Aspen Times
1/1/2009
BY Scott Condon
ASPEN- One of Aspen's favorite back country playgrounds will changedramatically over the next decade because of an infestation of mountainpine beetles, according to forestry experts.
Read article>>

GETTING READY AGAINST THE PINE BEETLE
Aspen Daily News
3/12/2009
By John Bennett (Guest Columnist)
Wow! The community response to last week's mountain pine beetle forum attheHotel Jerome Ballroom has been tremendous. By showing up in such numbers, you made it clear that our community cares about saving pine trees in and around Aspen, from the grand old trees in Paepcke Park to select parts of Smuggler Mountain, Hunter Creek, Independence Pass and other areas in our valley's wildland/urban interface.
Read article>>

STUDY TIES TREE DEATHS TO CHANGE IN CLIMATE
Washington Post Staff Writer
1/23/2009
By Juliet Eilperin
The death rates of trees in Western U.S. forests have doubled over the past two to three decades, according to a new study spearheaded by the U.S.Geological Survey, driven in large part by higher temperatures and water scarcity linked to climate change.
Read article>>

IN THE WEST, BEETLES BECOME BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
Green Inc Blog/The New York Times
By Erik Olsen
11/19/2008
Grand Lake, Colo., is regarded as ground zero for the pine beetle epidemic in the West. The mountainsides are blanketed with dead trees as far as the eye can see - infested by the burrowing insect whose grip on the forests is at least partially attributed to climate change.
Read article >>

BARK BEETLES KILL MILLIONS OF ACRES OF TREES IN WEST
The New York Times
11/17/2008
By Jim Robbins
HELENA, Mont. - On the side of a mountain on the outskirts of Montana's capital city, loggers are racing against a beetle grub the size of a grain of rice. From New Mexico to British Columbia, the region's signature pine forests are succumbing to a huge infestation of mountain pine beetles that are turning a blanket of green forest into a blanket of rust red.Montana has lost a million acres of trees to the beetles, and in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming the situation is worse.
Read article>>

AN ECO FLIGHT FOR THE FOREST BATTLES BEETLES
The Aspen Times
10/5/2008
By John Colson
ASPEN- The single-engine, six-seater plane was banking toward Mount Sopris after a smooth takeoff from the Pitkin County Airport, when the experts on board pointed to the first indication of the mountain pine beetle infestation that is rapidly obliterating Colorado's lodgepole pine forests.
Read article>>

NEW ASPEN NONPROFIT WORKS TO SAVE LODGEPOLE PINES
The Aspen Times
10/3/2008
By John Colson
ASPEN- The burgeoning death rate of the state's lodgepole pines is virtually unstoppable no matter what is done to slow the spread of the mountain pine bark beetle infestation in Colorado, a new nonprofit in Aspen warns.
Read article>>

THE BEETLE FACTOR IN A CARBON CALCULUS
The New York Times
4/29/2008
By Henry Fountain
Trees have been fighting climate change for ages, using photosynthesis to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequestering it for the long term in their tissues. Most forests are considered net sinks of carbon dioxide, meaning they store more carbon than they give up.
Read article >>

A ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOW
The New York Times
By Tom Vaughn
12/29/2007
ENCAMPMENT, Wyo. - We do not have to own land because, collectively with our fellow Americans, we possess millions of acres. Much of it is in the romantic West, where deer, elk and antelope can be harvested. Over a million acres in Wyoming and Colorado have been harmed. For me this year, the quarry was mule deer. From my home in southern Illinois, it is a two-day drive, uphill, to Laramie, Wyo., at the base of the Rockies.Well west of there from my camp near the Continental Divide, I intended to pluck a deer from my domain by bow or gun, all the while loving the lonely solitude and magnificent vistas of the mountains.
Read article >>

FOLLOWING THE TRACKS OF A KILLER MOUNTAIN BEETLE
The New York Times
By Charles Petit
1/30/2007
In early September, Jesse Logan, a 62-year-old insect specialist with a knack for mathematics and a deep love for the Western landscape, gazed across a rolling meadow 10,400 feet high in the rugged Wind River Range in Wyoming.
Read article >>

Scientific articles/abstracts

Aerially applied verbenone-releasing laminated flakes protect Pinus contorta (lodgepole pine) stands from attack by Dendroctonus ponderosae (mountain pine beetle) in California and Idaho

Colorado State University
Website on the Mountain Pine Beetle

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture
Pine Beetle information leaflet

Broadcast reports from British Columbia

Mountain Pine Beetle: A Climate Change Catastrophe

CBC - Pine Beetle adds to CO2 problem