Aug 17, 2006 2:23 pm US/Mountain
Experts: Nothing Can Stop Destructive Pine Beetle
Tough Question: What's Being Done To Stop Pine Beetles?
by Alan Gionet
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) ―
United States Forest Service officials and other experts say there is nothing that can be done by humans to slow the devastating epidemic pine beetles are unleashing on lodgepole pine trees in Colorado.
Experts said only a hard and long freeze will stop their deadly march through thousands of acres of trees in the high country.
"At this point, there's nothing we can do about the beetles and I think most folks are coming to terms with that," Kim Vogel, a U.S. Forest Service official said. "But it is about the future forest, that next forest that's coming up underneath those dead and dying trees that we've got to protect and invest in and we have to build our economy on."
Vogel believes communities have to plan the forests that will replace those wiped out by beetle kill. She says people should decide whether they want to plant aspens or allow stronger, younger pines to grow.
Vogel feels that if people don't protect the new forests, they need to find something besides tourism on which to base their economies.
She is part of a cooperative in a five county area now turning brown and red.
"The problem is if you're the only person on the block and you've got it all around you, then it's hard," C.J. Mucklow, the Routt County Agriculture Agent said. "Beetles don't have any respect for property lines."
In some parts of the forest, trees are being thinned to allow remaining trees to have enough strength to repel the beetles. Spraying is useful on a short-term basis in other areas.
But experts agree that the landscape of Colorado will keep changing, and there's nothing that can be done.
"The beetle is just going to keep going," Mucklow said.
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