Pine tree-killing beetles thrive in drought
By Lewis Griswold, Fresno Bee
PINEHURST — A massive die-off of pine trees in the southern Sierra Nevada caused by beetles attacking drought-stressed trees is turning forests brown and creating a fire tinderbox.
From El Portal in Mariposa County to Kernville in Kern County and beyond, stands of dead trees are striking fear in the hearts of mountain residents.
“You drive around and it’s all around us,” said Lee Duncan, who lives in Miramonte in Fresno County near Pinehurst. “It’s like a gasoline can everywhere.”
About the only hope in halting the die-off is for the drought to end, an unlikely occurrence this year as winter ended with perhaps the lowest Sierra snowpack on record.
As a fourth year of drought looms, mountain residents are stuck with the cost of removing dead trees next to their homes and loggers fault the U.S. Forest Service for not allowing them to thin forests. But forest managers say the tree die-off might help Mother Nature.
The best way to stop the beetles and reduce the fire danger is to remove the infested trees.
IMHO the better solution is to not have all the trees in the forest be the same age. When you have a multi storied/aged forest you dont have the whole forest killed off as the beetles attack trees at a certain stage in their growth. Clearcutting forests in the rockies has shown that this practice adds to the condition and decimation of forests. Colorado’s Arapaho National Forest saw this happen in the 80’s. Just about every tree was killed off. They cut down pretty much the whole forest. In multi aged forests the mortality of trees is just the ones that are similar in age. This is a good reason to not clearcut our public forests, or any other forest. A person can find this to be true by reading most any forest studies.
Yes, I totally agree. Tahoe was clearcut for the mining towns in Nevada, and now we have to live with the consequences, but light thinning could help diversify the ages of the trees.