Colorado pines, use? beetle problem

[mtngun]

Here in the Hills there blaming the Drought, allowing the beeetles to get in and with the drought couldn't push enough sap out of the Ponderosa Pine to push out the beetles.. That and the drought had them stressed already so they were easy targets..

I can't argue with the drought theory.

Climate change has only increased temperatures 1 or 2 degrees which is barely noticeable, however, it also shifts prevailing currents and changes precipitation dramatically.    In many parts of the west we have seen 20% reductions in annual precip year after year with only a few "good water" years.    

If the so-called drought turns out to be a result of warming,  and if the warming-caused drought continues, there will be more bugs and more wildfires.   We can debate whether to log the threatened areas but one way or the other some of our forests will not be forests any more.

[SwampDonkey]

I haven't seen any changes in annual rain fall here, other than a couple years had record highs for rain and later snow. But that doesn't mean much because the records in this area are only for 70 years. And these records replaced records set in the 50's and 70's. With all the snow in the record year (12 feet) , it only amounted to 1/3 of the annual precip.  ;) I don't put a whole lot of stock in the record keeping either, because we have pictures of grandfather on the camp roof shoveling snow and the camp is totally buried snow deep clear to the peek.  Not only that, but the records are mostly kept where people live and not out in the middle of the wilderness. The out back here gets a lot more snow than we do along the river valley. You can snow mobile a whole month longer out there and it's bare grass in here.