Dayton "Dirt" Green Blog - September 2010

In August I wrote no blog as I was on vacation out west visiting the National parks.
These vast expanses of land were only preserved by the wisdom of men such as Grover Cleveland, George Grinnell and Theodore Roosevelt among others to save these wondrous "cathedrals" of the United States for use and enjoyment for "generations yet unborn" as Teddy put it so well.

It disturbed me greatly on my tours of the Rocky Mountain areas of the millions of acres of trees that are dying or dead leaving the mountain sites brown or barren where once there had been a verdant green forest of pine, spruce and fir.

On a tour of Glacier National Park, I asked the park ranger about the dying trees as I observed larvae of an insect getting ready to pupate on a spruce tree in which the tree's new growth was mostly chewed off.

She replied that the insect was called the spruce bud worm and attacked the native spruce and fir.

The other problem insect she said were pine bark beetles that bore into pines and destroy them.

Both insects, while native, have been around for a millennium on the trees but have only recently gotten out of control decimating the forest.

The ranger went on to say that the winters are warmer than normal and former droughts weakened the trees making them more susceptible to insect attack.

Fire will for sure decimate the insect population along with the trees.

The new school of thought is that the insect explosion might be caused by humans because of fire fighting efforts of the last 100 years that suppressed the natural fire cycle in the forest which, while destructive, seems to be a cleansing, effect with the end result of a rejuvenated forest.

I think the forest ranger is correct as Yellowstone Park seemed to be the least affected by the ravaging insects because of the massive fires through the park that burned in 1988.
Now the new trees are 8-15 feet tall and standing like soldiers in millions.

The insects do not attack young vigorous trees and I'm sure that millions, if not billions, of these nasty critters burned in the fires along with the trees.

For sure fire will sweep through the dead, dying and healthy trees of the parks that will result in the land having a barren, sterile appearance.

However, in time, new life will come again to blanket the valleys and mountains with lush green forests.

The only downside is our generation will be gone before that rejuvenation results in massive tall trees.

Sometimes interfering with Mother Nature such as fire suppression is not a good idea.

Tom