Med. Bow NF

[Hot Hap]

Driving through WY on the way to ID, when we entered the NF, what a shock. At least 1/3 and maybe 1/2 of the forest that can be seen from I-80 was dead. What's behind this? Looks pretty sad. What's it doing to the bowhunting? Hap

[elkbreath]

pine beetle.  Centuries of "prevention" coupled with drought and mild winters led to what you see there...

my two cents.   Oh well, the elk aint too mad about, grass is greener then ever and mother earth lives on!

Praise the Lord for what we do have cause it could be worse.

[Hot Hap]

Is that a native beetle or a hitchhiker? Thanks-Hap

[centaur]

It's all over the place. In the southern Bighorns, we aren't too bad off, but our time is coming. It's really bad around Dubois, in western Wyoming, and we were camping in the northern Bighorns last week, and it is getting bad there, too.

[SCATTERSHOT]

We have them in Colorado too. It has devastated a lot of the pine forest around here, and there's no way to stop it.

I'm not sure where they came from, but they've been around a long time.

[elkbreath]

I believe they are native, but that fire, rain and brutal winter usually keep them in check.   Drought is a huge concern too, the more sap a tree has in its 'veins' the harder it is for the beetle to do its thing.  Healthier trees fight them off.  Young trees thus don't generally have that problem.  there is already a bumper crop of 4 to ten foot trees underneath that brown canopy in places, with a lot of grass in places there never was.  Good for the critters, it adds security and food.  Plagues like this hit randomly occasionally.  I think its been about 25 or 30 years they said since one this bad has been in North America.

 However, we don't have regular wildfires anymore, they get put put.

[Steve H.]

We are hit hard too on the Kenai in Alaska by beetles kill.  Headed to the Snowys in a couple week, my wife's old home, probably will make her sad to see the place.