Mountain Pine Beetle

[jimmyq]

My brother in law went to Manning Park this last weekend (about 4 hours from Vancouver BC, Canada) and took some photos, I looked at them yesterday and couldn't believe the damaged trees I could see. Here are his pics.

dialuppers beware

 

[jimmyq]

another

 

[jimmyq]

more

 

[jimmyq]

last one

 

[jimmyq]

the text info on the beast: Dendroctonus species
http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/forsite/pest_field_guide/index.htm#defol-conifers

 

[JJackson]

Looks like a lot of damage, same here in Arizona, has appeared to slow down this year. But seldom is a day going by without lining up a dead beattle kill tree to be removed before it comes over the high voltage lines. Thanks for showing the pics

 

[lostone]

I have noticed alot of that in Utah also, I dont know which beetle it is that is doing the damage here (when I asked they just said bark beetle) but after reading some of the posted link holly crap there are a ton of them. They cut the trees here that are infested with them down. I dont know what this does by cutting the tree down other than it doesnt become a snag? is there a reason why they do this? I could understand if the tree was removed after but it is just left on the forest floor. Could someone explain the why's and whatfores for doing this?

 

[John Ellison]

I couldnt say for sure lostone. What I have been told and read is that complete removal is the best thing, but not always practical. Thinning seems to stop or at least slow them down. There are a couple of different kinds here too. Most are southern pine beetle. Believe I read that it is a 7-10 yr. cycle. No idea if all the different pine beetles across the country act in the same ways.

John

 

[lostone]

I went up camping this weekend and got to looking around at alot of the tree's there are bore holes all in alot of them, also alot of sap coming out of them. I'm hoping that their cycle is coming to an end if that is the case that they take a 7 to 10 year cycle. Of course I don't know if the beetle's where doing as bad of a job as the idiot who went around to alot of the tree's and kept sinking an ax into it for fun, there must have been a dozen of them with alot of the bark torn off because of it, but he did leave his ax in one of them so I was kind enough to take it for safe keeping