Comment by Mark Wright

April 18, 2008 @ 12:37 am

Hunt and Pluck logging creates healthier forests that are Wetter ( due to a touch less tree competition and some species variety on the forest floor, ie grasses ). That amount of “wetter” makes for a tougher more resilient tree to the beetles.

So it’s not so much global warming which one should blame the beetles on, moreso land mismanagement such that we are contributing to some negative enviro related issues:
1. warmer, more brittle, drier forests which are more suspect for ultra hot fires and beetles too.
2. less photosynthesis due to the afore thus more global warming.
And when it all burns due to the warming or the beetles ( whichever blame might work best )lot’s of CO2 emmissions and Mercury too which was sequestered for years.

Comment by William Cooper

April 18, 2008 @ 9:17 am

So I jump ship in Hong Kong, make my way into Tibet…

Comment by Chris

April 20, 2008 @ 1:07 pm

I agree with Mark. Although climate change /global warming, whatever you want to call it, plays a part, other anthropogenic factors and management decisions of the last hundred years are the main culprit. I’d like to know when the last fire occurred in these stands of lodgepole. I’ll bet it was a long long time ago.

Comment by Mark Wright

April 20, 2008 @ 11:46 pm

I agree with Chris.
Interestingly in Mexico, when they have a fire they just let it burn. That is better for the land.

I do know that in the Sierra Madres ( The Rockies farther South ), that country is not “brittle” like the parts of the Rockies in the USA.

Same in the Sierra Del Nidos.

Interestingly no pine beetles either, grant though, there is more Oak dispersement in those Intermountain regions.

Also, there are no enviros, no govt thus more hunt and pluck type logging too ( a good thing, Btw ).

The backends of the places I know of there are pure pristine. Grasses on the forest floors, big trees spaced naturally, a bunch of it not even walked thru for say 100 years.

Some of the best wildlife and livestock country on Earth. Those lands have definitely have “wet” feel to em.

The springs run and there’s always water. The reason for that is lengthened hydraulic perc due to wider spacing between trees and grass on the forest floor.

Generally when it does burn, those are low intensity fires which simply clean the floor. Seldom do the big trees even catch fire…unless one is to old and dying then it burns.

Grant though, as said before, when there’s a fire it burns till it goes out naturally.